Concept of Animal Welfare Flashcards
What are the definitions of animal welfare?
- state of wellbeing brought about by meeting the physical, environmental, nutritional, behavioural and social needs of the animal(s) under the care, supervision or influence of people
- in a state of complete mental and physical health, where the animal is in harmony with its environment
What is the extrinsic worth of animals?
- production
- performance
- models of human disease
What is the intrinsic worth of animals?
worth in its own right - highly culturally variable
based on perceived sentience and emotional capabilities of the species
Define a sentient animal
one capable of feeling and for which those feelings matter, although given lack of speech, cannot conceptualise the feeling
includes hunger, pain, anxiety, social feelings
Describe the relationship between level of sentience and level of empathy for a species
level of sentience determines level of empathy most of the time but not always
view of a rat depends on whether it is a pet, research or vermin
What does the level of empathy determine?
the moral obligation to be concerned about the welfare of the species
What did Broom 2014 and Paul et al 2020 state that sentience has the capacity for?
Broom 2014
- be consciously aware of the environment
- capable of cognitive processing
- experiencing emotions/feelings
these facets of sentience are highly inter-related - Paul et al 2020
What is Integrated Information Theory?
- Phi (Ф) - quantity of integrated information in any physical system
- information encoded in the whole system is lost whenever the system is divided into parts
- treats consciousness as a continuous variable, higher Ф = fuller consciousness
What is empirical evidence for integration information theory?
from observed correlations between apparent emergence of consciousness and rises in effective connectivity in
- different sleep stages - Massimini et al 2005
- anaesthesia - Ferrarelli et al 2010
Describe McBride et al 2015’s study of awareness of external environment in animals
can sheep improve navigational ability through the use of a mirror?
- each breed divided into 2 sub-groups (mirror exposed and naive)
- mirror exposed sub-group then exposed to perpex mirror for 530min over 15 days
How can perception of self be tested?
metacognition tested via mirror-induced stimulation (MIS) behaviour
What are the 3 levels of MIS?
- exploratory and social behaviour as if observing a conspecific
- contingency behaviour where animal produces repetitive acts to test actions against visual stimulus
- self-directed behaviour where animal investigates a specific part of its body using the mirror
What is the mark test?
Placing a foreign mark on a usually invisible location on the animal and observing if they recognise it in the mirror as themself by attempting to remove the mark
Which animals can reach the self-directed behaviour level of MIS?
chimpanzees, orangutans, dolphins, elephants, magpies and humans
Describe the measurability of cognitive processing
extremely measurable but difficult to draw a line between concerned or not concerned about welfare
What is the affective state / affect of the animal?
emotional state of the animal, positive and negative affect
environmental aspects and induce this
Why is measuring emotions important?
to determine sentience and thus obligation to be concerned about animal’s welfare
critically important in measurement of welfare
Describe neural correlates in measuring emotions
certain emotional states light up certain areas in fMRI of brain
steiner & redish 2014
How is disappointment defined?
recognition that one did not get the value expected
How is regret defined?
recognition that an alternative action would have produced a more valued outcome
What is the importance of the orbitofrontal cortex in regret?
in humans, orbitofrontal cortex active during expressions of regret, humans with damage here do not express regret
What research is there involving regret in rats?
Steiner et al 2014 recorded from orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum in rats encountering wait or skip choices for delayed delivery of different flavours using an economic framework
Describe the experimental design of Steiner et al 2014
- The Restaurant Row task - large inner loop with four spokes going to different restaurant zones (banana, cherry, chocolate, and unflavoured).
- On entry into a zone, a tone sounded, the pitch of the tone indicated the delay the rat had to wait in order to receive reward (higher pitch = longer delay).
- Rats could skip or stay
high-cost choice after skipping a low-cost choice should induce regret
Describe the results of Steiner et al 2014
- Rats looked backwards toward the lost option, cells within orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum represented the missed action
- Rats delay based of length of delay and food preference
What are the FAWC Five Freedoms?
Freedom From:
- Hunger or thirst
- Discomfort
- Pain, injury or disease
- Express normal behaviour
- Fear and distress
Describe the experimental design of Weiss 1971
Controllable and Uncontrollable stress:
- Rat 1 put into apparatus but received no shock
- Rat 2 received a warning signal before shock
- Rat 3 received no warning signal before shock
What are the results of Weiss 1971?
Unexpected shock - massively high stress levels
expected shock - stressed but significantly less than unexpected
no shock - minor stress levels
What did Duncan 1996 state about animal welfare?
Neither health, nor lack of stress nor fitness is necessary and/or sufficient to conclude that an animal has good welfare.
Welfare is dependent on what the animals feel
Describe the domains model
Physical/Functional domains
- nutrition
- environment
- health
- behaviour
Mental Domain
Physical domains combine to make the mental domain, which determines the welfare state
What is a limitation of the domains model?
an animal can be mentally fine by still have other aspects lacking in welfare
What are the 2 approaches to measuring animal welfare?
Subjective experience: an animal’s feelings determine its welfare
Biological function: normal physiology and behaviour (ability to stay within physiological boundaries)
