Sometimes we are told that someone ‘loves’ ‘their’ animals, or that they ‘treat them well’, but the claim that is always shouted from the rooftops is the one about ‘high welfare standards’. These claims may come from people in a wide range of situations, from those who exploit reproduction for breast milk or eggs, to those who use other individuals for ‘entertainment’ or forced labour, or those who ‘farm’ the living in order to sell corpses for profit, and everything in between. Those who want us to consider the term significant, use it every time they get an opportunity for publicity, regardless of the question, regardless of the conversation. It’s their answer to everything.

Those who share their life or home with nonhuman family members,  and those who rescue members of other species from abusive situations (not only caused by our species but most frequently by those mentioned in…