Animal welfare intersects with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals - from ending hunger and ensuring health to climate action and responsible consumption - making it a cross-cutting development priority that deserves explicit integration.
The absence of explicit animal welfare metrics in the SDG framework means that development progress can be measured as positive even when achieved through systems that cause animal suffering. Agricultural intensification that increases food production (SDG 2) while worsening animal welfare conditions represents a development model that trades one value for another - yet the welfare cost is invisible in official reporting. One Health approaches that correctly link human and animal health create an evidence base for welfare investment as a development tool. Integrating animal welfare into sustainable development frameworks would create accountability for the welfare dimension of food system and development decisions.