Frequently Asked Questions
The Sentient Animal Law Foundation advocates for evolutionary legal reform that defines sentience by referencing animals’ negative and positive states in law, policy, practice, and international agreements. This reform creates a responsibility to provide opportunities for animals to experience positive states—such as comfort, interest, and pleasure—while continuing to protect them from cruelty.
This work matters to you because how we treat animals shapes not just their welfare but also our shared environment and economic and societal future. By supporting SAL, you’re advancing laws that create meaningful change for animals, people, and the world we live in.
The three-word law reform—"and positive states"—evolves existing animal welfare laws to create responsibilities for improving animals’ daily lives. This benefits animals by ensuring they have opportunities for comfort, interest, and pleasure, but it also strengthens sustainability, food security, and public trust in ethical care standards.
Your support helps drive this legal reform forward, ensuring that a sustainable economic, environmental, and societal future is built on responsible and ethical treatment of animals.
Many great organisations focus their resources on specific issues, such as rescue work, wildlife conservation, or farmed animal welfare. SAL takes a different approach—addressing the root of systemic challenges through legal reform that affects laws, policies, and international agreements.
By advocating for the three-word reform, SAL ensures that existing anti-cruelty laws evolve to create responsibilities for animals’ positive states. This is a fundamental shift in how we govern the human-animal relationship, benefiting not just animals but also people and society as a whole.
SAL ensures that kindness and responsibility are embedded into law, policy, and practice, not left to personal choice. The three-word law reform introduces a legal duty to provide opportunities for animals to experience positive states, shaping enforceable standards for housing, enrichment, and care.
Through engagement with policymakers, industry leaders, and international stakeholders, SAL’s advocacy ensures that evolving scientific understanding is reflected in enforceable, fit-for-purpose animal welfare laws.
SAL has already influenced the world’s first Positive Welfare law in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and contributed to Brexit negotiations to ensure the continued recognition of animal sentience in UK law. SAL has engaged with policymakers, industry leaders, and international stakeholders in Australia, New Zealand, and Europe to help them align their laws with modern science.
Additionally, SAL’s team has published, presented at conferences, and taught widely, influencing best practices across legal, academic, and policy fields. These achievements show that SAL’s vision is not just possible—it is already happening and can be replicated globally.
​About SAL and Our Mission
Animal welfare has historically been measured by the absence of pain, distress, and suffering. However, less pain is not the same as more pleasure. Animals are sentient, and their well-being includes not just reducing negative states but also providing opportunities for comfort, interest, and pleasure.
The three-word law reform creates a responsibility to provide these opportunities, ensuring that laws and policies reflect a full and accurate understanding of what animals need to experience well-being.
Most countries already recognise sentience through anti-cruelty laws, yet these laws only protect animals from unnecessary harm. The three-word reform—"and positive states"—evolves these laws by adding a duty to provide opportunities for animals to experience positive states.
Recognition alone doesn’t create meaningful change—what matters is whether the duty of care evolves beyond simply reducing harm to include providing conditions for well-being. This is the critical shift that SAL is advocating for.
Laws that focus only on preventing pain, distress, and suffering set minimum standards but do not require conditions that improve an animal’s well-being. A duty to provide opportunities for positive states—comfort, interest, and pleasure—ensures animals experience a higher standard of care.
This shift reflects an evolved social licence, ensuring that laws and policies align with modern science and societal expectations.
Scientific knowledge confirms that animals experience both negative and positive states, yet most laws only assign responsibilities for minimising negative experiences.
SAL’s advocacy for evolving laws to account for both negative and positive states ensures that standards of care align with modern science and that the social licence for industries relying on animals is strengthened and fit for purpose.
SAL is not a lawmaker, but it advocates for the evolution of laws to create responsibilities for providing opportunities for animals’ positive states.
By working with policy advisors, industry representatives, and government stakeholders, SAL works to ensure that welfare standards evolve in a way that benefits animals, people, and their shared environment.
​Understanding Sentience and Positive Animal Welfare
Animal welfare is not just about animals—it reflects our values as a society. The way animals are treated has direct implications for social responsibility, public trust, and ethical leadership. Humane treatment has historically meant "do not be cruel", but by evolving laws to also require providing opportunities for positive states, we move towards a more just and fair system.
Supporting SAL means helping ensure that kindness and fairness are embedded into laws, policies, and international agreements, making them part of the legal foundation that shapes how animals, and by extension society, are treated.
Providing animals with opportunities for positive states strengthens sustainable and ethical practices, benefiting ecosystems, food systems, and public health.
For example, evolving welfare standards in farming improves biosecurity, reduces reliance on antibiotics, and enhances environmental sustainability. In industries that depend on animals, ensuring well-being creates greater public trust and stronger regulatory compliance.
SAL’s work ensures that laws align with scientific, economic, and environmental best practices, leading to a healthier planet, stronger protections for animals, and a more sustainable future for everyone.
The way we treat animals is directly linked to environmental sustainability, resource use, and long-term planetary health. Outdated animal welfare laws often permit practices that contribute to climate and biodiversity loss, such as intensive farming methods that degrade land and require excessive water and energy.
Evolving laws to require opportunities for animals’ positive states creates a knock-on effect—improving sustainability, reducing environmental strain, and aligning agricultural, conservation, and climate policies. By supporting SAL, you help ensure that law and policy evolve in step with global environmental priorities.
The way we define animal welfare today sets the precedent for future generations. Laws that only prohibit cruelty reinforce a minimum standard, but by creating responsibilities for providing animals with positive experiences, we build a more ethical and sustainable framework for the future.
A world where positive animal welfare is the legal norm means stronger environmental protections, better food systems, and a society that values well-being, not just survival. Supporting SAL’s work ensures that future generations inherit a system that reflects modern science, ethics, and sustainability.
Animal welfare laws affect everyone. They influence public health, food safety, environmental sustainability, and international trade agreements. Laws that create responsibilities for positive states benefit society by ensuring:
Safer food systems—better welfare reduces disease risk and antibiotic resistance.
Sustainable industries—ensuring ethical treatment improves regulatory compliance and market access.
Ethical progress—a legal framework that reflects modern science creates a fairer society for all.
Even if you don’t work directly with animals, these laws impact the world we all live in. Supporting SAL’s advocacy ensures they evolve for the better.
​Relevance to People, Animals and the Environment
Many organisations work tirelessly to improve animal welfare, but lasting change requires legal evolution. SAL’s work creates the foundation for all animal welfare efforts by ensuring that laws, policies, and international agreements evolve to include responsibilities for animals’ positive states.
Supporting SAL strengthens all welfare initiatives, as legal protections enhance the effectiveness of rescue, advocacy, and environmental programmes. Your donation helps accelerate policy change, inform decision-makers, and create enforceable legal frameworks that improve animals’ lives well into the future.
You can play a vital role in advancing positive animal welfare laws by:
Advocating for the three-word reform—helping others understand why evolving welfare laws is essential.
Supporting legal advocacy—donating to SAL ensures that law and policy evolve to reflect modern science and ethical responsibility.
Engaging with policymakers—raising awareness among decision-makers about the importance of responsibilities for positive states.
Every action you take brings us closer to a world where animals are given a life enjoyed, not just endured.
SAL’s work is focused on legal evolution, and every donation goes towards achieving practical, measurable impact.
Contributions support:
Legal and policy advocacy—ensuring the three-word reform is embedded into laws and international agreements.
Public and stakeholder engagement—educating policymakers, industry leaders, and the public on why positive animal welfare matters.
Global alignment efforts—working with governments, organisations, and industry to promote evolved welfare standards in international policy.
Unlike short-term campaigns, SAL’s legal advocacy ensures that improvements are permanent and enforceable, creating a lasting legacy for animals and people alike.
Unlike organisations that focus on specific cases or rescue efforts, SAL works at the root of the issue—evolving the legal standards that shape how animals are treated.
Because SAL’s advocacy is focused on embedding responsibilities for positive states into law, every step forward creates a ripple effect—improving welfare standards across industries, strengthening protections for animals, and aligning practices with modern science.
Supporting SAL means backing a systemic solution—one that ensures positive animal welfare becomes a legal requirement, not just a voluntary choice.
SAL’s mission directly aligns with the values of kindness, fairness, and sustainability by ensuring that these principles are not just ideals—but legal obligations.
By supporting SAL, you are:
Advancing fairness—ensuring that laws evolve to reflect our responsibility to provide for animals’ well-being.
Promoting kindness—creating legal frameworks that require positive experiences for animals, not just freedom from harm.
Strengthening sustainability—ensuring that policies balance animal welfare with environmental and economic sustainability.
Backing SAL means helping to create a world where kindness is the default requirement, embedded in law, policy, and global practice.
​Getting Involved and Supporting Change
If you believe in fairness, responsibility, and ethical progress, then SAL’s mission aligns with your values.
A world where animals are given opportunities for comfort, interest, and pleasure is not just kinder—it’s more sustainable and reflective of modern scientific understanding. By embedding these responsibilities into law, SAL ensures that kindness and ethical treatment are not just ideals, but legal obligations.
By supporting SAL, you are helping to shape a world where compassion is reflected in enforceable policies, ensuring animals experience a life enjoyed, not just endured.
One of the most powerful actions you can take is supporting the implementation of the three-word law reform. You can do this by:
Sharing the message—helping others understand that less pain is not the same as more pleasure.
Donating to SAL—funding legal advocacy that ensures positive animal welfare becomes embedded in law and policy.
Engaging with policymakers—encouraging decision-makers to support responsibilities for animals’ positive states.
Even a small action today can contribute to permanent, meaningful change in how animals are treated tomorrow.
Positive Animal Welfare is not just about improving animals’ lives—it is directly linked to sustainability, environmental stewardship, and responsible resource use. When animals are cared for in ways that prioritise their well-being, ecosystems are protected, food systems become more sustainable, and industries align with ethical best practices.
Evolving laws to require opportunities for animals’ positive states contributes to more sustainable farming, stronger conservation efforts, and long-term environmental resilience. Supporting SAL’s advocacy ensures that animal welfare is part of the global sustainability agenda.
Supporting SAL means backing a movement that is already making an impact—from legal reforms in Australia to policy discussions in the UK and beyond.
Your involvement helps:
Advance international agreements—ensuring that animal welfare evolves in step with global ethical and sustainability goals.
Strengthen policy reform—helping create laws that require the provision of positive states for animals.
Amplify awareness—ensuring that more people understand that animal welfare is about more than just preventing cruelty—it’s about providing well-being.
By supporting SAL, you are joining a global effort to evolve laws, policies, and industry standards for lasting change.
Your support drives practical, measurable legal change that benefits animals, strengthens ethical practices, and ensures a sustainable future for people and the environment.
By backing SAL, you are:
Creating lasting legal protections for animals—ensuring they are given opportunities for positive experiences, not just protection from harm.
Strengthening ethical industries—aligning animal welfare with sustainable business practices and modern scientific understanding.
Building a fairer, kinder future—where animals, people, and the environment all benefit from legal frameworks that reflect shared responsibility.
By supporting SAL, you are helping to shape a world where animals are given a life enjoyed, not just endured—and that’s something worth fighting for.
​Inspiring Action