Evidence-based examination of how climate change affects animal welfare across species and systems, and the welfare dimensions of climate mitigation strategies.
Climate change represents one of the largest emerging threats to animal welfare globally. Rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns, extreme weather events, and ecosystem disruption affect billions of animals across farmed, companion, and wild populations. This review synthesizes current evidence on climate-welfare interactions.
Heat stress is one of the most immediate climate-welfare impacts on farmed animals. Cattle, pigs, and poultry have narrow thermal comfort zones, and temperatures above these thresholds trigger physiological stress responses. Heat stress reduces feed intake, growth rates, and reproductive performance while increasing mortality. In dairy cattle, heat stress during the dry period affects subsequent lactation welfare indicators. Climate models project significant increases in heat stress exposure for livestock globally, with tropical and subtropical regions facing the most severe impacts.
Broiler chickens in the UK—historically a cool climate—now experience heat stress episodes during summer heat waves, with measurable welfare impacts. Spanish and Italian summer temperatures regularly exceed comfort zones for intensively housed pigs. Without adaptation measures including ventilation improvements, shade provision, and selective breeding for heat tolerance, welfare impacts will intensify.
Wild animal welfare impacts of climate change include habitat loss through sea level rise, altered phenology disrupting food availability timing, range shifts forcing animals into new territories, increased disease incidence, and direct thermal stress. Arctic species including polar bears, walruses, and Arctic foxes face habitat loss as sea ice declines. Coral bleaching events kill fish and invertebrates dependent on reef ecosystems. Spring phenological mismatches—when prey emergence no longer coincides with predator breeding cycles—cause starvation in migratory birds.
Hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and droughts directly kill millions of animals and displace billions more. The 2019-2020 Australian bushfires killed or displaced an estimated 3 billion animals. Hurricane-induced flooding of factory farms in North Carolina created enormous welfare emergencies with millions of pigs and poultry drowned. Extreme cold events in winter 2022 killed over 5 million cattle in Mongolia (dzud events). Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of these extreme events.
Ocean warming and acidification affect marine animal welfare through coral bleaching, range shifts, oxygen depletion in dead zones, and altered prey availability. Cetaceans face reduced prey availability in warming Arctic waters. Mass stranding events linked to changing oceanographic conditions expose marine mammals to prolonged suffering. Aquaculture faces increased disease pressure and heat stress as sea temperatures rise.
Reducing animal agriculture's climate footprint—which accounts for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions—involves welfare trade-offs. Transitioning to lower-methane cattle breeds, improved manure management, and higher feed efficiency can reduce emissions while maintaining or improving welfare. Shifts toward monogastric (pigs, chickens) over ruminant (cattle, sheep) production may reduce emissions but can worsen welfare if conditions are more intensive. The most climate-beneficial strategy—transitioning to plant-based food systems—also has significant animal welfare co-benefits.
Farm-level adaptations including improved ventilation, cooling systems, shade provision, altered feeding times, and selection for heat-tolerant breeds can reduce welfare impacts on farmed animals. Wildlife management adaptations include assisted migration, habitat corridor creation, captive breeding of endangered species, and targeted disease management. Emergency response planning for extreme weather events needs to include animal welfare provisions.
Key research gaps include: developing validated welfare indicators sensitive to climate-related stressors, modeling future welfare impacts under different emissions scenarios, evaluating adaptation effectiveness, and identifying the most welfare-vulnerable species and production systems. The integration of climate projections into animal welfare risk assessments is an emerging priority for both government regulators and welfare certification schemes.
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