Veterinary authorities and animal welfare organizations--is cooperation possible?

Veterinarians and private animal welfare workers both work for the importance of animal welfare in our society. Although both work for a common cause, co-operation and communication between the veterinary administration and animal welfare members is often difficult. This paper will demonstrate the cause of problems between the two bodies and the benefits of co-operation will be assessed. Strategies to optimise the co-operation between the veterinary administration and animal rights organisations will be described using the local district Kleve as an example. Experiences with the animal welfare societies in this region will be illustrated with the aim to show the important supporting possibilities of the animal rights organisations to back the official authorities activities. Also the need to encourage the partly disappointing co-operation between these two bodies with the exchange of information would be beneficial for both bodies.     

30 years animal welfare legislation: where are the problems of application?

The contribution deals with legal structure, organization and problems of application of the Swiss animal welfare legislation of 1978. Besides positive effects considerable problems with the application of the legislation occurred, in particular in housing of bovines, swine and laying hens. Punishable acts of animal protection in companion and pet animals were markedly increasing in the last years, particularly in dogs. There were also loopholes in the legislation, which could be filled by the new animal welfare law of 2005 and the animal welfare ordinance of 2008 with only a few exceptions.     

Do citizens and farmers interpret the concept of farm animal welfare differently?

Animal welfare is of increasing importance in livestock production and consumption debates. However, discordance exists between citizens' and farmers' perception of animal welfare. Since the search for, and the realization of improvements towards farm animal welfare is strongly driven by citizen expectations, it is of utmost importance to better understand this perceptual discordance. A quantitative study was done in Flanders, Belgium during 2006, including citizens as well as farmers, to obtain a detailed insight in the way the multi-dimensional concept of farm animal welfare is valued. This allowed to discriminate between issues of agreement and disagreement. In general, a similar interpretation of farm animal welfare in terms of animal welfare related aspect's ranking was found. Differences were mainly related to aspects dealing with the ability to engage in natural behaviour on the one hand and with production process-related aspects on the other hand. Citizens evaluate the current state of animal welfare as rather problematic, while farmers report a more satisfactory evaluation of the present condition of farm animal welfare. Especially differing opinions regarding the ability to engage in natural behaviour, together with aspects related to pain, stress and the availability of space seem to contribute to the discordance between farmers and citizens in terms of evaluative beliefs.