Abstract

This article addresses the impact of activism in the European Union (EU), focusing on two issues that are, numerically, the most relevant cases of animal exploitation: food production and animal experimentation. More precisely, I study the areas of egg production and animal experimentation in science. In analyzing these cases, I show that even though activists have contributed to a great number of policy changes, the substantive gains for animals facing these practices have remained very weak. I also highlight the importance of issue-specific factors for explaining future gains – or their potential absence: the role of political consumerism and new technologies.