Research
Research at Farm Sanctuary
Farm Sanctuary’s sanctuary-based research program is a multidisciplinary program that, within a sanctuary framework and through a social justice lens, draws upon animal ethology, philosophy, animal welfare science, veterinary medicine, multi-species ethnography, and other disciplines. Our research aims to:
- support human understanding of the nature and lived experience of farm animals, as individuals and species;
- explore the mutually liberatory potential for human-animal relationships and community in a sanctuary setting; and
- support holistic emotional, social, physical, and community care; and explore radical modes of listening, observing, and understanding the expressed desires and agency of farm animals.
We recognize that research methods have the potential to perpetuate oppressive hierarchies and systemic inequity and injustice if researchers are not intentional about engaging in counter-oppressive research practices. Our mission is grounded in a commitment to continuously interrogate and evolve our methodology to counter potential harm and the perpetuation of oppression. That commitment includes, but is not limited to, working to ensure that our research approach counters practices that reflect the logic of human and white supremacy by centering racial justice and the care, needs, and interests of animal residents.
If you are interested in learning more about Farm Sanctuary's sanctuary-based research, please visit the links below!
Animal Emotion in Farmed Animal Welfare Assessment
Looking beyond the Shoal: Fish Welfare as an Individual Attribute
The Someone Project
To date, Farm Sanctuary has published four white papers on the inner lives of domestic pigs, chickens, cows, and sheep, exploring their relationships, emotions, social complexity, capacities, personalities, and more. Our hope is to inspire more people to see farmed animals as someone, not something, and to create a more compassionate world for animals, people, and the planet.
The Someone Project: Pigs
The Someone Project: Chickens
The Someone Project: Cows
The Someone Project: Sheep
The Current Study
Cattle (Bos taurus) are highly social ungulates that live in large groups structured both by dominance relationships, expressed through agonistic behavior, and preferential relationships, expressed through affiliative behavior (Bouissou & Boissy, 2005; Marino & Allen, 2017; Krahn et al., 2023; Hodgson et al., 2024). Revealing the intricacies of these relationships has the potential to transform public perception of cattle from food to sentient beings deserving of our regard (Morris et al., 2012).
With an estimated 1.65 billion individuals worldwide, cattle are the most abundant mammal beyond humans, accounting for approximately 38% of global mammalian biomass (FAOSTAT, 2026; Greenspoon et al., 2023). Given the dominion of commercial industries, most research on cattle behavior has been conducted under the unnatural, highly regulated conditions inherent in animal agriculture (Reinhardt et al., 1986; Marino & Allen, 2017; Hodgson et al., 2024). As a result, knowledge of cattle social bonds relies primarily on interactions between same-sex and age individuals who are subjected to artificial breeding cycles, exogenous growth promotion, overcrowding, frequent separation and confinement, and shortened life spans, all of which constrain natural social behavior (Drouillard, 2018), thereby limiting the generalizability of the findings and potentially underestimating the complexity of cattle social bonds under less intensive conditions.
Studying cattle social bonds at Farm Sanctuary, where diverse herds of domesticated cattle live in an environment that aims to fulfill their natural needs and preferences, will help close the research gap between feral and industry-controlled cattle. In this way, the results will reveal the inherent social tendencies of cattle, providing a baseline for comparison with cattle under unfavorable conditions. We hope to categorize certain cattle affiliative relationships as friendships, potentially establishing a common, accessible vocabulary to discuss animal social bonds. Our study has the potential to improve public support for cattle and inform animal welfare legislation, all while demonstrating the value of organizations like Farm Sanctuary.
Research Questions:
1) What is the nature of conspecific relationships among cattle at Farm Sanctuary?
- Do cattle express repetitive behavioral patterns indicative of friendships?
- If they do, how does the presence of friends influence behavioral expressions in cattle?
2) What individual attributes influence these relationships?
Variables to be investigated include:
- Age
- Sex
- Size
- Relatedness
- Social status
- Health status & history
- Breed/type (raised for meat vs. dairy)
- Type of rescue/experience before sanctuary
- Length of time at the sanctuary
Reference list:
Bouissou, M. F., Boissy, A., Le Neindre, P., & Veissier, I. (2001). The social behaviour of cattle. In Social behaviour in farm animals (pp. 113–145). CABI Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1079/9780851993973.0113
Drouillard, J. S. (2018). Current situation and future trends for beef production in the United States of America — A review. Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences, 31(7), 1007–1016. https://doi.org/10.5713/ajas.18.0428
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2026). FAOSTAT: Livestock primary dataset. Retrieved January 7, 2026, from https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/
Greenspoon, L., Krieger, E., Sender, R., Rosenberg, Y., Bar-On, Y. M., Moran, U., Antman, T., Meiri, S., Roll, U., Noor, E., & Milo, R. (2023). The global biomass of wild mammals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 120(10), e2204892120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2204892120
Hodgson, G. M., Flay, K. J., Perroux, T. A., Chan, W. Y., & McElligott, A. G. (2024). Sex and dominance status affect allogrooming in free-ranging feral cattle. Animal Behaviour, 210, 275-287. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.05.08.53979
Krahn, J., Foris, B., Weary, D. M., & von Keyserlingk, M. A. G. (2023). Social dominance in dairy cattle: A critical review with guidelines for future research. Journal of Dairy Science, 106(3). https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2022-22534
Marino, L., & Allen, K. (2017). The psychology of cows. Animal Behavior and Cognition,4(4), 474-498. https://dx.doi.org/10.26451/abc.04.04.06.2017
Morris, P., Knight, S., & Lesley, S. (2012). Belief in animal mind: Does familiarity with animals influence beliefs about animal emotions? Society & Animals, 20(3), 211–224. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685306-12341237
Reinhardt, C., Reinhardt, A., & Reinhardt, V. (1986). Social behaviour and reproductive performance in semi-wild Scottish Highland cattle. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 15(2), 125–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/0168-1591(86)90058-4