Starbucks, Subway and McDonald’s have made no animal welfare progress in eight years
Our Animal Protection Index (API), which ranks countries on their laws protecting animals, exposes the drastic need for global change
Holding countries to account
For the API, we assessed the animal welfare policies and legislation of 50 countries and ranked them from A (the highest score) to G.
Shockingly, no country obtained an ‘A’ grade.
Some countries such as Morocco, Iran, Algeria, and Belarus were found to still be missing the basic legal framework needed to protect animals, and others do not formally recognize animal sentience in their existing legislation.
Sweden, United Kingdom, and Austria are rated with the highest scores, which is encouraging. More countries need to follow their lead.
We are calling on all governments to immediately improve their animal welfare standards, not only for the benefit of animals but also to reduce the risk to public health.
Coronavirus and other concerns
Severe animal welfare concerns from intensive farming, wildlife markets, and associated trade are all proven threats of disease outbreak, such as the most recent global epidemic, coronavirus.
The API found that China, USA, Vietnam, Egypt, Azerbaijan, and Belarus need to do more to protect animals and people from the threat of zoonotic diseases.
This global threat will continue for as long as there is no effective legislation and preventative measures to control the emerging threat to animal and people’s health.
Beyond public health, these systems which put us all at risk are causing immense suffering and cruelty to billions of animals every year.
We need to build a better world for animals and people, but this won’t be possible until we stop treating animals as commodities.
Does the life of an animal mean nothing at all?
Last year we launched a film to highlight the many ways that we are failing to protect animals, asking the question: does the life of an animal mean nothing at all?
This is a question we need to ask governments lacking even the most basic animal welfare policies.
Materials by: WAP