Perceptions of animals could be about to go through another step change. A recent campaign by two celebrity chefs and stories about 'clever things animals do' may trigger another shift in public attitudes.

Actions by animal rights campaigners often hit the headlines, but the extent to which their actions change public behaviour is often difficult to measure. The impact of a recent campaign against battery farmed chickens by two celebrity chefs in the UK was on the other hand very clear. Sales of free range chickens jumped 35% in a month over the previous year, with battery farmed sales falling sharply at the same time. Leading supermarkets are rushing to keep up with demand.

Several other stories about the 'clever things animals do that them more like us' will have contributed to the drip, drip, drip element of changing attitudes. The first was about a dolphin in New Zealand which communicated with two beached sperm whales. Local people had not managed to encourage / manoeuvre the whales back into the sea, but the dolphin led them back to safe waters.

A recent PhD thesis on shark behaviour has demonstrated that sharks are able to forecast storms and weather changes by responding to changes in water pressure. Research elsewhere into the behaviour and communication of putty nosed monkeys has shown that not only do they differentiate between predators in their calls, but by creating a specific pattern of calls - much like the basic building blocks of human language - they are able to persuade the group to move away together en masse.

Why is this important?

The implications of a seismic shift in attitudes would be enormous. A significant part of the pressure on food prices and the environment stem from animal production: this pressure would reduce significantly with a major shift away from meat eating in the West - despite its growth in emerging markets. Farming and food production would face a major restructuring exercise too.

R&D - already the target for protests - might need to be conducted in completely new ways. With the growing capabilities of biological modelling the need for animal testing may reduce. We might also see a growth in more human testing along the lines of recent drug tests on terminally ill cancer patients, and a change in attitudes to risks and rewards. Fashion may also be more in the firing line, along with any other sector reliant on animal products.

Slowly but steadily attitudes to animals are changing. The very slow, gradual nature of that change may disguise the potential for a more radical shift long term. The cumulative effects of underlying changes in attitudes mean that they are then ripe for a 'seismic shift', if the right trigger event arrives. Companies reliant on animal products will need to monitor the cumulative effects and scan the horizon for the triggers of seismic change. 

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