Support For Farmed Animal Welfare Legislation In Ten Key U.S. States (Faunalytics)

This Faunalytics study looks at the level of public support or opposition to farmed animal welfare legislation in ten U.S. states where legal advocacy is underway or under consideration.

Background

Passing animal welfare legislation is a powerful tool to protect farmed animals, as it can impact millions or even billions of land animals when successful. Animal welfare legislation in the United States is typically enacted through ballot initiatives or through advocacy groups directly working with legislators to develop specific legislation. Ballot initiatives are a piece of legislation that are voted on by constituents after a certain number of petition signatures are collected by registered voters. Examples include the cage-free reforms such as Proposition 12 (California) and Question 3 (Massachusetts) which essentially prohibited farmed animal producers from confining certain animals in a space that prevents them from moving comfortably. In states without ballot initiatives, advocates influence legislation through lobbying—that is, encouraging politicians to introduce and support new legislation. Legislators are more likely to amend legislation based on issues that their constituents are strongly in favor of (Bergan & Cole, 2015). As such, advocates using either method will benefit from data that compares the percentages of support and opposition for different pieces of farmed animal welfare legislation, as public support is one crucial aspect that should be considered when introducing or amending legislation. The purpose of this study was to understand the level of public support or opposition to farmed animal welfare legislation⁠—from banning factory farms to funding alternative protein research and development (see Table 1)⁠—in ten U.S. states where legal advocacy is underway or under consideration. Using representative samples, we polled approximately 1,000 participants from each of the following states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Wisconsin. Advocates working in these states can use these findings to choose appropriate issues to target or to present to lawmakers as evidence of support.