Animal Welfare and Climate Change Adaptation

Climate change is creating new and worsening existing welfare challenges across farmed, wild, and companion animal populations globally — requiring proactive welfare-aware adaptation planning.

Key Facts

Heat stress events are increasing in frequency and severity across major livestock regions
Coral bleaching events have killed billions of reef fish and invertebrates in recent decades
Drought reduces pasture and water availability, causing nutritional stress in grazing animals
Sea level rise threatens coastal nesting habitat for sea turtles and shorebirds
Vector-borne diseases including blue tongue and African swine fever are expanding their geographic range

Welfare Considerations

Climate change is already worsening animal welfare at scale — heat stress events cause mass mortality in feedlots and poultry houses, drought forces culling of livestock herds, and coral bleaching eliminates reef ecosystems inhabited by billions of individual animals. Future welfare planning must integrate climate projections, as many welfare challenges that are currently manageable will become catastrophic at projected temperature increases. Welfare and climate action are complementary, not competing.

What You Can Do

Support climate action as a priority animal welfare intervention
Engage with livestock producers on climate adaptation plans including cooling and shade
Advocate for climate-resilient habitat protections for wildlife vulnerable to range shifts
Support wildlife corridor programs enabling climate-driven migration
Reduce meat consumption as a way to address both animal welfare and climate change simultaneously