Cross-National Measures of the Treatment of Animals

Abstract

Abstract To conduct their work, Human-Animal Studies scholars, practitioners, and activists need to understand how different nations treat animals. Although extant cross-national measures of the treatment of animals are helpful, they are quantitatively unsophisticated, narrow in focus, and nontransparent. This paper offers a sounder methodology for measuring how nations treat animals. Using polychoric factor analysis of nine indicators that capture the treatment of animals in 154 nations, this study creates three new Treatment-of-Animals measures: Political-Commitment, Animal-Use, and a Composite-Score (the average between the previous two measures). A construct validity test demonstrates that all three measures are valid. The study then reports how different nations and regions fare on each measure and discusses important trends that these outcomes reveal. The paper concludes by explaining how scholars, practitioners, and activists will benefit from these new Treatment-of-Animals variables, and it confronts some limitations with these measures.