Animal Welfare research Approaches

Question 1

What is welfare?

Answer 1

Animal welfare is a state within an animal (you cannot give welfare

Question 2

What must an animal be in order to have welfare?

Answer 2

phylogenetically and developmentally sentient

Question 3

Why can welfare not be measured directly?

Answer 3

Because welfare is dependent on subjective states

Question 4

How is welfare currently determined?

Answer 4

using the presence or absence of negative states

Question 5

What are the three welfare concepts?

Answer 5

1. Physical (function)
2. Mental
3. Naturalness

Question 6

List the five freedoms

Answer 6

1. Freedom from hunger and thirst
2. Freedom from discomfort
3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease
4. Freedom to express normal behaviour
5. Freedom from fear and distress

Question 7

What are the five domains?

Answer 7

1. Water and food deprivation and malnutrition
2. Environmental change
3. Disease, injury and functional impairment
4. Behavioural or interactive restriction
5. Mental components

Question 8

Which domain do all other domains flow through?

Answer 8

mental components

Question 9

What research approaches look at the function of an animal?

Answer 9

1. epidemiology
2. pathology
3. productivity (growth and reproduction)
4. endocrine/immune disturbance abnormal behaviour
5. longevity

Question 10

Can how well an animal is functioning be fully indicative of welfare?

Answer 10

Nope, a cow can be utterly miserable but still producing lots of milk

Question 11

How can you measure how an animal is feeling?

Answer 11

You cannot measure a feeling, bit you can measure a mental state, e.g preferences, motivation to obtain or avoid and abnormal behaviour

Question 12

Name the three different types of stressor

Answer 12

1. Psychological
2. Physical
3. Physiological

Question 13

How can naturalness be measured?

Answer 13

By comparing the animal’s behaviour to how it behaves in nature

Question 14

List seven ways which you could measure welfare using physiology

Answer 14

1. HPA Axis
2. Sympatho-adrenal axis
3. circulation
4. ventilation
5. Thermoregulation
6. Osmoregulation
7. Immunity

Question 15

Name five challenges to the interpretation of welfare

Answer 15

1. Personality types
2. Coping strategies
3. Previous experience
4. Physiological or motivational state
5. Many situations produce similar responses

Question 16

In animals, unfamiliar + unpleasant + sudden =

Answer 16

fear

Question 17

In animals, familiar + pleasant + predictable =

Answer 17

Happy

Question 18

Why is motivation testing not always efficient?

Answer 18

Animal choices are not always consistent or reliable. E.g pigs do not eat straw bedding all of the time, only in certain scenarios (e.g nesting or rooting)

Question 19

Why is separating preference and familiarity difficult?

Answer 19

Animals may show temporary avoidance of, or attraction to unfamiliar options

Question 20

How do we assess naturalness?

Answer 20

• study of behaviour of animals in the wild
• comparisons with captivity
• designing ‘natural’ environments
• promoting ‘natural’ development

Question 21

Name three ways that a problem can be scaled

Answer 21

1. How severe
2. Incidence
3. Duration

Question 22

Name two farm assurance schemes

Answer 22

UK - Red Tractor Mark scheme, Freedom Foods

USA - Free Farmed Certification Program

Question 23

What are means orientated standards?

Answer 23

Resources that are required independent of their actual effect on that farm e.g Animals not kept in buildings shall at all times have access to a well-drained lying area

Question 24

What are goal orientated standards?

Answer 24

Level of resources that must be provided is defined with reference to their effect on the animals on each farm

Question 25

How are means orientated standards assessed?

Answer 25

By looking at resources (inputs)

Question 26

How are goal orientated standards assessed?

Answer 26

By looking at the animal (outputs)