Animal Welfare and Protection

• This lecture covers animal welfare and protection, focusing on animal and resource-based indicators, and stockmanship.
• The theory part of the lecture is on May 3rd, from 9:00 to 13:00.
• Covered topics include animal-based and resource-based welfare indicators, stress response, handling, and welfare during transport.

Concepts and Definitions

• Animal welfare originates from the "ancient contract" as stated by Bernard Rollin.
• Traditional farming historically involved a fair relationship between humans and animals that benefited both.
• Successful farming is equal to good animal handling.

Emergence of Animal Welfare

• The newer concept of animal welfare emerged, due to increased productivity
• With technology animals could be placed and productivity of the animals increased
• Suffering of those animals was ignored, and irrelevant to productivity
• The progressive increase in animal agriculture occurred between the 2 wars.

Intensification of Production and Well-being

• The changes occurred post World War 2
• New definitions arose that defined what was good and bad in agriculture.
• Changes include larger scales, production inside enclosed buildings, and farms becoming factories.

Emergence of Well-being

• A new concept was formed, that of well-being for the animals
• Ruth Harrison published "Animal Machines" in 1964, revealing factory farming practices.
• Animal Machines sparked general concern among the public regarding animal suffering.

Brambell Committee and the Five Freedoms

• Following Ruth Harrison, the Brambell Committee of 1965 was survey of the physical and mental well-being of intensively farmed animals.
• It outlined ethical and biological principles for animal management.
• The Secretary of Agriculture in Britain, then established the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (FAWC)
• FAWC would later create the Five Freedoms of animal Welfare

Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare (Farm Animal Welfare Council, UK, 1993)

• Freedom from hunger and thirst: Maintain access to fresh water and proper diet
• Freedom from discomfort: Have the right, suitable environment that shelters from the weather
• Freedom from pain, injury, or illness: Provide prevention, and proper diagnosis and treatment
• Freedom to express normal behavior: Have enough space, the right conditions and the company of it's own kind.
• Freedom from fear and anguish: They are entitled to the correct conditions that prevent them from suffering

Intensive Production and Welfare

• There was a 41% reduction in the carbon footprint of the dairy industry from 1944.
• There have been many new rules and regulations to ensure high welfare in farmed and domesticated animals

Emergence of a New Science

• As of the 1960's the debate on animal welfare led to the development of a new school of behavioural study
• It specializes in the environmental limitations of different types of production, as well as consequences
• The animals are designed to improve under captivity

Applied Ethology

• The confinement of domestic animals is observed and studied
• Compares how wild animals and domesticated animals act in confinement, to assess motivations

Defining Animal Welfare

• Animal Welfare Science measures the effect of diverse situations and environments from the animal's POV.
• Welfare Ethics explores how humans should be treating the animals
• Welfare Law enforces the treatment of animals.

Interpretations of Welfare

• Some definitions emphasize health: Including sufficient nutrients and good thermal environment, as said by Curtis in 1987
• Others focus on productivity as an indicator of good welfare.
• McGlone stated, in 1993 that an animal is in poor welfare when it's physiological systems are poor for survival
• Another consideration is naturalness, like the "freedom to perform most types of natural behaviour" based on Webster, et al. in 1986

Ethics and Morality

• Some focus on ethics and morality, with anthropomorphic emotion
• Jeremy Bentham said, "The question is not Can they reason? But, Can they suffer?
• Behavioral observations are used to assess normalcy of behavior and mental health.
• Mason and Latham stated most situations that cause stereotypes decreased welfare

Welfare as a Biological Function

• Welfare determines how well an animal can handle it's current situation
• If the animal has good welfare, it is coping well
• Alternatively, if the animal is struggling its welfare is poor
• High welfare is regarded as the state of the animal regarding to its attempts to cope with the environment based on Broom, 1996

Measuring Well-being

• Measuring well-being is physical and physiological (reproduction/production).
• Measurements are quantitative, and range from good to bad on a measurable scale.
• 1st freedom (hunger, thirst) and 3rd freedom (pain, injury, illness) are directly related.
• Some limitations are that this measure focuses on negative well-being and connects it to productivity.

Animal Welfare

• The definition suggests animal welfare is defined by the normal functioning of the physical and biological side of the animal
• When there is a presence of disease, physical damage, and malnutrition, well-being is compromised
• The animal has "good welfare" when there is high growth and productivity
• However, it is unclear if those contribute to a truly "happy" animal

An Alternate View of Welfare

• Alternatively there is no necessity of health, nor stress, nor fitness to conclude that an animal has good welfare, instead what matters is how the animals feel.
• This focuses on the emotional state of the animals
• The assessment of well-being is a qualitative measure
• It is the 2nd (discomfort) and 5th (fear or anguish) freedoms are directly related
• General well-being is known to be a motivation for behaviour
• Though some imitations include that it is difficult to measure emotions

Sentience

• Sentience is defined as the "ability to suffer or feel pleasure or happiness"
• Since well-being now depends on feelings, it is important to promote the reduction of pain, suffering and distress
• Also increase comfort, pleasure and satisfaction

Considering Naturalness

• Welfare now be interpreted in terms of what natural selection has designed an organism to do, and how circumstances impinge on its functional design.
• "each animal species has an inherent, genetically encoded 'nature' (its 'telos') and good welfare requires that an animal be allowed to live in accordance with its telos.” (Rollin, 1993)
• Thus, to promote animal welfare, we should aim to provide natural environments
• Animals must be able to manifest what is typical of its species

Limitations

• not all behaviors are desirable
• not all natural environments are desirable

Animal State of Well-being

• The complete state of well-being must meet the physical, environmental, nutritional, behavioural, and social needs of the animal
• This should be achieved under human care and influence
• It also hinges on the animal's happiness

Program

• This module includes animal-based and resource-based welfare indicators + stockmanship and welfare
• It also covers the stress response and welfare during transport

Justifications for Assessing Welfare

• Reasons to asses welfare are concerns and criticisms from the public, improved human and animal relationship and training and production effectiveness
• It is a requirement by Article 13 of the EC Lisbon Treaty that all animals are sentient beings

Questionable Practices

• Questionable practices include dehorning, castration, hot Irons, hormone growth, tail amputation, and genetics

EU Strategy

• The EU animal welfare strategy states their concern for: farm animals, lab animals, and animals at zoos in part
• However the strategy does not extend to companion animals

Welfare Measurement

• Welfare can not be accurately tested to get a objective assessment
• A number of factors go into determining ones welfare and each situation can be completely different
• Short-term and long-term measures can be contradictory

Considerations

• There are also other considerations such as indirect or direct measures
• Indirect are related to resource-based accommodations, relation, etc
• In comparison direct measures are based on the animal's health, life, or behavior

Bedding

• Straw: comfortable, provides cleanliness, insulates, and provides normal behavior
• Sawdust: absorbs moisture
• Honeycomb rubber or plastic/dimensional mattresses: reduce injury but is expensive
• Sand: Good for hotter climates, but can cause drainage problems

Slatted Floors

• Used in the pig, cattle, and rodent farming industries
• Is a typical floor for toxicology as well
• Is easily managed and cleaned of excrement for study
• However, it is known to cause foot and leg injuries

Husbandry and Bonding

• A great relationship between the animal and it's caretaker must be prevalent for it to perform at it's best!

Animal State

• Ultimately their wellness and state depends on all levels of care, treatment from people and their emotions too

Sympathetic Nervous System

• Release of catecholamines, noradrenaline, and adrenaline is caused by CNS activity from the adrenal medulla

Stress Response

• This increases the heart rate, flow of liquids, and increased metabolism, and conversion of glycogen stored in glucose to help flight or fight

Releasing the CRH

• Stimuli activate neurons, that release CRH and ACTH into the bloodstream all the way into the adrenal gland
• The adrenal gland stimulates to releases more energy, like glucose, and all is inhibited

HPA Axis

• There are increases in stress for animal's

Phases of Adaptation to Stress

• The general adaptation syndrome as developed by Hans Selye, consists of a set amount of reactions
• It is triggered when the body is exposed to a homeostasis-disrupting stimuli
• The three phases are alarm which corresponds to acute stress, resistance in which glucocorticoids are released, and the final phase of exhaustion

Measuring Stress using Physiology

• When welfare is assessed using physiology by measuring stress, but biologically, it has a cost to the animal
• Also, some responses can be both harmful and unhelpful

Measurements

• Heart rate, can decrease when fainting, short term measurement
• Respiratory rate can also be used, and is more distant
• Body temperatures of the being fluctuates, especially after stressful events

Hormones and Characteristics

• The animal's characteristics and the long term exposure and changes can affect the animal such as, lack of energy

Long Vs Short Term Stress

• High levels of A + NA lead to high blood pressure and heart disease in the animals
• The immunity also can be declined severely, caused by high stress
• The rate of reproduction decreases, which also causes the reproduction of the animal to decrease

Using Blood and Concentrations

• Using blood concentrations will create a fluctuating result
• Since the concentration of animal's can also be affected by several other reasonings

Other Issues

• The animal's heart can also become deformed by stress, and cardiovascular effects can also occur

Responses to Stress

• There can be increase levels of aggression with the animals during times of change and distress

Limitations to Stress Assessment

• The Five Freedoms are primarily intended to prevent suffering, not eliminate stress, and is an outcome of good husbandry

Measuring Welfare

• We must be able to identify what it most important for the animals in all terms such as, resources

Animal Agriculture

• Welfare needs and designs differ from the ancestral farms to the farms we have today

Captive Vs Wild Setting

• Studying animals in natural vs artificial environments is good for assessing and measuring a species characteristics

• Ethograms are the types of studies that take place to follow and describe a character species in a natural wild setting

• Can find a full range of behaviors such as fear and abilities too

The Way Animal's Live is Changing due to Humans

• Due to human farming and interaction, is has forever made a big difference in animals lives
• We always have to measure the species needs and emotions and behaviors in their setting

Laying Hens

• Laying hens tend to form small groups, eat leaves, seeds, and need dust for baths
• They also lay eggs at 18 weeks, spending their lives in battery cages -This restricts them to what they've evolved from, so farms have sought after alternative measures such as free-range and barns

Limitations

• The Alternative systems aren't perfect either, and are known to still cause pecking to occur from aggressiveness
• The limited space is a main factor too, so it is constantly assessed what can be the best situation for animal's with the knowledge we have

The "Training" Test

• The "Training" technique is used to test how the animal feels
• This way they can better decide what they truly need in their environments

Animal Needs

• Animals also are always searching for comfort
• They have two types of needs and can be tested accordingly

What They Need-Dawkins 1983

• Animals need both Proximate and Ultimate needs
• Proximate includes Nest, freedom, comfort and more importantly these animals would undergo a lot of suffering without these needs
• Ultimate needs are those needs that, if gone without, the animal would day, mainly including food and water

Testing Using Choice

• The choice tests that is used it to see what animal is more likely to do if given the chance
• They can be placed into all different scenarios and have their actions observed, to see what the humans value on them

What Do They Choose?

• Most animals in this scenario might even pick the wrong thing, due to the fact that they have no knowledge of the long-term effects and harms

Behavior

• It is often when behavior that happens from the animal causes different motivations for what could occur

Conclusions

• The five freedoms used in the study helps assess how limited animals behave and make way to give then emotional support in all aspects