Reviewing the genuine progress made in animal welfare over the past century provides both encouragement and context for understanding what further improvements are achievable.
Reviewing animal welfare progress provides the dual function of recognizing genuine moral progress and maintaining motivation for the work that remains. The past century has seen the abolition of veal crates and battery cages, the end of great ape research, the emergence of a global farm animal welfare movement, and the beginning of recognition of fish and crustacean sentience in law. These changes were not inevitable — they were achieved through sustained advocacy, scientific evidence and cultural change. The remaining agenda is ambitious — improving conditions for the billions of intensively farmed animals, protecting wild animals at scale, and extending welfare consideration to invertebrates — but history demonstrates that this kind of change is possible.