Animal welfare and animal rights Flashcards
How many animals are working worldwide?
There are approximately 200 million working animals worldwide
How has our impact on animals increased dramatically over animals?
Livestock systems occupy 30% of ice-free land and there are record levels of habitat destruction - we are constantly interacting with animals and impacting on them
Define animal rights
‘’The rights of animals to live free from human exploitation and abuse”
Define animal welfare
The state of wellbeing an animal is in, whether captive or in the wild. Refers to the quality of life and this involves numerous elements such as health, happiness and longevity.
What are the three main schools of thought surrounding animal rights and welfare?
- The subjective experience approach
- The biological functioning approach
- The natural behaviour approach
= once we agree on a set of standards we can use objective methods to assess welfare
Explain the Biological functioning approach
Good welfare requires normal biological functioning
Internal mental states of wellbeing are too difficult to define scientifically or less important .
Measured using growth rate, longevity, indices of health, disease and injury, behaviour , physiology and reproductive success.
What are the strengths of the biological functioning approach ?
Uses objective methods
Explain the natural behaviour approach
Welfare is compromised if animals can’t display a full range of behaviour - may show chronic stress, ill health, stereotypes , depression as a result.
Behavioural restriction - animals are motivated to perform natural behaviour , if correct opportunities are not available these behaviours can not be performed - instead the animal may perform a different behaviour ;
this can lead to conflict, displacement , redirected stereotypes , ambivalence and depression
What are the limitations of the biological functioning approach ?
The link between the measures and welfare sometimes not clear
Cut off criteria are not clear
Explain environmental challenges that come with the natural behaviour approach
Enclosures may be too small , the animal may require ore space in order to perform comfort or distancing behaviours , captive animals benefit from enrichment , there may be problems with climate . Control over their environment improves welfare however lots of natural behaviour is detrimental to welfare . It is best to consider the nature of the species but this is hard to define.
Explain the psychological approach
The welfare is how well the animal is able to cope with its environment . Most people accept that higher animals experience emotions . Reducing subjective experience of suffering and increasing experience of positive emotions is central to improving animal welfare
How do psychologists understand how animals are feeling?
neurophysiological indicators, behavioural indicators = indices of stress , disease and injury
and cognitive indicators = vocalisations, facial expressions
What did cognitive bias tests in animals revealed?
There is initial evidence that animals who are in a more negative affective state are more likely to judge these ambiguous cues as if they predict the negative event
What are the the 5 freedoms for animals?
Developed by the UK government and the Farm Animal Welfare Council - does not include positive emotion so may need updating.
Explain lateralisation of animal cognition
Dominance of right hemisphere suggested a stressed negative state or long term bias . Meanwhile, dominance in the left hemisphere suggests a more relaxed state . Lateralisation also allows for researchers to see what animals prefer in motivation studies.
