Faunalytics’ 2025 Year In Review & 2026 Plans
Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes
In our year-end blog, Faunalytics’ Executive Director, Brooke Haggerty, looks at the banner year behind us and gives a preview of what you can expect from Faunalytics in 2026.
2025 marked a special milestone for Faunalytics: our 25th anniversary! For a quarter of a century, we’ve been at the forefront of empowering animal advocates with the research, insights, and strategies needed to make a lasting impact in the fight against animal suffering. As we look back on the progress we’ve made, we’re proud of how far we’ve come, but even more excited about what lies ahead.
Over the past year, we’ve continued to push the boundaries of research and advocacy, producing valuable studies, expanding our library of resources, and supporting countless organizations and individuals working tirelessly for animals. In this Year In Review, we celebrate the highlights of our work over the past year, while also sharing a sneak peek of the groundbreaking initiatives we’re preparing for the future. With your support, we look forward to many more years of advancing the cause for animal protection.
Knowledge Creation
Producing Original Research And Analyses For The Movement
Research & Data To Inform Animal Advocacy
- Global Animal Slaughter Statistics & Charts: One of our most popular resources, this comprehensive overview looks at the number of animals slaughtered globally for food every year, based on data gathered by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This year, we included a special companion analysis: Why Don’t More Animal Advocates Talk About Ducks?
- Public Acceptability Of Standard U.S. Animal Agriculture Practices: Our survey on the public’s perceptions of standard animal agriculture practices provides advocates with empirical data that certain industry norms are not “commonly accepted” by the public and should therefore not be exempt from U.S. anti-cruelty laws.
- Quantifying The Small Body Problem: A Meta-Analysis Of Animal Product Reduction Interventions: This meta-analysis, a Faunalytics/Bryant Research collaboration, looks at the small-body problem (when people reduce their consumption of large-bodied animals but consume more small-bodied animal products), assesses its prevalence, and offers recommendations for advocates.
Research To Guide Political, Legislative, & Economic Change
- Effective Communication With Political Staffers: A Framework For Animal Advocates: This study identifies best practices for engaging with political staffers to strengthen legislative advocacy efforts to advance animal protection in the United States.
- Political Animals? How U.S. Voters Respond To Candidates Making Farmed Animal Policy Proposals: This study examines how voters respond to political candidates making policy proposals aimed at supporting or opposing industrial animal agriculture.
- Big Ag, Big Bucks: How USDA Subsidies Feed Market Inequality And Political Influence: This report dives into the murky world of USDA subsidies, where multimillion-dollar grants create an uneven playing field by supporting massive animal agriculture enterprises with taxpayer money.
- The Economic Impacts Of A Plant-Based Transition: This study provides estimates of how employment and other aspects of the U.S. economy would be affected if the U.S. public begins to switch to a more plant-forward diet.
Research To Support A Global Community
- Globalizing The Factory Farm: International Organizations And The Spread Of Industrial Animal Agriculture: In this report, we examine the role of international organizations in the expansion of industrial animal agriculture across low- and middle-income countries, as well as the factors that influence their financial support to the animal agriculture industry.
- How To Message Plant-Based Diets And Products In Southeast Asia: Southeast Asia is a critical region for animal advocacy, especially for plant-based diet change. This social media analysis, a Faunalytics/Good Growth Co. collaboration, identifies key audiences there, examines their influences, and pinpoints messages that may resonate best.
- Cross-Movement Collaboration For Farmed Animal Advocates In Southeast Asia: This study, a Faunalytics/Good Growth Co. collaboration, provides insights to help animal advocates collaborate effectively and strategically with the environmental movement and health and development movement in Southeast Asia.
Research To Engage Youth & Grow Our Movement
- Exploring The Impacts Of Food System Education: Our case study with New Roots Institute provides insight into the effects of a food system education program on students’ career and education paths, advocacy, and morals related to meat consumption.
- Exploring Gen Z’s Attitudes Towards Animals And The Environment: This multinational study, a Faunalytics/Good Growth Co. collaboration, examines Gen Z’s attitudes, motivations, career considerations, and barriers to action, offering insights for those looking to engage and support the next generation of advocates.
- From Performative To Transformative: Navigating Equity & Inclusion Across A Diverse Animal Advocacy Movement: This report explores how farmed animal advocacy orgs can meaningfully integrate equity and inclusion into their missions and practices without compromising strategic clarity.
Knowledge Curation
Sharing Accessible New Resources For Advocates
- Research Library: Our collection of summaries of external research surpassed an exciting milestone this year: 6,000 entries! This makes our Library the world’s largest, freely accessible online collection of research on every animal advocacy issue you can think of, where we focus on providing reliable, actionable takeaways for advocates.
- Tactics In Practice Series (TIPs): In this resource series, we provide overviews that delve into all the best research behind one popular advocacy intervention at a time. This year we added four new TIPs editions to our collection on the science behind protests and demonstrations, vegan challenges, documentaries and videos, and how to make and keep a vegan.
- Fundamentals & Factsheets: Faunalytics’ Fundamentals are long-form infographics that synthesize all the best available data on a given topic. This year we launched our new Aquaculture Fundamentals, which looks at the global industry from every angle, including antibiotic use, environmental impact, and animal welfare. We also published a new factsheet to help advocates understand the expanding market for ethical companion animal food.
- The Faunalytics Blog: Our blog may be the best-kept secret in our treasure trove of resources. Unlike the rest of our work that focuses solely on research findings, our blog is a blend of data and thought leadership. Some of our favorite blogs this year focused on advocate well-being, such as:
- Translated Resource Hub: Faunalytics strives to ensure that our research and resources are accessible — in every sense of the word. As such, we’ve been growing our selection of translated resources to better support advocates around the world.
Knowledge Application
Helping Advocates Turn Insights Into Action
- Office Hours: We provided one-on-one support to almost 100 advocates and organizations this year via our Office Hours, which are available in multiple time zones to support advocates around the globe! Check out our impact report: Five Years Of Faunalytics’ Office Hours: Feedback From Advocates.
- Ambassador Outreach Presentations: Our Research Ambassadors provided customized presentations to several organizations this year, bringing the project’s total to 807 new advocates engaged with our work!
- Research Webinars: We published a companion webinar for seven of our original studies this year, where we discuss implications for research in the real world alongside our fellow advocates.
- Fauna Connections: We held our fourth annual virtual research symposium! An incredible 459 advocates from 61 different countries attended live to hear 16 researchers present their latest findings to support animal protection efforts. This year’s keynote speaker was Dr. Faraz Harsini, founder of Allied Scholars for Animal Protection, who talked about how focusing on universities and promoting veganism through a systematic, data-driven approach can create meaningful and lasting change.
- FAST Academy Research Course: We teamed up with the Farmed Animal Strategic Team to provide a free course on “Using Research in Animal Advocacy.” In less than an hour, advocates can learn how to use research to supercharge their activism, including where to find data, how to understand it, and importantly, how to apply it to their advocacy.
In The Community
Faunalysts In The Spotlight & Behind The Curtain
- Conferences & Workshops: This year our Executive Director, Brooke, gave a keynote speech at the PHAIR Society’s Animal Advocacy Conference in Edinburgh, which called for more collaboration between the advocacy and academic communities. Our team also presented research at several other conferences, including the Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit, the Animal Law Conference, and the Vegan and Animal Rights Conference.
- Researcher Collaboration: The movement’s research ecosystem is growing, and we’re thrilled to be part of it! We co-lead the RECAP collective of researchers focused on ending the consumption of animal products, as well as monthly inter-organizational research meetings. Our Research Director also presented to the Network for Sustainable Food Transitions, a new network supporting early-career researchers.
- Summer Fellows: In partnership with the Reducetarian Foundation, Faunalytics hosted two young fellows this year. Fellow Teagan supported Faunalytics’ fundraising efforts, while fellow Ian helped bring our Aquaculture Fundamentals to life. We’re excited to support emerging advocates and can’t wait to see what they do next.
- Volunteer Network: This year, 96 incredible volunteers contributed over 1,300 hours of their time to our organization. From writing for our Research Library to offering cybersecurity training to providing specialized advice and support to our team, we’re incredibly grateful for their dedication and contributions to our work.
- Newest Faunalyst: In January we welcomed our new Research Director, Dr. Allison Troy, to the team! Allison has been a phenomenal addition to Faunalytics, overseeing our research projects while making improvements to our impact measurement processes, our prioritization process, and more.
Making An Impact For Animals
How Faunalytics Advances Animal Advocacy
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people use Faunalytics’ work to inform their animal advocacy. Our annual Community Survey helps us assess our impact: how our work is being used by our audience, and how we can improve to better support the movement. We’re thrilled to share the following highlights from this year’s survey:
- 98% of survey participants agreed that our work is high quality.
- 83% thought our work is either extremely or very valuable to improving animal advocacy.
- 77% of the sample agreed that Faunalytics’ work has helped guide their advocacy decisions.
- 79% said that Faunalytics’ work has improved their own or their organization’s advocacy efforts.
- 70% agreed that Faunalytics’ work has helped them or their organization reduce suffering and save animal lives, something we’re very proud of as a capacity-building organization that works behind the scenes.
Faunalytics has consistently provided us with sound, actionable advice on how to best reach our audience and prioritize data-driven strategies. Your insights have helped us not only improve our outreach but also ensure that our efforts are as effective and impactful as possible.
Working with Faunalytics was incredibly helpful...Their support gave us a much clearer understanding of how to collect meaningful data and evaluate the impact our program has on students over time.
Faunalytics’ work has been key to strengthening our advocacy work. The research articles have allowed us to back up our campaigns with reliable data, which substantially improves the quality of the messages we share with decision-makers, the media and the general public.
Thanks to Faunalytics’ work, we’ve also begun adopting a more data-driven approach in planning our future advocacy, including surveys to assess community attitudes before and after campaigns. Overall, Faunalytics has made our work more strategic, informed, and ultimately more compassionate toward the animals we strive to protect.
When we need reliable statistics to support our work, we turn to Faunalytics. Your research allows us to be more confident about the accuracy of the data we share and helps ensure that the materials we publish are credible and well-supported.
As an academic, I find that Faunalytics are often ahead of the curve in terms of identifying and researching the needs of the animal advocacy movement. Faunalytics helps me to stay up-to-date with the current direction of the movement so that I can tailor the research I chose to do. This helps my work to have a greater, more meaningful impact.
I am always awestruck by the quality of Faunalytics’ work as well as enchanted by the staff members I have met. I am so grateful for this organization, all the incredibly important and freely accessible information you provide, the warmth in collaboration and mutual support you share and offer, and the inspiration I always feel from working with you! Thank you, Faunalytics!
Our Vision For The Future
Faunalytics’ Plans For 2026 & Beyond
2026 Research Projects & Plans
As we look ahead, 2026 will bring yet another year of groundbreaking new research and resources from Faunalytics. Read on for a sneak peek of what we have in store.
Research To Improve Advocacy Strategies & Messages
- Testing The Short-Term & Long-Term Impact Of Different Approaches To Advocacy: Our previous study, The Impact Of Diet & Different Animal Advocacy Tactics, compared the short-term impact of advocacy tactics on people’s behaviors towards farmed animals, including animal product consumption. This follow-up experiment will assess the short-term and long-term impact of a wide variety of animal advocacy tactics on a wider variety of key outcomes, including dietary change, consumer choices, advocacy engagement, and moral concern for animals.
- Public Understanding Of “Factory Farming”: Animal advocates in the U.S. commonly use the term “factory farming” to describe industrial animal agriculture, while the industry tends to use other terms (e.g., “feedlot,” “concentrated animal feeding operation,” etc.). This study will determine whether use of certain terms would change the public’s general concern for animal welfare, for better or for worse, which could directly inform communications strategies for advocates.
Research Synthesis & New Databases
- Going Vegan: A Review Of Global Rates: This systematic review aims to synthesize existing global data on the prevalence and trends of veganism and related diets. The findings and accompanying infographics produced by this project will be important for informing and guiding advocacy strategies and can be used to pinpoint areas where more data and investigation are needed.
- Investigations Index: We will create a database of investigations the movement has done over the past several decades, across species and industries, and analyze the data to understand what types of investigations are most likely to lead to positive outcomes. The resulting database itself will be a searchable and sortable historical record of one of the movement’s key tactics for change.
Research To Support Global Advocacy
- Brazilian Voters’ Response To Pro-Animal Candidates: Elected officials have the power to institute policies that can benefit huge numbers of animals. However, many politicians may be hesitant to talk about issues that affect animals for fear of blowback. In a follow-up to our study of U.S. voters, we’ll explore how political candidates can effectively discuss animal welfare and farming subsidies in Brazil to gain voter support.
- Understanding How India’s Gen Z Shapes Family Food Choices: This study seeks to understand the evolving power dynamics within Indian families: what do Gen Z eat, what do they value when it comes to food choices, and how do they influence household consumption patterns? This study will provide actionable insights into how advocacy groups can leverage Gen Z’s growing role as household tastemakers to accelerate the adoption of plant-based foods in India.
- Co-Creating A Research Agenda To Improve Evidence-Based Strategies In China: China plays a pivotal role in global animal welfare progress, but effective advocacy pathways remain insufficiently mapped. This project, a Faunalytics/Good Growth Co. collaboration, aims to bring advocates and researchers together to co‑set an actionable research agenda and to make sure findings are relevant, credible, and easy to use. We’ll work closely with animal advocates in China to learn what kind of research will be the most useful in their work.
- Contextual Advocacy For Food Systems In The Global South: This exploratory study, a Faunalytics/Good Growth Co. collaboration, seeks to improve the cultural and strategic alignment of animal advocacy efforts across the Global South. Advocacy aimed at food system transformation often relies on global narratives, which may not resonate with local contexts. This research seeks to bridge the gap by developing a framework that helps advocates integrate key contextual factors into their campaigns.
And that’s not all! We’re currently assessing impact potential for several additional research study ideas. If you’re an animal advocate with a research “wish list,” reach out to our Research Director, Allison, to pitch your study idea for our future consideration.
2026-2030 Strategic Priorities
In addition to conducting new Original Research and adding new resources to our Library, our work in 2026 will be driven by Faunalytics’ four core strategic priorities, each designed to strengthen the global animal advocacy movement.
- Coordinate: Catalyze coordination and growth within the animal protection research community.
- Curate: Enhance access to high-quality, synthesized, context-relevant research.
- Collaborate: Accelerate the production and application of research in collaboration with advocates in the U.S., Brazil, China, and India.
- Capture: Strengthen evaluation processes to improve strategic decision-making and long-term impact for animals.
These strategies are a direct response to community feedback and needs identified in our Research And Data As Tools In Advocates’ Decision-Making studies, which highlight a demand for more synthesized, visual, and contextually applicable resources. Our 25-year track record provides the foundation for this evolution, and our new Strategic Initiatives are the next step in our data-driven mission to empower animal advocates with research to end animal suffering. Learn more about our strategy and room for funding here.
Support Animal Advocacy Research
Our Work Is Made Possible Thanks To Advocates Like You
We are deeply grateful to our community of advocates, researchers, volunteers, and supporters, whose passion fuels our work and whose dedication helps us amplify our impact for animals. With your continued support, Faunalytics can keep driving meaningful change for animals. As we look to the future, let’s work together toward a shared vision: to create a world in which advocates no longer need our data because animals no longer need advocates. We invite you to join us in our mission to provide the research, insights, and strategies animal advocates depend on to be as effective as possible. Together, this is a future we can create. Thank you for being a vital part of Faunalytics, and for standing with us as we work to end animal suffering.
