The Animal Welfare Evidence Centre is a partnership between FOUR PAWS UK, RSPCA, Compassion in World Farming and Humane World for Animals UK. Together, we bring together academic expertise, policy insight and sector partners to deliver impactful, policy-relevant research.
The Centre was founded in 2025 thanks to the generosity of a transformational gift from the Katherine Martin Charitable Trust. It was created to generate and share knowledge and evidence on human attitudes, behaviours and systems that have a bearing on animal welfare.
The Centre aims to fill significant evidence gaps in the animal welfare sector, which currently lacks the robust research, insight and evidence common in other preventative fields, such as public health and smoking.
We will focus research on the causes of human harm towards animals, and work collaboratively with partners within and without the animal welfare field to drive long-term change.
The Centre doesn’t take an advocacy or campaigning role. Instead, it produces robust evidence for others to take forward, pushing for and developing better intervention strategies.
To improve the welfare of animals
To understand the causes of harm to animals and how to prevent it.
Foster sector collaboration
To convene animal welfare organisations and partners from other fields to build a robust, shared evidence base that supports more informed decision-making across the sector.
Inform policy and practice
To provide independent, actionable data to help other organisations influence government policy, legislation, and public engagement, without the Centre pursuing advocacy directly.
Understand attitudes and cultural norms
To deepen the understanding of how public, popular, media, and political beliefs shape human-animal relationships and behaviour.
Apply a systemic lens
To situate animal welfare within the broader socio-economic and policy landscape (for example, housing, health, and the economy) to demonstrate its interconnectedness with other social goals.
This is the first report for the Animal Welfare Evidence Centre (‘The Centre’) looking at reported offences against animals in Great Britain. It establishes the baseline data that will be used in the final report to estimate the economic cost of this issue.
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