Introduction to animal welfare

Clive Phillips
Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics
(CAWE)
1. Changes in animal welfare interest

2. Mechanisms for change – Pressure

Groups and Industry

3. Aspects of particular concern

4. Influences on animal welfare concern

5. Measuring animal welfare

 What is it like to be a …….?
• Component 1: The animal’s environment
• Component 2: The animal’s awareness of
the environment
• Component 3: The animal’s internal state,
based on genetics and past and present
experiences
• Component 4: The animal’s awareness of
its internal state
 1) Fitness
‘State of an animal with regard to its ability
to cope with its environment’
Broom (1986)
 2) Feelings (Ian Duncan)
• Almost impossible to measure
• Transient

• I can:
– identify them in myself
– sometimes recognise them in others
– inadequately describe them
– occasionally impute their existence in other
animals
 Mental experiences
‘It is not necessary to assume that such
mental experiences (of animals) are at all
similar to those which a person might have
under analogous circumstances’
Griffin (1981)

Mental experience is appropriate to needs

Attributed sentience
monkey HIGH
dog
newborn baby
fox 
pig
chicken
rat
fish LOW
 3) Ability to perform natural
behaviour

• Public have strong respect for, and

affinity with, nature:
• Natural animal behaviour –
romantics Vs sceptics
 Welfare of wild animals
“ We may console ourselves with the full
belief, that the war of nature is not
incessant, that no fear is felt, that death is
generally prompt, and that the vigorous,
the healthy, and the happy survive and
multiply ”

Charles Darwin, Origin of Species

 Welfare provision by genetic
adaptation

“Man selects only for his own good, Nature

only for that of the being which she tends”

Charles Darwin, Origin of Species

Maladaptive for wild animals to be constantly

stressed
Using wild animals to assess
welfare
 Evidence for growth in global
interest in animal welfare

• Increased suffering
• Public concern
• Growing volume of scientific research in
animal welfare
• Attention paid by the media
 Increased numbers of animals
suffering and scale of suffering
• Increased world meat and milk
consumption
• More reliance on small animals
• More intensive production systems,
especially of poultry and cattle
• Increased live trade
• Increased animal production in developing
countries without animal welfare standards
Historical development of social reform
1790-1830 Rights of the common man
(Bill of Rights, slavery abolished)
1889 Children’s rights acknowledged
1880-1920 Women’s rights championed
1950-1990 Ethnic minorities’ rights
1970 – 2000 Disabled/gay people’s rights
1980 –? Animal rights and the need to
improve animal welfare
No. ‘Animal Welfare’ journal
publications 1995-2004
Traditional model of Animal Welfare
Pressure Group function
AWPG

 Lobby

Government

 Regulate

Industry
 New model of AWPG activity
Identify an
 Develop a
issue
 slogan
$ ← Create a 
solution
 Encourage
Make someone  public
responsible 
debate
$
Features of successful campaigns
• Focus on one small aspect of animal
industry
• Achievable goal
• Easy to understand
• Easily portrayed as:
– unnatural
– cruel
– result of human greed
– lack of human care
 Industry actions
• Engage in discussions with AWPGs and
government
• Train animal managers and develop/promote
management guidelines and Codes of
Practice or Standards and Guidelines
• Conduct research for strategic action
Aspects of particular concern

1) Unnaturalness
2) Intensification and scale

→
Industry changes in intensity and scale
Industry World population
Farming
Cattle/sheep 4 billion
Pigs/poultry 55 billion
Companions 1-2 billion
Laboratory 50 million
Zoo 1 million
Entertain/work 100 million
Wild many billion
Cognitive dissonance – myth or reality?
Animal
ethics

↑
Professional
ethics

Personal
Society
ethics ethics
3) Cruelty
 4) Result of human greed
• Attitudes to lab animals used for medicines
and cosmetics
• Link between diet and obesity
 5) Lack of human care

e.g. overseas
handling and
slaughter
 Human factors influencing
animal welfare concern

• Affluence
• Gender
• Proximity to agricultural production
• Culture/race
Assessing welfare at farm level
- practical issues
 The welfare curve

Welfare

Range Single Intensification

Battery hens
sheep suckled cow
on grass
Extensive versus intensive –
how do we assess welfare?

Battery cages
 Extensive versus intensive –
how do we assess welfare?
The Five Freedoms: the battery hen
Freedom Assessment
Hunger and Adequate – although possible metabolic
thirst hunger due to genetic selection for high
production
Discomfort Very poor – wire floors, poor air quality
Pain, injury and Adequate in house, very poor during
disease removal – bone fractures
To express Very poor – inability to move, wing flap,
normal behaviour nest, forage or dust bath
Fear and distress Good in house; very poor during removal
from houses – bone fractures
How do we assess welfare?
 How do we assess welfare?
Five Freedoms: What do we look
for?
Freedom Assessment of:
from:
Hunger and Metabolic needs
thirst
Gut physiological
requirements
Feed palatability
Body condition
 How do we assess welfare?
Five Freedoms: What do we look for?
Freedom Assessment of:
from:
Discomfort Air quality
Air quantity
Thermal comfort
Physical comfort
Light – levels and
programmes
Assessing temperature by bird
behaviour
 How do we assess welfare?
Five Freedoms: What do we look for?
Freedom from: Assessment of:
Pain, injury and Veterinary programme
disease
Genetic selection
Mutilations and vet procedures
Treatment facilities
Euthanasia
Biosecurity
 How do we assess welfare?
Five Freedoms: What do we look for?

Freedom Assessment of:

to:
Express Life cycle requirements
normal Social grouping
behaviour
Competition for resources
Environmental enrichment
Stocking densities
 How do we assess welfare?
Five Freedoms: What do we look for?

Freedom Assessment of:

from:
Fear and Stockmanship
distress Predator control
Equipment
Stocking densities
 Conclusions
• Animal welfare concern is a natural
progression from other social issues
• Relates to animals’ experiences
• Most concern for practices that are
unnatural, intensive, cruel, caused by
humans
• Influenced by affluence, gender, culture
• Assessed by the Five Freedoms
 Reference
• Phillips, CJC. The Welfare of Animals, the
Silent Majority. Springer, 2009

• Broom, DMB and Fraser, AF. 2007.

Domestic Animal Behaviour and Welfare.
Fourth Edition. CABI.