Animal Tracker Australia – Baseline Survey Results, June 2014
A study conducted by Faunalytics and modeled after our Animal Tracker looks at the attitudes of Australians toward animals, finding that Australians in general have favorable – if contradictory – feelings.The study was carried out with the support of Voiceless, a leading Australian advocacy group. In addition to looking at general attitudes towards farm animals, the survey also explores opinions on a few animal issues specific to Australia, including Aussies’ attitudes toward kangaroos, and how people feel about the ever-controversial live export issue.
The survey found that the majority of Australians think farmed animals should have similar protections to companion animals, but only about 1.5% of households are vegetarian or vegan. There is a strong desire to improve the living conditions for farmed animals, and a large percentage of Australians have bought products with “humane” labeling. However, those surveyed seem to have less of an interest in eliminating animal product consumption, and are more interested in reducing consumption, or buying “humane” alternatives.
Of course, in addition to factory farming and other animal agriculture, there are certain animal issues that are very particular to Australia, such as kangaroo farming or live export. The survey found that Australians have an ongoing ambivalence toward the iconic kangaroo, with substantial support for the commercial kangaroo industry, and large proportions of the population that are simply neutral on the issue. Live export, on the other hand, elicits much more pronounced opinions. A strong majority of Aussies think that the wellbeing of animals exported for food is important, a majority believe the protection of exported animals is “inadequate”, and almost half of those surveyed think that live export should be done away with entirely.
The survey presents a host of other interesting findings. For full survey results, please download the PDF included below.