Animal Tracker 2017: Humane Education

As I have written many times, I’ve come to believe that animal liberation will be a long-term struggle. Indeed, it already has a lengthy history and we’re arguably just beginning the fight. I now think of the arc of compassion toward animals not just in terms of years or even decades, but generations.

With that long-term perspective, the role of humane education becomes paramount. It is essential that we develop a sense of empathy and justice for nonhuman animals among future generations of humans. As Aristotle said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” Fortunately, we have some groups doing exactly that, like the Institute for Humane Education, the Association of Professional Humane Educators, and RedRover.

The Faunalytics Animal Tracker has been studying perceptions of humane education and related issues for 10 years. For 2017, we covered the overall survey results and methods and explored people’s short-term and long-term behavior in previous blogs. In this post, we take a closer look at perceptions of the importance of humane education. Following is the question that we ask every three years, most recently in April 2017:

How important is it that schools and teachers (Kindergarten-12 and college level) incorporate humane education, including animal welfare topics, into their lessons?

• Very important
• Somewhat important
• Not very important
• Not at all important
• Do not know

In 2017, an impressive three in four U.S. adults (75%) think that humane education is important. One-third (33%) of them think it is “very” important. Only 6% say humane education is not at all important.

Below we explore the demographic differences for this question. We also compare our latest results with past years of the Animal Tracker. The complete details for all years and demographic groups will be released along with the last blog in this series. We will also be updating our graphing tool with the 2017 data and releasing the full dataset combining ten years of Animal Tracker results.

Demographics

Below we focus on just the most recent Animal Tracker results (from March/April 2017) and differences by gender, age, level of formal education, ethnicity, geographic region, and whether people have companion animals in the household.

Gender: The overall belief in the importance of humane education is comparable for both women and men (76% vs. 73%). Women are slightly more likely to say it is important, but the difference is within the survey’s margin of error for gender. When looking at the details, however, women are significantly more likely than men to say humane education is “very” important (38% vs. 27%).

Age: Interestingly, belief in the importance of humane education does not change significantly by age group. There is an indication that this belief is slightly weaker among people ages 18-29, but this appears to be mostly a shift to a higher “do not know” rate rather than thinking humane education is unimportant.

Education: The importance of humane education also does not change significantly by level of formal education. However, there is some suggestion that people with a bachelor’s degree or more or formal education are more likely to think that humane education is not important. More than a quarter of people with this level of education (26%) say humane education is not very or not at all important, compared to 19% or less for other education groups.

Ethnicity: There are few significant differences when it comes to ethnicity and belief in the importance of humane education. However, “Hispanic” respondents are the most likely group to say that humane education is “very” important. Black respondents are more likely than other ethnic groups to say they don’t know about the importance of humane education.

Region: Belief in the importance of humane education does not change significantly by region of the United States. There is an indication that this belief is slightly stronger in the South and slightly weaker in the Midwest, but these differences are at or very near the error margin.

Companion Animals in Household: People who live with pets are significantly more likely to believe humane education is important. Overall, 77% of people with companion animals say so, including 37% who say “very” important. By contrast, 71% of people without pets say humane education is important, with 27% saying “very.”

Trends

How important is it that schools and teachers (Kindergarten-12 and college level) incorporate humane education, including animal welfare topics, into their lessons?

(Click or hover over labels for full text)

The Animal Tracker humane education question has been asked four times, most recently in 2017, but also in 2014, 2011, and 2008. The results have shown some interesting and significant changes over time. Belief in the importance of humane education was at its highest in 2008, with 78% saying very/somewhat important. This number declined to 72% in 2011 and 66% in 2014, most recently rebounding to 75% in 2017.

The fall and then rise has been even more precipitous when focusing on those saying humane education is “very” important. This number also peaked in 2008, at 40%. It then fell to 31% in 2011 and 25% in 2014, only to rise again to 33% in 2017. The proportion of people saying they do not know how to rate the importance of humane education has remained relatively stable, but was slightly higher in 2014 than in other years.