Animal welfare has made remarkable legislative, scientific, and cultural progress over the past two decades, while remaining far from adequate for the billions of animals whose conditions still cause significant suffering.
The arc of animal welfare progress over the past quarter century is genuinely encouraging when viewed from a sufficient distance: legislative protections have expanded to more species and more countries, welfare science has deepened understanding of animal sentience and suffering, and cultural attitudes have shifted meaningfully toward concern for animal experience. The inclusion of fish and decapod crustaceans in welfare consideration represents a particularly significant expansion of the moral circle. Yet the same period has seen global animal agriculture continue to expand, with the total number of farmed animals — the population experiencing the most pervasive welfare compromise — continuing to grow. The challenge of global animal welfare is therefore not that progress is impossible but that the scale of the problem grows faster than the current pace of solutions. The road ahead requires accelerating every dimension of progress: better science, stronger legislation, market transformation through consumer choice and alternative proteins, and sustained advocacy by the growing global community of people who care about animal welfare.