Animal Welfare and Miscellaneous Ethics Flashcards
Wildlife research (examples and effect on animals)
This is often high stress for the animals
-Take samples such as pulling a tooth for aging and blood for DNA sequencing
-GPS collars and ear tags
Agriculture and Veterinary Research
Universities do a lot of agricultural research
-How do we efficiently grow animals for food use (milk, meat)
-How do we improve animal welfare
-What environments promote best health
-How does changing feed affect immune system, digestion, and production
-Researchers may have to take blood samples, get digesta samples from the cow’s stomach (rumen) and collect fecal samples (Ports can be implanted to have constant access to these_
Where does your money go when you donate it to medical research?
Animal research
Fundamental Research
Studies of a fundamental nature in science relating to essential structure or function
Examples:
-Studying the migration habits of animals
-Investigating how certain hormones produced from the gut and brain regulate energy, balance, growth, and reproduction in fish
Medical and Clinical Studies
Studies for medical purposes that relate to human or animal disease and disorders
Examples:
-Using rodents to study and better understand the genes involved in cancer
-Studying dogs to understand epilepsy
Regulatory testing (animal testing)
Testing the efficacy and safety of products and medications. Health Canada legally required medical research be performed on animals before human trials can commence,
Examples:
-Testing vaccine safety of vaccines on rodents and non-human primates
-Testing the efficacy of a new medication for Multiple Sclerosis
Development of Products and Medical Devices
Animal Testing
Studies for the development of products or devices for human or veterinary medicine
Examples:
-Development of new dietary products for farm animals
-Studies to preserve and improve the effectiveness of transplants or to develop new ones
Teaching and Training (with regards to using animals)
Teaching and training to communicate scientific concepts, and develop practical skills and expertise in specific techniques
Examples:
-Training veterinary students on disease prevention. Diagnosis, and treatment
How does animal research benefit us?
-Elimination of polio, smallpox, rabies, and measles
-Complete eradication of rinderpest
-New diagnostic test for early treatment (cancer, heart disease)
How has animal research help animals?
-Helps us understand wildlife and biological principles
-Human treatments can be used on animals too
Eg. “Click Chemistry”
These treatments can treat bone cancer tumors in large dogs
The 5 Freedoms
Proposed by John Webster
- Freedom from thirst & hunger
- Freedom from discomfort (comfortable temperature, good ventilation, ect.)
- Freedom from pain, injury and disease
- Freedom to express normal (natural) behaviour (also sometimes called freedom of movement)
- Freedom from fear and distress
Performance axiom
emphasizes productivity and reproductive performance (Curtis)
-If an animal is growing and reproducing well, then its welfare must be good
Productivity (as a measure of animal welfare)
Growth, reproduction - traditional indicators of wellbeing
-Effective at low level
Link between well-being and productivity is real at low levels of productivity:
-Depressed health, growth, reproduction
-survival indicate significant problems
BUT
Productivity is an economic measurement, but not a measurement of wellbeing
Broom’s definition of welfare
“The welfare of an individual is its state as regards its attempts to cope with its environment.”
- Note: Does not apply to inanimate objects or plants because they lack most
coping mechanisms, but could be used for any living animal.
Welfare can exist on a continuum
-Goes from very good to very poor
-Measurements provide information about the position on the continuum at any given time
-Applies to individuals
The five freedoms can be met at different levels
Duncan’s Definition of Animal Welfare
“Welfare is all to do with what animals feel.”
* Note:
-Welfare is mainly or solely dependent on what animals feel
-However, it is impossible to give welfare a precise scientific definition.
-Relates to what we call ‘affective states’