World Animal Day: tracking the animal rights movement’s growing presence in European politics

World Animal Day, held on 4 October, is intended to highlight animal rights issues and motivate governments to provide greater protection to animals across the world. To mark the occasion, Manès Weisskircher writes on the growth of the animal rights movement in Europe. He argues that while animal advocates have a wide variety of goals, their relevance to European politics has largely been overlooked by political scientists, and that cultural changes over time are likely to increase the salience of animal rights issues in the coming years.