Most UK Meat-Eaters Find Factory Farming Unacceptable, Vegan Society Survey Suggests

From vegconomist.com

Factory farming of animals for food is unacceptable to 65% of UK adults, according to the second edition of The Vegan Society’s Empathy Index, a survey in which 82% of the 2,000 respondents eat meat. Those figures mean that, at a minimum, more than half of the meat-eaters surveyed object to the system that produces most of the UK’s meat. Citing Compassion in World Farming data, the charity states that 85% of UK farmed animals are factory farmed.

The UK charity added two farming questions to the index this year. The second found that 23% of respondents consider organic animal farming unacceptable. The factory farming result is close to recent research by Project Phoenix, which found that 67% of UK adults see factory farming as morally wrong or concerning. The same research found that 96% of UK adults either do not know how many animals are factory farmed or underestimate the number.

Image: Joachim Suss on Unsplash

Opposition to cosmetics testing climbs

The index was first run in 2024 and has used the same method in both waves. A nationally representative sample rates 29 forms of animal use on a four-point scale, from “completely acceptable” to “completely unacceptable.” Between 2024 and 2026, opposition to testing cosmetic ingredients on animals rose from 84% to 87%, a statistically significant increase. Among female respondents the figure was 90%. Testing medicines on animals was considered unacceptable by 71%.

Home Office figures show 2.54 million procedures on animals in the UK in 2025. That was the year the government published a roadmap to phase out animal testing. The Vegan Society says many products marketed as cruelty-free still contain animal-derived ingredients, such as collagen, keratin and beeswax. The charity has studied this labelling problem in its earlier consumer research on vegan cosmetics.

The largest change in the index concerned greyhound racing. The share of people who find it unacceptable rose from 55% to 60%. The Welsh and Scottish parliaments passed bills to ban the sport in March 2026.

Wool and horse riding remain widely accepted

Hunting deer is now unacceptable to 77% of respondents, up from 74%. Hunting foxes with dogs is unacceptable to 87%. The three least accepted activities were dog fighting, bullfighting and fox hunting with dogs, all of which are illegal in the UK.

At the other end of the scale, the three most accepted uses were riding horses, using animals in film and TV, and wearing sheep’s wool. The number of people who find zoo visits acceptable also rose, from 77% to 79%. Meanwhile, 85% of respondents called themselves animal lovers and 3% did not.

“The forms of animal use that we track in the Empathy Index are not all the same; some cause much greater suffering than others. However, we want to challenge the idea that animals exist to satisfy the needs and wants of humans,” the Vegan Society said.

https://vegconomist.com/studies-numbers/most-uk-meat-eaters-find-factory-farming-unacceptable-vegan-society-survey-suggests/