Animal Tracker Finds Increase In Awareness Of Animal Issues

Faunalytics recently made available results from the second wave of our Animal Tracker survey of animal-related attitudes and behavior. The goal of the Animal Tracker is to measure changes in opinions and behavior over time and Wave 2 shows some interesting differences compared with Wave 1 (2008). One of the biggest changes was an increase in awareness and discussion of animal protection issues.

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The Animal Tracker is designed to give animal advocates an accurate and consistent understanding of the opinions and behavior of U.S. adults over time. One of the key topics that the survey covers is awareness of and exposure to animal issues. Specifically, we asked the following question in both Wave 1 and Wave 2: “In the past three months, how often have you talked about or heard someone talking about animal protection, including animal rights and/or animal welfare? Please include any personal discussions, items heard on the news, issues read about in magazines, etc.”

In Wave 2, more than half of survey respondents (52%) said that they have talked or heard about animal protection either “frequently” or “occasionally.” Specifically, 13% of U.S. adults said “frequently (i.e., daily or almost daily)” and 39% said “occasionally (i.e., weekly or monthly).” By comparison, in Wave 2 43% of adults said they had talked or heard about animal protection either “frequently” or “occasionally” in the past three months. The difference (+9% in the past year) is substantial and is well outside of the survey’s margin of error.

In Wave 2, just over a fourth of U.S. adults (28%) said they had heard about or discussed animal protection issues only “rarely,” which is lower than in Wave 1 (35%). Finally, about one-fifth of adults (20-22%) in both Waves 1 and 2 responded “not at all,” indicating that there’s still a lot of room for improvement. It’s difficult to say what may have caused the overall increase in awareness and exposure to animal issues. However, one thought is that the focus on animal-related state ballot initiatives (most notably, Proposition 2 in California) may have boosted visibility for animals nationally.

Click here to read a summary and/or download the full Animal Tracker Wave 2 report (you must be a registered HumaneSpot.org user).