Media inquiriescontact@welfarefootprint.org
Replies usually within two working days; faster on a stated deadline.
Interviews in English, Portuguese or Spanish.
The Welfare Footprint Institute (WFI) is a scientific research organization that quantifies what animals experience. We develop transparent methods for measuring the intensity and duration of negative and positive experiences. This makes animal welfare impacts easier to understand, compare, and use in decision-making.
Journalists can contact us for scientific commentary, background information, published research findings and data, or help finding researchers with relevant expertise.
The Welfare Footprint Institute (WFI) is an independent nonprofit research organisation that measures what animals experience. Its Welfare Footprint Framework expresses welfare as the time animals spend in pain or pleasure of different intensities, with the evidence and uncertainty behind every estimate made public. WFI's results are free to use.
The Welfare Footprint Institute (WFI) is an independent nonprofit research organisation founded in 2025 by the biologists Cynthia Schuck-Paim and Wladimir J. Alonso, who began the work as the Welfare Footprint Project. WFI develops and applies the Welfare Footprint Framework, a method that measures animal welfare as the time animals spend in negative and positive experiences of different intensities. Because time is a common unit, results can be compared across practices, production systems, interventions and prices. WFI has published open books on pain in laying hens and broiler chickens and peer-reviewed studies on fish slaughter, cattle heat stress and the cost of welfare reforms. It works with scientists, producers, policymakers, certifiers and animal protection organisations, provides evidence, and does not campaign, certify or take political positions. WFI is a US 501(c)(3) public charity; its reports, data and charts are openly licensed (CC BY 4.0).
Research highlight in Science, vol. 389: the Welfare Footprint Framework "facilitates calculation of the cumulative amount of time an animal spends in positive and negative affective states"; the trout study found "an average of 10 minutes of moderate to intense pain per fish".
Sentient MediaQuo / elDiario.esEcoWatchIl Fatto QuotidianoFocus
Zoologist (Oxford), nearly 100 publications, co-developer of the framework and lead author of the trout, broiler, laying-hen, cattle and Nature Food studies. Speaks to how pain is measured and what the numbers mean for fish, chickens, pigs and cattle.
Biologist, 20 years in evolution, animal behaviour and global health (NIH, WHO, CDC), more than 100 papers; conceived the Pain-Track approach. Speaks to the logic of the method, the digital tools, and the human-health side of animal farming.
WFI answers media questions in writing by default. Send your questions to contact@welfarefootprint.org or use the contact form.
Live or recorded appearances (television, radio, podcasts, panels) are exceptions and need WFI’s approval in advance.
Before any interview or information is provided, the journalist or outlet agrees in writing that WFI may review, before publication, the content that draws on WFI’s contribution: quotes, paraphrased statements, and descriptions of WFI findings or methods. WFI does not ask to review complete articles or programs.
The review
This is a standard requirement for all media engagements. If an outlet cannot agree to it, WFI will decline the request. For approved live or recorded appearances that cannot be reviewed in advance, WFI records the interaction and provides written clarifications afterward if needed.
If published coverage misreports WFI’s findings, methods, or statements, WFI will ask the outlet for a correction, stating the specific error and providing the supporting evidence.
