Improving animal welfare at scale requires understanding which advocacy strategies most effectively change practices, policies, and consumer behaviour.
Effective animal welfare advocacy requires more than good intentions — it requires evidence about what works. Corporate campaigns that persuade major food businesses to commit to higher welfare sourcing have delivered rapid, verifiable improvements for large numbers of animals at relatively low campaign cost. Legislative approaches create durable, enforceable change that market mechanisms cannot replicate. Consumer behaviour campaigns face the challenge of intention-action gaps — most people report caring about animal welfare but fewer translate that concern into purchasing behaviour change. Research organisations that evaluate advocacy approaches with the rigour applied to other evidence-based fields are generating knowledge that helps advocates allocate limited resources to higher-impact strategies.