The Best and Worst Countries For Animal Rights

What are animal rights? Generally, this is the view that all animals should be admitted to the identical basic level of empathy as humans. The acceptance is that animals are not only ownership - they are breathing, living beings that can feel pain. Acknowledging this is one of the most basic principles of animal rights. 

Some people associated with the animal rights movement, like vegans, go even further by blaming all animal by-products, including dairy and leather. They are against that even if pets are given superior treatment all of their lives and killed humanely, they shouldn't have their lives terminated by humans. These people are usually against hunting, selective breeding for goals other than the animal's well-being, medical experiments, killing animals for food or clothing, using animals for difficult manual work, zoological garden, and animals practiced in amusement.

The Swiftest ranked 65 countries with available data to see which are the best and worst for animal rights in 2021. "Animal Rights Index" was created using nine factors, giving equal weight to the first four factors and half weight to the remaining five factors. Higher scores are better in terms of animal rights.

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To determine each country's Animal Rights Score, we examined and combined the following metrics:

• Recognition of Animal Sentience (total weight): Acknowledgement that animals feel pleasure and pain
• Recognition of Animal Suffering (total weight): Acknowledgement that animals should not needlessly suffer
• Recognition of Animal Suffering (total weight): Acknowledgement that animals should not needlessly suffer
• Any Laws Against Animal Cruelty (total weight): Any official laws regarding animal cruelty
• Fur Bans (total weight): Bans on fur farming or partial bans on farming furs of specific animals
• Support for the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare (half weight): Pledged support for the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare, an agreement proposed to the United Nations to recognize that animals are sentient, to prevent cruelty and reduce animal suffering, and to promote standards for the welfare of animals including wildlife, farm animals, pets, and animals involved in scientific research
• Meat Consumption per Capita in Kilograms (half negative weight)
• Percentage of Terrestrial Protected Areas (half weight): Percentage of total land area that is classified as totally or partially protected areas of at least 1,000 hectares that the government designates as national parks, national monuments, wildlife sanctuaries, nature reserves, protected landscapes, and scientific reserves with limited public access
• Kilograms of Pesticides per Hectare of Cropland (half negative weight)
• Environmental Performance Score (half weight): A Yale University ranking of 32 factors to determine environmental health and ecosystem vitality.

10 Nations With the Worst Animal Rights

1. China: 12.46
2. Vietnam: 45.24
3. Iran: 71.40
4. Azerbaijan: 73.07
5. Belarus: 105.65
6. Algeria: 124.13
7. Mali: 165.88
8. Ethiopia: 176.02
9. Russia: 207.96
10. Egypt: 219.39

10 Nations With the Best Animal Rights
1. Luxembourg: 519.68
2. The U.K.: 506.36
3. Austria: 501.73
4. Czech Republic: 498.66
5. Belgium: 488.86
6. Croatia: 486.36
7. Sweden: 478.10
8. The Netherlands: 470.43
9. Bulgaria: 464.66
10. Switzerland: 463.18