The 2025 Progress Report: Animal Welfare & Workplaces
Animal Welfare
From Activist Demand to Law
California's Proposition 12 Stands Strong: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to review California's Proposition 12 wasn't just a legal technicality. It was a confirmation that consumers have the right to demand better. The law bans the sale of pork from pigs confined in gestation crates, those metal cages barely larger than the animals themselves. Iowa's pork industry challenged it. The Court declined to hear the case. And California's standards (standards that 63% of voters supported) remain intact. California is the fourth-largest economy in the world. When it sets animal welfare standards, the market follows.
Switzerland Mandates Transparency: On July 1, 2025, Switzerland introduced mandatory labeling for animal products tied to painful procedures performed without anesthesia. Dehorning, castration, tail docking (practices the industry prefers consumers not think about) now appear on labels and menus. Transparency isn't a solution, but it's a prerequisite for change. Swiss consumers can now make fully informed choices about the products they bring home.
Poland Phases Out Fur Farming: Poland (one of Europe's largest fur producers) passed legislation to phase out fur farming entirely. No new farms will be established, and existing operations face closure. The decision reflects growing acknowledgment that farming animals solely for luxury fashion accessories sits uneasily with contemporary values.
Mexico Constitutionalizes Animal Protection: Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum signed constitutional reforms on December 2, 2024, adding animal protection to the constitution. The changes took effect December 3, establishing animal welfare as a constitutional right for the first time in Mexican history. The reforms empower Congress to create Mexico's first national animal protection law, mandate animal welfare education in schools, and prohibit animal mistreatment at the federal level. Constitutional protection creates legal infrastructure for enforcement and accountability. It marks Mexico as the tenth country to include animal protection in its constitution.
Other Notable Wins:
California passed legislation restricting third-party pet brokers and banning cat declawing except when medically necessary, taking effect in 2026.
Captain Paul Watson announced Iceland canceled its whale hunt for 2025, the result of decades of direct action. Hundreds of endangered fin whales continue swimming free.
The CDC announced it will phase out all experiments on monkeys, acknowledging that primate research has repeatedly failed to produce human-relevant results.
Denny's and IHOP committed to stop purchasing from suppliers that cage pregnant pigs.
Ethical Workplaces
Where Production Meets Responsibility
Green Buildings Deliver Results: Companies implementing biophilic design (integrating natural light, living walls, and organic materials) report measurably happier employees. One study found 93% of workers in environmentally friendly offices feel more satisfied in their roles. Employees at companies prioritizing sustainability demonstrate 16% higher productivity than counterparts at less environmentally conscious organizations.
Mental Health and ESG Move Center Stage: Progressive organizations now offer comprehensive mental health support including virtual therapy access, financial literacy workshops, and manager education on recognizing burnout. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks (once relegated to corporate social responsibility departments) moved into core business strategy. Approximately 78% of investors now demand ESG improvements even at the expense of short-term profits.
Worker Protections:
California signed AB 288 in September 2025, described as the most significant labor law reform in nearly a century. The legislation expands worker protections and establishes enforcement funding.
The UK's Employment Rights Act received Royal Assent on December 18, 2025, making dismissal for industrial action automatically unfair and establishing paternity leave as a day-one right.
Colorado and New York expanded state agency authority to penalize wage theft and publicize violations.
California's Garment Worker Protection Act (SB 62) held brands, manufacturers, and contractors jointly liable for wage theft throughout 2025.
Department of Labor investigations found garment workers producing clothing for major brands earning as little as $2.77 per hour, resulting in penalties and $3.8 million in back wages owed to hundreds of workers.
The Larger Movement
Progress happens when economic incentives finally align with ethical imperatives. When the cost of maintaining exploitative systems (whether in lost market access, talent flight, or reputational damage) exceeds the cost of change.
The fashion industry sits at the intersection of these issues. Poland's fur farming ban didn't emerge in a vacuum. It followed decades of consumers questioning whether luxury requires animal suffering, whether a coat's aesthetic value justifies the conditions under which it was produced.
When fashion houses can no longer hide behind supply chain complexity, they're forced to choose: transparent sourcing or reputational damage. Fashion's impact extends beyond the animals whose fur, leather, or wool becomes material. The same supply chains that obscure animal welfare often conceal labor exploitation. Fast fashion's entire model depends on this opacity.
The choices available in a closet reflect the values embedded in an economic system. Certified sustainable cashmere signals that someone verified the goats weren't subjected to harmful practices and the herders received fair compensation. Transparency about factory conditions means someone cared enough to investigate. These aren't abstract ethical considerations. They're material realities affecting living beings, human and non-human, whose experiences we've been conditioned to ignore in pursuit of trends and price points.
But legislation alone doesn't create transformation. The real shift happens in the thousands of daily decisions we make as consumers, employees, and citizens. Mindfulness in this context isn't about meditation apps or wellness retreats. It's about the practice of paying attention. Reading ingredient lists and fabric composition tags. Asking where products are made and under what conditions. Choosing companies that demonstrate actual commitment to sustainability over those that simply claim it. Understanding that convenience and low prices often come at someone else's expense, whether that someone has two legs or four.
Informed decision-making requires effort in an economy designed to obscure supply chains and externalize costs. But the information is increasingly available. Transparency laws, third-party certifications, investigative journalism, and advocacy organizations have created pathways to knowledge that didn't exist a decade ago. The question is whether we're willing to use them.
Every purchase is a vote for the system that produced it. Every decision to buy certified ethical materials over conventional alternatives tells brands what standards we expect. Every shareholder resolution, every letter to a legislator, every conversation about why certain choices matter contributes to shifting norms. Individual actions don't replace policy, but they create the cultural foundation that makes policy possible.
2025's victories aren't endpoints. They're proof that momentum exists, that change is possible, that the supposedly impossible just needs enough people deciding it's non-negotiable. The question isn't whether we can build better systems. It's whether we're willing to demand them.
And increasingly, the answer appears to be yes.
