From 2008, beliefs about the importance of animal protection seems to have peaked in 2013. Levels of importance declined from there in 2016, and, with only a couple of exceptions, the levels went down further in 2019.
LINDA TYLER: ‘Anyone who studies animal issues recognizes that there is a disparity between people’s attitudes on the one hand and behavior toward non-human animals on the other. People also have widely varying levels of concern for different animals and different circumstances. For twelve years, animal advocates have relied on the Faunalytics Animal Tracker survey to understand those differences more deeply and follow how they’re changing over time.
For the 2019 Animal Tracker, the Following is the actual question that we ask every three years, most recently in April 2019: How important to you is the protection of animals when it comes to making the following personal choices? Attending circuses or rodeos; Buying clothing; Buying food (i.e., meat, eggs, dairy); Buying consumer products; Getting a new pet; Going hunting or fishing; Going to dog or horse races; Voting for a political candidate. (Scale: Very Important; Somewhat Important; Not Very Important; Not at All Important; Do Not Know)…
the 2019 results are consistent with past results. They show that, in the minds of U.S. adults, not all animals deserve the same degree of protection, or even the same type of animals in different situations. For example, while 80% of the respondents believe it is very or somewhat important to protect animals when buying a new pet, only 46% believe the same when going to dog or horse races—meaning that almost twice as many people believe dogs deserve protection when they are pets than when they are racers.
After pets, the next three highest levels of importance ratings were found in relation to protecting animals when buying animal-based food (72%), buying consumer products (64%), and buying clothing (59%). For all of the remaining activities, only about half of the respondents said they believed in the importance of protecting animals: going hunting or fishing (56%), voting for a political candidate (56%), attending circuses or rodeos (53%), and going to dog or horse races (46%)…
The Animal Tracker importance question has been asked five times, most recently in 2019, but also in 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2008. Overall, the importance ratings for most of the behaviors went down in 2019 compared with 2016, in two cases to their lowest point ever. Over the long term from 2008, beliefs about the importance of animal protection seems to have peaked in 2013. Levels of importance declined from there in 2016, and, with only a couple of exceptions, the levels went down further in 2019′. SOURCE…
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