In anticipation of the upcoming Christians for Impact 2024 conference, we spoke with Vesa Hautala about why animal advocacy has become one of the organisation’s top focus areas. Christians for Impact, dedicated to helping Christians tackle pressing global issues, sees animal welfare—especially for farmed animals—as a vital yet often overlooked area for impactful action. In this interview, Vesa shares insights into CFI’s approach, the theological foundations that guide their work, and practical steps Christians can take to make a difference for animals in their daily lives and communities.
Christians for Impact has made animal advocacy one of its top focus areas. Could you tell us more about why this issue is so important to your organisation and how it aligns with your mission?
Christians for Impact helps Christians use reason and evidence to find the best ways to tackle pressing global problems, especially with their careers. We’re interested in maximum-impact opportunities, which generally involve tackling problems that are:
- Large in scale
- Relatively neglected
- Solvable – good solutions exist.
Animal welfare, especially farmed animal welfare, is all of these.
The scale is vast.
About 80 billion land animals are slaughtered for food annually and often they live their short lives in miserable conditions.
Yet farmed animal welfare is relatively neglected: farmed animals receive only a few percent of all animal welfare directed donations.
Effective ways to take action exist, for example through dietary change, advocating for animal-friendly government policies, and campaigning to get corporations to switch off from some of the worst animal products like eggs from caged hens.
Credit: We Animals Media
What are some of the major challenges you’ve encountered in promoting animal advocacy within the Christian community, and how has Christians for Impact helped to address these?
We haven’t received much backlash.
Part of it is likely that the people who come to our advising and interact with our resources generally see animal welfare as a good thing and don’t feel like pushing back when they see it included among our top focus areas.
The biggest challenge is prioritisation of the issue.
Animal suffering and mistreatment simply is not on the radar of most Christians.
Some Christians have questions about the prioritisation between humans and animals—some wonder whether it makes sense to spend limited resources on helping animals when so many humans are suffering.
The question of dividing charitable resources between different causes is a tricky one, and we discuss it here.
How does your faith inform your work on animal advocacy? Are there any specific theological insights or teachings that guide your work in this area?
The Bible is a core foundation for CFI. Broadly speaking, our theological approach is that animals are valuable as beings created by God and the Bible contains several passages that speak of God’s care for animals and instruct humane treatment of animals.
The angle of dominion is crucial.
In the Genesis creation account, the position of humans with respect to animals seems to parallel God’s rule over creation.
We should aspire to reflect the kind of care God has for his creation in our relationship with animals.
Another perspective I personally find important is respect for God’s creation.
Cramming chickens into cages where they can’t even spread their wings seems inherently disrespectful towards beings created by God, especially when the reason for such treatment is just wanting cheaper meat.
The 2024 conference will bring together people with diverse interests and missions. How will animal advocacy be featured during the event, and what do you hope attendees will take away from it?
Dr. Dustin Crummet will be speaking about Biblical and theological reasons for helping non-human animals. Sarx will be giving a lightning talk, and animal welfare donations platform FarmKind will be joining our Organization Fair.
Perhaps some attendees will be inspired or equipped to find a career in animal welfare.
Encounters at the conference might give some people the push they need to change their diets—this happened to me a few years back when I was attending a conference organized by CFI’s project, Effective Altruism for Christians.
Looking ahead, what are your hopes for the future of animal welfare advocacy within the Christian community? Are there any particular initiatives or goals Christians for Impact is working towards?
Animal cruelty will remain one of our top cause areas and we hope to help Christians tackle it as impactfully as possible. In five years we hope we will have mentored over 1,000 impact-driven Christians, including several hundred who ranked animal cruelty as among their top priorities.
In the broader Christian community, I would personally like to see more engagement from the conservative end of the theological and political spectrums. It exists already, but I think there’s potential for more.
Historically, the rising movement against animal cruelty in the 19th century was spearheaded by evangelical Christians.
What are some practical steps Christians can take to make a difference in animal advocacy, both individually and as part of their church communities?
Donating to effective charities working on animal welfare is among the most impactful things someone can do. Even small donations could impact the lives of several animals. For example, the Humane League’s cage-free corporate campaigns may reduce the amount of time hens spend in battery cages by over ten life-years per pound spent.
Personal dietary choices can also be impactful. We recommend that Christians who want to reduce animal suffering eat a vegan or at least effective reducetarian diet, which means cutting out the animal products that cause the most suffering to animals (e.g. cutting out chicken, pork and fish).
For those who want to use their careers to help animals, we have recommendations on some effective ways to do so on our website.
To find out more about Christians for Impact’s work and how you can get involved in animal advocacy, visit their website or follow them on social media for updates on impactful projects and upcoming events. If you’re attending the Christians for Impact 2024 conference, be sure to check out the sessions and opportunities focused on animal welfare, where you can meet others passionate about making a difference for God’s creation. Together, we can take meaningful steps toward a more compassionate world.
