Activists credit greater media attention to animal rights campaigns with raising profile of egregious cases of cruelty in circuses and for research purposes

Nearly a third of Americans believe animals should have the same rights and protections as humans, according to a new poll published Tuesday.

Of the 1,024 of American adults polled by Gallup, 32% asserted that animals deserve the same rights as people “to be free from harm and exploitation”, up from 25% in 2008.

Sixty-two per cent of Americans felt that animals deserve some protection but can still be appropriately used for human benefit, and only 3% felt animals deserve only slight protection because “they are just animals”.

Americans were most worried for animals in the circus, with 69% saying they were concerned and 31% of those saying they were very concerned. Following circus animals, Americans said they were most concerned for animals used in sports (68%) and for research (67%).

About 62% of people polled were concerned for marine animals in amusement parks and aquariums, which the Gallup researchers suggest may reflect growing awareness of conditions at parks like SeaWorld. Fewer Americans were concerned about animals in zoos (57%) or for those living as livestock or raised for food (54%). Fewer than half the respondents said they were somewhat concerned about pets’ welfare, with 22% of those very concerned.

Disparate campaigns for animal rights and protections have steadily gained momentum in recent years, spurred by works such as the 2013 documentary Blackfish, which examined treatment of killer whales at SeaWorld parks and prompted outrage and a sharp drop in profits. But while SeaWorld has vociferously defended its practices – and has seen attendance rise after an initial dip – the Ringling Brothers circus announced in March it will retire all its elephants by 2018.

The US and Europe have also gradually changed their approaches to animal research. The EU banned cosmetics with animal-tested ingredients in 2013, and the US suspended medical research on chimpanzees in 2011 and began retiring the animals two years later. In the past two years, Congress has also initiated reviews of the treatment of animals in federal research programs, namely in agricultural programs found to keep livestock in dire conditions and to pose likely health risks to human consumers.

Earlier this year Pew found that Americans were closely divided on animal research, with 50% opposed to animal testing and 47% in its favor; Pew also found that 89% of scientists supported animal research.

But Americans also remain among the largest consumers of meat in the world, with only 5% of the population identifying as a vegetarian and 2% as vegan. A 2014 study found that 84% of American vegetarians and vegans eventually return to eating meat.

Proponents of animal rights attributed the growing support to greater media attention to the issue. Justin Goodman, director of laboratory investigations for animal rights group Peta, credited the internet, saying: “People now have unprecedented access about animals’ striking abilities and emotional lives.”

“The issue has entered public consciousness,” Goodman said, “because you get exposed to this information even if you’re not looking for it.”

Steve Wise, the lawyer leading a campaign to win chimpanzees “personhood” rights that protect against unlawful detainment, said that the poll was “not surprising, in light of what science is telling us very day about nonhuman animal cognition”.

Wise and Goodman conceded that with greater specificity to the pollsters’ questions, answers might change. Wise said that had questions asked specifically about apes, elephants and cetaceans – highly intelligent and social mammals – then “the numbers would be much higher”. Goodman said that on the issue of animal research, changing the wording of a question to ask whether it’s necessary, as in for medical research, might nudge a person to say yes over no.

The poll did not delve into matters of species, types of testing or what rights or protections specifically might be bestowed on animals, but the details matter. Few people might object to potentially life-saving cancer research performed on rats, for instance, versus testing makeup chemicals on puppies. Most Americans agree that animals deserve protections against abuses as well, but Wise’s opponents suggest that giving a human right to an animal raises far more questions than the courts could answer.

Polls may at least provide eventual consensus, if not answers, to warring questions of animal consciousness that range from the days of medieval murder trials of pigs, Descartes, Cambridge and cognition declarations to the ethics of ants, and from lobster festivals to New York restaurant patios.