Use the evidence to decide where to focus next
Our estimates, concepts and tools are free to use in your campaigns, grant evaluations and reports, and you don't need to contact us first. The same estimate can support different priorities: one group may focus on the most intense pain, even if few animals are affected; another may focus on milder pain that affects many. We publish the evidence in a form you can weigh yourself (We Measure the Evidence. You Make the Call.).
WFI provides estimates and methods. The same estimates, and the same terms of use, apply to everyone who uses them: NGOs, producers, retailers, funders and researchers. Decisions on strategy rest with you. Where our work receives funding support, funders have no role in methods, data or conclusions.
The metric
The Welfare Footprint Framework measures welfare as time spent in experiences of different intensity. A Pain-Track shows how long an animal spends in each of four bands (Annoying, Hurtful, Disabling, Excruciating). A Pleasure-Track does the same for positive experiences. We report intensity, duration and prevalence separately, so no weighting is hidden in a single score and you can apply your own.
Intensity and duration are estimated by synthesizing behavioural, neurophysiological, pharmacological and evolutionary evidence against defined criteria, and are expressed as probabilities across four intensity categories rather than a single value. Prevalence comes from epidemiological evidence; where data are thin, it is given as an uncertainty interval. Each parameter is treated as a hypothesis with a stated uncertainty, and is updated as evidence accumulates. The main limitations, mostly sparse data on timing and prevalence, are set out in the FAQ. The framework does not prescribe whether to improve current systems or move away from them. It makes the welfare consequences of each option comparable. The method is the same for every estimate. What varies is the scope (species, system, life stages and region), and each estimate states its boundaries.
Start here: What is a welfare footprint? · The framework · Pain intensities
1. Finding what has been estimated
Start with what has already been published.
- Broiler chickens: Slower-growing breeds · Poultry slaughter
- Laying hens: Transition to cage-free systems · Laying hen mortality · The Welfare Footprint of the Egg
- Pigs: Productivity and mortality of sows (a cross-country analysis of production data)
- Farmed fish: Fish welfare at slaughter · Welfare of farmed fish · Atlantic salmon
- Shrimp: Whiteleg shrimp
- Wild animals: Cumulative Pain and wild animal welfare assessments
- All species: the Estimates Dossier, still being built, will list the species, life stages and welfare challenges for which estimates exist or are under way.
If there's no estimate yet, you can draft a first pass. The AI-Assisted Tools take you through the framework in order:
- Zootechnical Mapper: the conditions animals live in.
- AffectMap: what animals experience as a result.
- Hedonic-Track: a first-pass Pain-Track.
- Epidemiology for Animal Welfare: how many animals are affected, and how often.
If you are comparing species, use Interspecific Affect. Outputs are drafts, not WFI estimates, so have an expert review them before you rely on them.
Look at intense pain, not Excruciating pain alone. The Excruciating share is usually the least certain part of an estimate. Disabling pain is also severe, and it often lasts far longer. For example, a slower-growing broiler breed averts an estimated 25 [5 to 45] seconds of Excruciating pain per bird, but 33 [13 to 53] hours of Disabling pain. Considering the two bands together gives a more robust comparison.
Check for downstream effects. A reform that lowers mortality or speeds up growth can remove a limit on production, which may mean more animals or more intensive farming. It helps to ask:
- Does the reform ease a condition that currently limits production?
- If so, how will producers respond?
- Will the number of animals farmed change?
- Taking every effect into account, is welfare better than it would most likely be without the reform?
2. Reading the estimates alongside cost
Welfare magnitude is the scale input in a prioritisation. It tells you how much pain a reform prevents per animal, not whether the reform is tractable, cost-effective or would have happened anyway.
- The Welfare Impact Calculator combines Pain-Tracks, prevalence, mortality and productivity into Cumulative Affect estimates for a baseline and its alternatives. Results depend on the values you enter and are your own analysis, not WFI estimates.
3. Other uses
Because the estimates express pain as time at a defined intensity, they can also be used in negotiations, legislation and legal settings.
4. Cite and report
- Give the range, and keep "at least" where an estimate is a minimum.
- Match the scope: species, system, region, comparison and conditions.
- If you scale a per-animal estimate up to a population total, state the prevalence and population figures you used and their source.
- Use specific comparisons instead of labels like "animal-friendly".
- Name and link the source.
- Outputs of the AI-Assisted Tools are not WFI estimates. Cite them as your own preliminary assessment, produced with WFI tools, and record the tool name, access date and URL.
- Present results as scientific findings. Avoid wording or logos that suggest WFI certifies or endorses anything. A finding about a production system does not verify a specific company or product.
- Where rules on consumer-facing claims apply, check compliance separately.
Keep going
- Learn the method: Workshops · Teaching materials · Office Hours
- Speed up an estimate your work depends on: Funding and philanthropy. Support brings a public estimate sooner.
- Tell us which estimate would change your next decision, or how you've used one, using the form below.
Your question
Or email contact@welfarefootprint.org.
Have you used the Welfare Footprint Framework or WFI's estimates? Give us your testimony.