p- 20 - Flashcards
What are the five freedoms?
- Freedom from hunger and thirst -access to fresh water and a diet for full health and vigour,
• 2. Freedom from discomfort -an appropriate environment with shelter and comfortable rest area,
• 3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease -prevention or rapid treatment,
• 4. Freedom to express normal behaviour -adequate space and facilities, company of the animal’s own kind,
• 5. Freedom from fear and distress -conditions and treatment which avoid mental sufferings.
What are the guiding principles for animal welfare?
- There is a critical relationship between animal health and animal welfare.
- The internationally recognised ‘five freedoms’ (freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition; freedom from fear and distress; freedom from physical and thermal discomfort; freedom from pain, injury and disease; and freedom to express normal patterns of behaviour) provide valuable guidance in animal welfare.
- The internationally recognised ‘three Rs’ (reduction in numbers of animals, refinement of experimental methods and replacement of animals with non-animal techniques)
provide valuable guidance for the use of animals in science. - The scientific assessment of animal welfare involves diverse elements which need to be considered together, and that selecting and weighing these elements often involves valuebased assumptions which should be made as explicit as possible.
- The use of animals in agriculture and science, and for companionship, recreation and entertainment, makes a major contribution to the wellbeing of people.
- The use of animals carries with it an ethical responsibility to ensure the welfare of such animals to the greatest extent practicable.
- Improvements in farm animal welfare can often improve productivity and food safety and hence lead to economic benefits. (e.g. Can only castrate pigs without anaesthesia
below 1 week of age) - Equivalent outcomes based on performance criteria, rather than identical systems based on design criteria, be the basis for comparison of animal welfare standards and recommendations.
What are the three R?
Reduction
Refinement
Replacement
What is an intervention of the animal?
Harmful or painful interventions, (e.g. branding) apart from routine husbandry procedures and immediate interventions in the interest of the animal, can only be undertaken by a competent person with special qualification or experience.
• Interventions without the use of an anaesthesia may only be done if the application of an anaesthetic or the necessary fixing of the animal would cause at least as much pain as the
intervention itself.
• Interventions for the purpose of changing the appearance of the animals and other surgical interventions which are not carried out therapeutically or prophylactically in the interest of the animal’s health must not be done, except of castration.
• For marking of animals those methods must be used, which are the least painful for the animal
Reasons for killing an animal
• Animals must not be killed unless it is justified by acceptable reasons or conditions.
Acceptable reasons are the following: especially food production, fur production, population control, incurable disease, injury, risk of infection, pest control, prevention of an otherwise unavoidable attack, and scientific research.
• Animals can only be killed after stunning. The obligation of stunning does not apply to invertebrate animals, to poultry and rabbits slaughtered for home consumption (must be stunned at the slaughter house), and in cases where killing of the animal is necessary due to an emergency situation (e.g. if attacked by an animal). (Question e.g. When would stunning not be obligatory?)
what is cruelty to animals?
• Any person who is engaged in the unjustified abuse or unjustified mistreatment of vertebrate animals resulting in permanent damage to the animal’s health or in the animal’s destruction
o Or who abandons, dispossess or expels a domesticated vertebrate animal or a dangerous animal is guilty of a misdemeanour
• The penalty for a felony shall be higher, if the criminal offense is carried out in a manner to cause undue suffering to the animal, or results in permanent damage to several animals or in the destruction of more than one animal
What is a criminal offence?
A criminal offense is committed with intent if the person conceives a plan to achieve a certain result, or acquiesces to the consequences of his conduct.
• An act of crime is committed by criminal negligence where the perpetrator is able to anticipate the possible consequences of his conduct, but carelessly relies on their nonoccurrence,
or fails to foresee such possible consequences through conduct
characterised by carelessness and negligence
What is a forbidden surgical intervention?
Surgical operations for the purpose of modifying the appearance of a pet animal or for other non-curative purposes shall be prohibited and, in particular:
o The docking of tails (Hungary: until the age of 7 days in certain breeds);
o The cropping of ears;
o Devocalisation;
o Declawing and defanging
Which methods of killing a pet are prohibited?
o Drowning and other methods of suffocation if they do not produce immediate loss of consciousness and death;
o The use of any poisonous substance or drug, the dose and application of which cannot be controlled so as to give the effect mentioned above;
o Electrocution unless preceded by immediate induction of loss of consciousness
Euthanasia of pet animals rules
The animal health authority has to ensure that animals whose further life would be accompanied with continuous suffering with no relief available, which are incurably ill, whose owners are not known, or which are unowned, or the wild animals that are unfit for life in the wild, are painlessly killed.
• The termination of life of the animal can be initiated by its owner, the notary, or the regional authority of the state responsible for nature preservation.
When would stunning not be obligatory?
invertebrate animals, to poultry and rabbits slaughtered for home consumption (must be stunned at the slaughter house), and in cases where killing of the animal is necessary due to an emergency situation (e.g. if attacked by ananimal
killing methods for farm animals
Animals shall be spared any avoidable excitement, pain, or suffering during movement ,restraint, stunning, slaughter and killing Methods: • Decapitation • Dislocation of neck • Vacuum chamber • Free bullet • CO2 exposure • Electrocution
