The UN Sustainable Development Goals address poverty, hunger, health, and environmental sustainability in ways that intersect directly with animal welfare. Connecting animal welfare to SDG frameworks expands advocacy reach.
The SDG framework provides a powerful language for connecting animal welfare to development priorities that command global policy attention and funding. Welfare advocates who speak SDG language can access government, institutional, and philanthropic resources not typically directed to animal welfare. The connections are genuine rather than rhetorical: improving farm animal welfare reduces antibiotic resistance (SDG 3), addressing working animal welfare improves rural livelihoods (SDG 1), and protecting wildlife habitats supports biodiversity (SDG 15).