Introduction to Animal Welfare (4) Flashcards
Dr. Banach
What is the definition of animal welfare?
dependent on an individual’s or groups experiences, beliefs, and values - changes throughout time
What is Boyle’s experiment?
era of vivisection (practice of performing operations/experiments on live animals)
put animals inside a large glass receiver of the air pump and then studying each animal carefully as air was sucked out of the container
What is anthropomorphism?
attribution of human characteristics to animals
What is sentience?
capacity to have feelings and experience suffering and pleasure
- conscious awareness
- experience positive emotion
What stakeholders are concerned with animal welfare?
- general public
- producers
- media
- special interest groups - animal rights, industry (livestock)
- government and veterinary professionals
Who are important advocates and educators of animal welfare?
veterinary professionals
How are veterinary professionals important advocates and educators of animal welfare?
- evaluating the welfare of animals and carrying out actions of providing advice to improve welfare
- informing clients about the welfare of animals and their responsibilities as owners
- informing other stakeholders (including the public) about animal welfare issues
- developing standards for animal care or assisting in drafting laws to protect the welfare of animals
- evaluating compliance with welfare standards within voluntary or regulatory frameworks
What is the veterinarians oath?
What are the frameworks used to form the basis for animal welfare assessments?
- the 5 freedoms
- the 5 domains
- the three orientations: mind, body, and nature
- the three Rs: reduce, replace, refine
- ethical viewpoints and the ethical matrix
What are the 5 freedoms of animal welfare?
- freedom from hunger and thirst
- freedom from discomfort
- freedom from pain, injury, and disease
- freedom to express normal behavior
- freedom from fear and distress
What are the 5 provisions that go alongside the freedoms?
- hunger and thirst: by providing Ready access to fresh water and diet to maintain full health and vigor
- no discomfort and pleasure: by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable meeting
- no pain, injury, disease: by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment
- no fear and distress: by ensuring conditions and treatment with mental suffering**
- express normal behavior: by providing sufficient space, proper facilities, and company of animal’s own kind
What are the pitfalls to the framework?
- focuses on mere satisfaction of achieving relief from suffering
- not as much focus on mental
- need species-specific lists
What are the opportunities to thrive designed for?
to allow for a focus on the empirical presence of positive indicators of animal welfare
- built upon the concept of the 5 freedoms
What are the five domains?
nutrition, environment, health, behavior, mental state
Look past the framework for the five domains
What is the three circles model?
addresses both the objective science and subjective human values used in evaluating welfare
- allows for people to understand their bias
What are the 3 pieces of the three circles model?
- basic health and functioning
- natural living
- affective states
What is the origin of the 3 Rs?
provides a framework for performing more human animal research
What does replacement mean in the context of the Three Rs?
methods that avoid using animals
- partial/relative, full/absolute (not in it at all)
What does reduction mean in the context of the Three Rs?
maximizing the information obtained from a given number of animals (without increasing pain or distress) so that fewer animals are needed to acquire the same scientific information
What does refinement mean in the context of the Three Rs?
modification of husbandry or experimental procedures to enhance animal well-being and minimize or eliminate pain and distress
What is the origin of the ethical matrix?
highlights potential effects of animal care and uses decisions on producers, animals, citizens, the environment, and food prices that all should be accounted for
What is the ethical matrix framework?
What is a consequentialist? What are the specific types?
animals may be used as a means to an end
contractarian, utilitarian, respect for nature
What does a contractarian believe?
what matters is relative cost and benefit to us alone
treating animals well can serve us well
What does a utilitarian believe?
sentience is morally relevant, so costs and benefits to people and animals must be weighed up
greatest good for the greatest number overall
What does a respect for nature believe?
consequences for species, not individuals
What is deontological?
obligation based - claims that there are certain actions that are forbidden and others that are required, no matter what consequences follow from them
What are the components of a deontological approach/
rights: animals are life, respect their lives
relational: mutually beneficial relationship; animals depend on us for food and we use their produces, since they depend on us for caregivers, then we must treat them well
What is contractarianism?
ethical obligations original in mutual agreements or contracts between people
morality is based on agreement; moral duties are similar to the terms and conditions
What is utilitarianism?
morality is about maximizing human and animal well-being
need a balance - consider welfare consequences as well as benefits to humans
What is the relational ethical theory?
morality grows out of our relationship with animals and one another
- duties depend on whether they are close to us or not
- our treatment of animals effects treatment of humans
What is the animal rights ethical theory?
good results cannot justify evil means
- fixed ethical rules place limits on our treatments on animals
What is the respect for nature ethical theory?
we have a moral duty to protect and preserve animal species as they are found in nature
- we have a duty to protect not just individual animals, but species, preservation of these species is morally good and do not genetically modify them
What is the Animal Welfare Act of 1966?
- people who legitimately buy, sell, and/or breed animals must have a license and follow animal care and use laws
- institutions that perform research MUST be registered and acquire animals from approved sources
What are the cateogories of regulatory requirements for research facilities?
- must be registered
- have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) that assesses any request to use animals
- trained employees
- attending veterinarian
What is the Horse Protection Act?
makes it unlawful for any person to show, exhibit, sell, or transport sore horses, cannot participate
What is soring and its purpose?
accomplished by irritating or blistering a horse’s forelegs with chemical irritants (such as mustard oil) or mechanical devices
walking horses are known for possessing a naturally smooth gait, but in order to be more successful in competitions, their gait will often be exaggerated
USDA wants to eliminate this
What is the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act?
humane handling and slaughter of livestock was public policy
prevents needless suffering, better working conditions, better economies
What are TN state animal cruelty laws?
- animal fighting
- cruelty
- cremation
also pet purchaser protection/puppy “lemon laws”
What does Maine require?
requires judges to consider the well-being of the companion animal and certain relevant factors when determining with whom the animal will live (animals are more than just property)
