A Look Back At 2024’s Best Blogs
In 2024, it may be hard to parse just what the word “blog” means. It’s a generic term that’s been used for a couple of decades now, and while it used to refer to people’s personal writing on the web, it’s become part of a shared internet vocabulary whose meaning has become murky. Much like the word “content,” it can be used to refer to low-quality spam-adjacent filler material; it can also be used to refer to thoughtful, well-researched publications.
Case in point: the Faunalytics blog.
Our blog is about as far away from filler as you might find anywhere online. Each post is solicited from and written by experts — whether part of Faunalytics staff or from organizations around the globe. The topics we cover run the entire gamut of animal advocacy and dive deeply into them, providing an abundance of references and insights. What’s more, the experts who write these in-depth articles are often very active members of the animal advocacy and research communities, with their fingers on the pulse of what advocates need to know. The editorial process of our blog is rigorous, checking references and factual statements, ensuring that numbers are correct, and always editing copy to be as clear and concise as possible.
As a long time internet user, I think another thing that makes the Faunalytics blog (and indeed, our whole Library and website) truly special is that we publish material with a high level of quality on a regular basis, and yet, you will never be distracted with an advertisement, fooled by a dark pattern, or need to be concerned that the link you’re clicking is secretly an affiliate link that we are profiting from. While most animal protection group websites don’t contain ads, virtually all websites publishing written articles and analysis are replete with ad content, even sometimes veering into the realm of advertorials (and while we’re occasionally pitched blogs by “professional content writers,” we always turn those offers down). It is exceedingly rare to find a resource such as ours that is ad-free, and free of charge, and not supported / influenced by a large institution of some kind.
Looking back at our publications from 2024, it’s striking just how rich this resource has become. If you’re interested in animal advocacy and how to become more effective at the work you do, it is a veritable treasure trove of data, analysis, and advice. As you browse the selection of 2024’s standout posts below, we hope you’ll uncover new insights and feel energized to continue your advocacy with renewed passion. We’re excited for you to discover hidden gems that might shape your advocacy or introduce you to a topic that you hadn’t yet considered. The list below is meant to give you a glimpse into the best of what we offered in 2024, including some that you may have missed the first time around.
Two Deep Dives Into Chile's Animal Industries
Unpacking Chile’s Animal Industrial Complex: Fishing And Aquaculture
Unpacking Chile’s Animal Industrial Complex: The Livestock Industry
We started off 2024 with two massive, in-depth articles about animal agriculture industries in Chile. In these blogs, Carlos Liebsch explores fishing, aquaculture, and land animal industries, looking at everything from annual production to the human labor involved.
Examining Public Attitudes On A Highly Understudied Topic
Understanding People’s Attitudes Towards Wild Animal Welfare
The field of wild animal welfare is an ever-growing discipline, and while we are learning more about the sentience and experiences of wild animals every day, we know much less about public attitudes towards them. This blog from Rethink Priorities’ Willem Sleegers explores the data behind one of their recent studies.
Cutting Through The Noise... With Visual Support
What’s In A Label?: Deciphering And Improving Animal Product Welfare Labels
This blog and factsheet from Faunalytics’ own Aro Roseman explores the world of animal welfare labels and claims on food packaging, revealing misconceptions, deceptions, and a lack of oversight that leads to broad misunderstandings among consumers. Xey present this information in both written and visual form, in a factsheet abundant with graphs and charts.
Getting A Better Understanding Of Global Context
Africa’s Second-Hand Battery Cage Dilemma
While the battery cage bans in Western countries have been widely celebrated and no doubt provide some welfare improvement for chickens, this blog from Jacob Achumboro Ayang shows their unintended consequences: making a transition to intensive farming more affordable in countries across Africa.
Seeing And Understanding The Big Picture
A System-Focused Approach To Industrial Food Animal Production
In many ways, animal advocates are inured to factory farming, and have shifted their focus away from a systems-based understanding towards advocacy and campaigns that focus on changing specific practices. Guest blogger Rachel Mason urges us to think more broadly, even beyond the direct animal exploiting industries themselves, to better understand our leverage and opportunities to make change.
A Meta-Resource To Make Advocates’ Lives Easier
Tactics In Practice: The Science Of Plant-Based Defaults And Nudges
Plant-based nudges and defaults have become an increasingly common tactic across the animal advocacy movement. This resource from Faunalytics’ Björn Ólafsson brings together a vast range of data on the topic, and presents it in a way that advocates can refer back to and apply as their context requires.
Exploring Developments In Legal Advocacy
Prop 12 And The EATS Act: Fighting For Basic Animal Welfare Reforms
Will Sonoma County, California’s Measure J Set A Precedent For Stopping Factory Farms?
Legal tactics have been a tool in animal advocates’ tool box for a long time, and legal campaigns are still deployed strategically in a variety of ways to improve the lives of animals. This pair of blogs looks at defending a law already on the books, and getting a new law passed.
Wearing Our Hearts On Our Sleeves
Announcing New Beginnings For Faunalytics’ Research Department
In the Summer of 2024, Faunalytics experienced rare turnover in our leadership, with Research Director Dr. Jo Anderson resigning. This blog acted as both a heartfelt send-off and a chance for us to highlight the perennial issue of burnout in animal advocacy.
The Importance Of Studying Neglected Species
Three Numbers That Make The Case For Shrimp Welfare
Shrimps are small-bodied aquatic animals who are consumed in vast quantities, far outnumbering even land animals like chickens. Unfortunately, their welfare is barely considered, if it is considered at all. This blog from Hannah McKay looks at some key statistics related to the shrimp industry that make a strong case for implementing robust welfare protections.
Understanding The Knowledge Production Industry
The Ethics Of Academic Journals: What Is An Animal Advocate To Do?
As the field of animal advocacy has grown, it has increasingly looked to research — often peer-reviewed — to guide its decision-making. However, the field of academic journal publishing is far from perfect. This collaborative blog between myself and Madelyn Dunning outlines some of the key ethical (and economic) issues at play in journal publishing, and proposes some things for animal advocates to watch out for.
If you’ve scrolled this far, you truly are a fan of Faunalytics’ work, and we hope that you’ve enjoyed this look back. As a preview for 2025, some of the blogs we’re currently working on include: a new factsheet and blog about the environmental impacts of aquaculture; another entry in our Tactics In Practice series, this time on protest; another Research Roundup about university-based advocacy; a special two-part series about the origins of Faunalytics; and much more.
If you’re an animal advocate and wish to contribute to our blog, drop us a line and let’s get to work!
