Animal Welfare Index

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A Belmont Report for Animals?

cambridge.org (opens in a new tab)

Ferdowsian and colleagues ask how the principles governing human research—autonomy, beneficence, justice, and protection of vulnerable subjects—should apply to other animals. They examine consent and dissent, harms and benefits, and the limits of replacement, reduction, and refinement as an ethical framework.

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CC BY 4.0

Article text; attribution required.

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Animal Ask — Welfare measurement and fish economics

animalask.org (opens in a new tab)

George Bridgwater's report compares theories of well-being, the validity of welfare indicators, and methods for combining them into overall assessments. A related review by Ren Ryba examines European fish-farming economics and the evidence on the costs of welfare improvements.

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Both reports.

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Animal Charity Evaluators — Research Database

research-database.animalcharityevaluators.org (opens in a new tab)

A searchable collection of studies, reviews, reports, and theoretical work relevant to farmed and wild animal advocacy. ACE reviews sources for relevance, not to endorse their findings. Entries link to the original research, with abstracts where available; some full texts are paywalled. This replaces ACE's older Research Library.

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Database text and abstracts. Linked works have their own terms.

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Animal Consciousness

plato.stanford.edu (opens in a new tab)

A scholar-maintained introduction to animal consciousness. It explains the concepts, history, evidence, methodological disputes, and ethical stakes, then points into an extensive scientific and philosophical bibliography.

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Limited noncommercial use

Entries: personal use, closed-group sharing (up to 30 people), and indexing. No general redistribution license.

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Animal Data Project — Animals

animaldataproject.org (opens in a new tab)

Research summaries, datasets, and legal documents on animal welfare and human-animal relationships. Summaries describe study findings, methods, funding, and limitations; topics include transport, housing, health, and the treatment of farmed and wild animals.

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Original summaries and collections. Linked papers have their own licenses.

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Animal Ethics

animal-ethics.org (opens in a new tab)

A multilingual library on speciesism, sentience, wild-animal suffering, harms to animals, and the ways future technologies may affect sentient beings.

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Text: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Credit required; noncommercial use only; adaptations under the same license. Photo and video licenses are unverified.

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Animal Welfare at Our World in Data

ourworldindata.org (opens in a new tab)

Our World in Data gathers writing, charts, and downloadable data on slaughter, factory farming, housing systems, aquatic animals, pain, and public attitudes.

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Own work: CC BY 4.0

OWID's writing, charts and data, unless noted otherwise. Third-party data have separate terms; the FAQ adds republication conditions.

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Aquatic Life Institute

ali.fish (opens in a new tab)

Cross-species aquatic-welfare work covering standards, policy, and industry systems.

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Check each report's terms.

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Bentham's Newsletter

benthams.substack.com (opens in a new tab)

Essays by Bentham's Bulldog on factory farming, insect and shrimp welfare, wild-animal suffering, and arguments for taking animal interests seriously.

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Substack terms

Scraping and substantial copying or storage prohibited. No separate author license found.

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Bold Reasoning with Peter Singer

boldreasoningwithpetersinger.substack.com (opens in a new tab)

Peter Singer writes about animal ethics, bioethics, effective altruism, and other questions in applied ethics.

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Substack terms

Scraping and substantial copying or storage prohibited. No separate author license found.

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Center for Reducing Suffering

centerforreducingsuffering.org (opens in a new tab)

Research on reducing severe suffering among present and future sentient beings, including work on ethics, moral uncertainty, wild animals, and emerging technologies.

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All rights reserved

Website text, including blog posts. External publications may have separate licenses.

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Coefficient Giving — Farm Animal Welfare

coefficientgiving.org (opens in a new tab)

Grant rationales and strategy documents explain the evidence, assumptions, and uncertainties behind farmed-animal welfare funding decisions.

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One report: copying with credit

The Urban Institute report only. No reuse license found for other Coefficient Giving content.

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Conservation vs. Wild-Animal Suffering: how can population dynamics help?

biorxiv.org (opens in a new tab)

Protecting species and improving individual wild animals' lives can pull in different directions. This exploratory preprint uses population-dynamics models to examine when those goals conflict or coincide. It uses death rates as a proxy for suffering, leaving out nonfatal harms; the authors caution that the models do not yet justify interventions.

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CC BY-NC-ND

Version 1: credit required, noncommercial sharing only, no adaptations.

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Disaggregating animal welfare risks in aquaculture

science.org (opens in a new tab)

Chiawen Chiang and Becca Franks compare seven species-level welfare risk factors across aquaculture, including migration, solitary living, and complex parental care. They relate these risks to production volumes, prices, and numbers of animals, examining whether lower-risk species could also support affordable food production.

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CC BY-NC 4.0

Article text; attribution required, noncommercial use only.

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EA Forum — Animal welfare

forum.effectivealtruism.org (opens in a new tab)

A topic page collecting community research and debate on animal-welfare priorities, interventions, strategy, and uncertainty.

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CC BY 4.0 from Dec 2022

Author-owned posts from 1 December 2022. Check earlier posts and third-party material separately.

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Essays on Reducing Suffering

reducing-suffering.org (opens in a new tab)

Brian Tomasik's long-running essays on suffering-focused ethics, wild-animal suffering, insects, animal agriculture, and the moral weight of different minds.

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Translations welcomed

Translations may be hosted elsewhere. No general reuse license found for original texts.

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EU Animals in Science and ALURES

environment.ec.europa.eu (opens in a new tab)

The European Commission’s transparency system for animals used in scientific procedures. It reports species, numbers, purposes, origins, genetic status, and the severity assigned to procedures across EU member states and Norway.

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EU text: CC BY 4.0

EU-owned pages unless otherwise stated. ALURES records and third-party material may have different terms.

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FAOSTAT and fisheries statistics

fao.org (opens in a new tab)

The primary international source for country-reported livestock, slaughter, fisheries, and aquaculture statistics. Many later estimates begin with FAO records, including attempts to convert aquatic-animal tonnage into individual animals.

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Data: CC BY 4.0 + FAO terms

Datasets only, subject to exceptions. FAO also restricts re-identification, misrepresentation, implied endorsement and promotional commercial use.

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Faunalytics research library

faunalytics.org (opens in a new tab)

A large, continually updated collection of research summaries and original studies. It spans animals used for food and science, wild and companion animals, public attitudes, and the effectiveness of attempts to help animals.

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Internal noncommercial use

Redistribution and adaptations need permission. AI indexing is welcomed, but training permission is unstated. Original studies have separate terms.

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Fish Welfare Initiative

fishwelfareinitiative.org (opens in a new tab)

Fish Welfare Initiative publishes research and field reports from programs designed to improve welfare in aquaculture.

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Conflicting reuse terms

Homepage allows free use of information and images; terms restrict republication, commercial use and data mining. Permission is unclear.

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Fishcount

fishcount.org.uk (opens in a new tab)

Fishcount estimates the numbers of individual fish caught from the wild and produced in aquaculture. It converts tonnage into animal counts and documents welfare problems during capture, transport, and slaughter.

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One paper: CC BY 4.0

The 2023 farmed-fish estimates paper only. No license found for website text, tables, spreadsheets, photos or older reports.

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Insect Welfare Research Society

insectwelfare.com (opens in a new tab)

Scientific resources on insect sentience, farming, and welfare methods, including research guidelines and a Zotero bibliography covering insects and other neglected invertebrates. Also selected here: a separate SEI report critically examining insect farming in high-income countries, including welfare risks and what insect protein replaces.

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No reuse license found

Website and guidelines. Linked works have separate terms; the SEI report text is CC BY 4.0, excluding its Getty cover photo.

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Inside Animal Ag

insideanimalag.org (opens in a new tab)

A research-based guide to the structure and effects of U.S. factory farming. Its linked subject guides cover animal numbers and treatment alongside slaughterhouses, industry structure, workers, public health, government, land, water, climate, and biodiversity.

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Free reuse of own writing

Linked reports, images and data have separate terms.

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Jeff Sebo

jeffsebo.net (opens in a new tab)

Work on animals, moral status, global health, and how emerging technologies may affect nonhuman beings.

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Licenses vary

Frontiers paper: CC BY 4.0. Guarini brief: all rights reserved. Website and syllabi: no reuse license found.

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Massey Animal Welfare Science and Bioethics Centre

massey.ac.nz (opens in a new tab)

The institutional home of the Five Domains Model and research linking animals' physical conditions to their mental experiences.

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One paper: CC BY 4.0

Highlighted paper only. The website reserves rights; other publications have separate terms.

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Moral Law Within

morallawwithin.substack.com (opens in a new tab)

A moral-philosophy newsletter whose case for veganism develops a deontological argument grounded in duties rather than consequences.

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Substack terms

Scraping and substantial copying or storage prohibited. No separate author license found.

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New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness

nydeclaration.com (opens in a new tab)

A concise statement of scientific agreement. It reports strong support for conscious experience in mammals and birds, and at least a realistic possibility in all vertebrates and many invertebrates, including insects, cephalopods, and decapod crustaceans.

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Declaration, background material and signatures.

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Sentience Institute

sentienceinstitute.org (opens in a new tab)

Research on moral-circle expansion and social change. Its animal-focused work studies how institutions and public attitudes have changed toward farmed animals, and why moral concern reaches some beings while excluding others.

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Viewing only

Republication, public display, commercial use and data mining need permission. Separately published papers have their own terms.

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Sentient Media

sentientmedia.org (opens in a new tab)

Independent reporting and explainers on factory farming, fisheries, animal welfare, food systems, climate, health, and policy. It combines current investigations with accessible background pieces on how animal industries operate.

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Personal noncommercial use

Downloads and printouts allowed. Republication, caching or systematic collection needs written permission.

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Shrimp Welfare Project

shrimpwelfareproject.org (opens in a new tab)

Research and field reports on improving farmed-shrimp welfare through electrical stunning and work with producers and retailers.

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Viewing only

Republication, public display, commercial use and data mining need permission. Downloadable reports may have separate terms.

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The Case Against Octopus Farming

issues.org (opens in a new tab)

Jennifer Jacquet, Becca Franks, Peter Godfrey-Smith, and Walter Sánchez-Suárez examine the welfare and environmental implications of farming octopuses. They discuss cognitive stimulation, confinement, aggression, disease, and feed-fish harms, arguing that solving environmental problems alone would not resolve the ethical objections.

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No reuse license found

This essay.

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The Hedonistic Imperative

hedweb.com (opens in a new tab)

David Pearce’s long-running argument that biotechnology could eventually replace suffering with gradients of well-being in humans and nonhuman animals. The archive connects genetics, consciousness, animal ethics, and the future redesign of ecosystems.

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Website essays; book licenses unverified.

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The Psychology of Cows

animalbehaviorandcognition.org (opens in a new tab)

Lori Marino and Kristin Allen review cattle learning, emotions, personalities, and social relationships. They examine how calves and adult cows respond to separation, isolation, handling, and opportunities for social contact, drawing on comparative psychology and agricultural research.

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CC BY 3.0

Article text; attribution required.

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Welfare Footprint Institute

welfarefootprint.org (opens in a new tab)

A framework for comparing welfare through the intensity and duration of negative experiences and the number of animals affected. Its applied studies estimate cumulative time spent in pain under different production systems.

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CC BY 4.0

Institute-produced reports, data and charts, unless otherwise stated. Credit the Institute and named authors.

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Wild Animal Initiative

wildanimalinitiative.org (opens in a new tab)

A research organization focused on the welfare of free-living animals. Its work develops field methods, reviews welfare-relevant ecology, maps research priorities, and supports the growth of wild-animal welfare science.

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Licenses vary

Capturing wild animal welfare: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (noncommercial sharing, no adaptations). Other papers vary; no sitewide license found.

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Wild Animal Suffering

wildanimalsuffering.org (opens in a new tab)

An illustrated introduction to the causes, scale, and moral importance of suffering among wild animals.

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Text and illustrations.

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Wild Animal Welfare Committee

wawcommittee.org (opens in a new tab)

An independent UK committee examining the welfare of free-living animals affected by human activity. Its publications show how welfare evidence can change decisions about wildlife management, conservation, conflict, and population control.

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Licenses vary

Workshop slides and images require permission. No sitewide license found; other publications have separate terms.

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Wild animal welfare: a bibliography

stafforini.com (opens in a new tab)

A bibliography of philosophical and scientific writing on wild-animal welfare, predation, and intervention in nature. The selected essays argue for taking naturally caused suffering seriously; Moen also considers speculative population-reduction proposals, not recommendations for immediate intervention.

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Bibliography text; cited works have separate licenses.

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