Faunalytics’ 2023 Year In Review
In 2023, the United States Supreme Court upheld Proposition 12, a landmark measure to protect millions of farmed animals from intensive confinement. The USDA announced plans to strengthen oversight of animal welfare claims. Hospitals and schools are starting to embrace plant-based food. An Indonesian animal market ended its dog and cat meat trade. The European Commission committed to phasing out animal testing. Cosmetics testing on animals was banned in Canada. Vaccine testing is moving toward non-animal-derived reagents. Circuses are starting to phase out using live animals for entertainment. Thousands of white rhinos in South Africa have been rewilded.
Animal advocacy can be soul-crushing work, but it’s victories like these that keep us motivated and more committed than ever to do our part to make a difference for animals. Faunalytics is honored to serve as a capacity-builder for the animal protection movement, the organization that advocates can turn to for quality data, reliable resources, and ongoing support.
This year Faunalytics has produced more Original Research and new content than ever before, and we’ve been named a Recommended Charity by Animal Charity Evaluators once again. We’ve focused on building and strengthening our relationships within the animal protection community in order to better fulfill our mission of empowering animal advocates with the research they need to maximize their effectiveness.
With such a successful year nearly behind us, we’re pleased to officially announce Faunalytics’ organizational values, which guide our decisions and shape our work.
Original Research: Staying True To The Data
Faunalytics’ research fills vital information gaps in the animal protection movement. This year we conducted nine original studies and analyses to guide animal advocacy, prioritizing topics with the potential to make positive change for many animals. Our Research Director Jo Anderson leads this program, alongside Research Scientists Coni Arévalo, Andrea Polanco, and Zach Wulderk.
Animal agriculture subsidies create an uneven playing field for advocates and plant-based producers. Our study identified successful strategies in the fight to shift, reduce, or eliminate subsidies.
What does Big Ag think about animal advocacy efforts? In this report, we reviewed a sample of animal agriculture trade publications to examine how the industry responds and reacts against advocacy tactics.
We analyzed the various obstacles faced by people who once pursued a veg diet, and what supports they would need to resume being vegan or vegetarian.
To help inform legislative strategy setting in the movement, we determined the level of public support or opposition to farmed animal welfare legislation in ten U.S. states where legal initiatives are underway or under consideration.
The 2023 update to our popular Impact Scales focused on animals affected by institutional food purchases. Advocates can use these numbers with food service managers and food procurement officers to convey the impact of their purchases on animal suffering.
We examined a broad range of demographics to help advocates working with specific groups craft the most effective “asks,” such as going vegan, trying meatless Mondays, or voting for a ballot measure. Don’t miss our interactive graphing tool to help you dive deeper into the data!
Our groundbreaking research collaboration with Sentient Media found that only 7% of climate change media coverage mentioned animal agriculture. Most that did failed to discuss the emissions and environmental degradation caused by the animal ag industry.
We analyzed juror interviews to better understand why they acquitted animal rights investigators who rescued two piglets from a factory farm. We determined which arguments jurors found most convincing, and what lessons advocates can learn from this case.
A small number of massive corporations are responsible for much of the suffering farmed animals endure. In this report, we detailed the chicken, egg, and aquaculture industries in three of the world’s biggest animal agriculture countries, highlighting the economics of these industries, how governments support them, and directions they could take in the future.
Research Library: Cultivating Curiosity
Faunalytics’ Library houses over 5,000 study summaries, infographics, and videos to help inform advocacy tactics and strategies. Find the data you need on farmed animals, companion animals, wild animals, and more! Our Content Director karol orzechowski oversees our Library and website, alongside Content Editor Casey Bond and our new Data Analyst and Visual Coordinator, Aro Roseman.
We published over 200 new study summaries that condense data into actionable recommendations for advocates, with hundreds of resources now available in multiple languages.
Our new Invertebrates Fundamental – the eighth in our Fundamentals series – explored the vast world of invertebrates, a category that includes everyone from bumblebees to octopi. We visually capture the lives and worlds of invertebrates and make the case for their consideration in animal advocacy.
Our latest factsheet is a comprehensive resource: Getting Started In Legislative Advocacy includes detailed infographics on steps to a successful ballot measure, tips for effective lobbying, and more.
We produced seven new bite-sized videos summarizing research on everything from cat adoption to biodiversity conservation to wild animal trafficking, and more.
Our content team welcomed a summer fellow, Christopher Chang, as part of the Reducetarian Foundation’s fellowship program. We had the opportunity to support and cultivate bright new talent in our movement – check out Chris’ blog Getting To Know Cultured Meat.
We publish over 50 blog posts each year, but in 2023 we leaned into our value Collaborate for Shared Success by partnering with many other organizations to bring new insights to our blog this year. Big thanks to Australian Alliance For Animals, Farm Sanctuary, The Fur Bearers, Greener By Default, The Good Growth Co., Harvard Law School, Pax Fauna, Rethink Priorities, Stray Dog Institute, and Vegan Hacktivists for sharing their expertise with our community.
Research Support: Collaborating For Shared Success
Faunalytics provides direct support to the movement, helping advocates apply research to their work. Delivered one-on-one, in small group settings, or via webinars and conferences, our team offers guidance on finding data, conducting research, and more. Our advocate engagement efforts are overseen by our Communications Manager Jenna Riedi and Research Liaison Björn Olafsson.
We hosted our second annual, virtual research symposium designed to connect academics and advocates working on animal issues. Over a dozen speakers and hundreds of attendees from around the world were brought together under our shared mission to end animal suffering.
We directly helped over 100 organizations and independent advocates one-on-one through our weekly Office Hours, and we continued to update the hidden gem of our website – our Research Advice hub – with helpful guides and glossary terms.
Our ambassadors Natalie Amezcua, Bruno Link, and Ella Wong connected with dozens of organizations around the world to provide free, customized research presentations full of data and strategies that advocates can apply to their work.
Faunalytics co-facilitated 10+ inter-org research meetings to share updates, plans, and knowledge with other researchers in farmed animal protection.
Our team delivered data-driven presentations at conferences including the Animal and Vegan Advocacy Summit, Reducetarian Summit, Maddie’s Fund Pet Forum, and more. We also helped oversee the research channel within the Impactful Animal Advocacy community.
Behind The Scenes: Nurturing Compassion
All of the research and resources above are made possible by our small-but-mighty team of dedicated staff, advisors, Board of Directors, and volunteers. Our work especially wouldn’t be possible without our own capacity builders, Philanthropy Officer Liz Wheeler and Operations Associate Pona Tran.
- We established organizational values! As shared above, we’re proud of our commitment to Stay True to the Data, Nurture Compassion, Collaborate for Shared Success, and Cultivate Curiosity.
- We developed a new compensation algorithm to help us set salaries in a fair and objective way, and after a benchmarking analysis we improved our team’s benefits package.
- 70+ hours were spent on professional development and continuing education for our staff so that they can continue to bring their A-game to our work.
- 30+ volunteers contributed over 950 hours of their time to our organization. We’re extremely grateful for their thoughtfulness and contributions to our work.
- We’re working on a new website! We’re excited to roll out a new and improved Faunalytics experience in early 2024.
- We successfully completed year one of our three-year Strategic Plan, with an emphasis on growing the impact of research in the animal protection movement.
- We completed a Global Diversity & Inclusion Benchmarks (GDIB) assessment of our organization, identifying both areas where we’ve risen to a strong standard, and areas where we will make improvements.
- We developed an organizational AI Usage Policy, which we hope can serve as a template for other groups, adapted and guided by their own particular needs and strategy.
Our Impact
As a capacity-building organization, Faunalytics operates behind the scenes to support the animal protection movement. The indirect nature of our programs can make it challenging to assess our impact, but over the years we’ve worked hard to capture how our work makes a difference for animals and advocates alike.
- Community Survey results (assessment of all programs): 88% of our audience said they’ve put our resources to concrete use and 97% agreed that our work is high-quality.
- Research Support results (assessment of 1:1 support): 82% of advocates said they will definitely use what they learned in their work.
- Ambassador Outreach results (assessment of research presentations): 91% said our resources are very or extremely valuable to improving animal advocacy.
We’re always exploring new ways to measure how our research and resources can better help advocates make change for animals. Learn more about our reach and impact by visiting our Impact Center.
Select Media Coverage & Interviews
All About Animals Radio | Bon Appétit | Green Queen | Heated | How I Learned To Love Shrimp | In Tune to Nature | Sentient Media | Stone Pier Press | Unchained TV | VegNews | Veg Out | Veg World | Vox | Yahoo News
Support Animal Advocacy Research
Last week we announced our research agenda and shared what’s in store for 2024 – check out our new Plans & Priorities overview for all the details. But we can’t do it alone. You can help make animal advocacy research possible by contributing to the vital work the movement depends on.
Thank You For Your Support
Faunalytics would like to extend our gratitude to you — to our fellow advocates, incredible volunteers, dedicated donors, and monthly supporters. Our work would not be possible without you.
Special thanks to the following organizations: A Well-Fed World, Animal Charity Evaluators, Doneer Effectief, Effective Ventures, Food Systems Research Fund, Greenbaum Foundation, Good Chaos, Open Philanthropy, Park Foundation, Stray Dog Institute, The Greg Reiter Memorial Fund, The Tipping Point Private Foundation, VegFund, and several anonymous supporters.
On behalf of the entire Faunalytics team, thank you for your support, and for all you do to change the world for animals. We’re honored to work alongside you and look forward to all we will accomplish in the year ahead.
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