Have a suggestion for another open-access resource we can add? Contact us.
Jump to a section:
Datasets (Open-Access)
Are you an analyst looking for data relating to animals, animal products, diet, or other advocacy-related topics? The following datasets are all freely available for additional research. If you’ve conducted an analysis that might be useful to advocates, let us know! If it’s a good fit, we might be able to publish it.
Faunalytics’ Datasets
Animal Advocacy Data Repository (on the Open Science Framework)
Animal Legal and Historical Center
Coller Animal Law Forum Database
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations
The FAO provides widely used data about food and agriculture, including about farmed animals: number alive at a given time, imports, exports, and more. FAOSTAT (this website) provides a wealth of data for open-access use, but we recommend that you consider some potential inaccuracies and inconsistencies before diving into your analysis.
Faunalytics provides an analysis of the FAO animal slaughter data from 1955-2016 here.
Food Demand Survey (FooDS)
Google’s Dataset Search Tool
Millennial Market Segmentation Study
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
Species Threat Global Article Database
Statistics Canada
Tesco 1.0
Twitter Trends Data
United States Bureau of Labor Statistics
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Open Data Catalog
United States Wildlife And Wildlife Product imports From 2000–2014
Aggregated Data
The data in this section has already been analyzed/aggregated in some way.
CALF Law Database
Faunalytics’ Animal Tracker Graphing Tool
Google Trends
Roper Center iPoll (Animal Advocacy Topics)
Shelter Animals Count
Images And Video
The following sites contain images and videos that may be useful in advocacy research. Please note before clicking that these pages contain graphic images of animals being abused.
Animal Images Database
Services For Research & Data Collection
Ask A Researcher: Faunalytics’ Research Office Hour
Our research team has years of experience conducting research and can help you design your study, interpret results, or point you in the right direction (for no cost). Talking to a live person is rare these days, but that’s exactly what we offer!
If you’re looking for more help than Faunalytics can offer (up to 2-3 hours of pro bono time per year), here are some additional providers.
Independent Consultants
Panel-Only Data Collection
Full- or Partial-Service Data Collection
Self-Serve Rapid Message Testing (U.S.)
Statistics Without Borders
Resources For Learning Research Skills
The Research & Resources section of our website is a great starting point for most people.
Take A Course
Your local university may have courses you can audit for free–check the psychology, sociology, and economics department listings, depending on your interests. Even if you’re interested in improving your statistical skills, statistics classes targeting your particular science will likely be a better fit than the statistics department offerings.
There are also free and low-cost course options available online. For instance, Coursera, Udemy, DataCamp, Udacity, and more. Please note, however, that Faunalytics can’t vouch for the quality of any particular course, so we encourage you to research the site, instructor, and course reviews.
Alternatively you may consider taking a Data Science Program.
High-Impact Research Topics
The following animal protection organizations (listed alphabetically) have published lists or information about their priority research areas. If you are looking for a high-impact topic to work on, these lists are a good place to start. If you find any dead links in this list or know of newer or additional sources we should add, please let us know.
Other Groups Producing Research For Animal Advocates
Ask A Librarian: Faunalytics’ Library Office Hour
Our Content Director is the resident expert on existing research and can help you find whatever you’re looking for (for no cost).
For more than 20 years, Faunalytics has been the research arm of the animal advocacy movement. We hope that you turn to us when you’re looking for a statistic, the best way to tackle an advocacy problem, or advice about research!
Looking For A Job?
If you are looking for a job in research or data science, we suggest the following:
- Sign up for the Faunalytics newsletter to get updates about our own hiring;
- Check the other groups listed above for opportunities;
- Join the Effective Animal Advocacy Facebook group, which posts a monthly roundup of opportunities; and
- Check out Animal Advocacy Careers for help getting started, including one-on-one career advice calls. Their job board lists opportunities with groups they consider high-impact.
In the meantime, if it’s an option for you, volunteering for an animal advocacy organization in any capacity is a great way to get started and support the community and the animals. Faunalytics works with numerous volunteers, but you can also look for ways to support organizations in your local area. Whether it’s analyzing adoption data, feeding pigs, or marching in support of ballot measures, there’s always something you can do to help!
Finding Funding
If you are looking for funding for your research, we suggest you check out the funders listed on Faunalytics’ Supporters page. If you are an academic, there are also likely to be national funding agencies and foundations available to you–check with your university.