Animal emotions, behaviour and the promotion of positive welfare states

This paper presents a rationale that may significantly boost the drive to promote positive welfare states in animals. The rationale is based largely, but not exclusively, on an experimentally supported neuropsychological understanding of relationships between emotions and behaviour, an understanding that has not yet been incorporated into animal welfare science thinking. Reference is made to major elements of the neural/cognitive foundations of motivational drives that energise and direct particular behaviours and their related subjective or emotional experiences. These experiences are generated in part by sensory inputs that reflect the animal's internal functional state and by neural processing linked to the animal's perception of its external circumstances. The integrated subjective or emotional outcome of these inputs corresponds to the animal's welfare status. The internally generated subjective experiences represent motivational urges or drives that are predominantly negative and include breathlessness, thirst, hunger and pain. They are generated by, and elicit specific behaviours designed to correct, imbalances in the animal's internal functional state. Externally generated subjective experiences are said to be integral to the operation of interacting 'action-orientated systems' that give rise to particular behaviours and their negative or positive emotional contents. These action-orientated systems, described in neuropsychological terms, give rise to negative emotions that include fear, anger and panic, and positive emotions that include comfort, vitality, euphoria and playfulness. It is argued that early thinking about animal welfare management focused mainly on minimising disturbances to the internal functional states that generate associated unpleasant motivational urges or drives. This strategy produced animal welfare benefits, but at best it could only lift a poor net welfare status to a neutral one. In contrast, strategies designed to manipulate the emotional action-orientated systems have the potential to replace the negative emotions generated within those systems with positive ones, and thereby may lift a poor net state of welfare beyond the neutral point to a net positive state. It is hoped that the analysis presented here will enhance the drive to promote positive welfare states by providing cogent and convincing neuropsychological support for the formulation of additional, more directed welfare code recommendations and standards that focus on the animal's behaviour.     

Assessing attitudes toward farm animal welfare: a national survey of animal science faculty members

A survey to measure attitudes toward farm animal welfare was developed. We targeted animal science faculty because of their influence on animal production in the United States. We initially interviewed 34 faculty members from a large Midwestern public university to assist with questionnaire development. After our written survey was developed, we pilot-tested our questionnaire at this same university. Thereafter, we sent an e-mail advance notice, first survey, and follow-up survey/thank-you to the national population of animal science faculty members. With an n = 446 (response rate = 45%), we observed the following: 51% (for layer birds), 58% (for meat birds), 66% (for swine), 84% (for dairy), 86% (for sheep), and 87% (for beef) of our respondents agreed that the predominant methods used to produce various types of animal products provided appropriate levels of animal welfare. Our findings showed that greater than 90% of respondents support general principles of animal welfare, such as keeping animals free from unnecessary fear and distress. However, specific practices that have been shown to elicit distress (e.g., castration without anesthetic) were deemed a concern by only 32% of the respondents. Various industry practices/outcomes were assessed for level of concern and varied from a high of 83% of respondents agreeing that flooring effects on lameness in intensively farmed animals are a concern, to a low of 16% agreeing that early weaning in pigs is a concern. Summed attitude scores showed significant relationships with the demographic variables of gender (P < 0.01) and political ideology (P < 0.01), with women and those holding more liberal political views being more concerned about farm animal welfare issues. Gaining an awareness of various stakeholders' attitudes (e.g., animal scientists, veterinarians, producers, and consumers) toward farm animal welfare will assist animal welfare scientists in knowing which research topics to emphasize and, perhaps, where critical gaps in accessibility of knowledge exist.     

Assessment of positive welfare: a review

As a complement to the concentration on negative states in welfare science, scientists are increasingly considering the desirability of measuring positive outcomes. Since evaluation of an animal's mental state is a critical goal for welfare assessment, considerations of both positive feelings (what an animal "likes") and resources that an animal is motivated to obtain (what an animal "wants") appear to be important. However, since animals may make choices that are not in their long-term interests, an assessment of positive feelings and resources should include an evaluation of any associated actual or potential harms, such as fear, distress, pain, injury and disease. A review of current evidence suggests that positive welfare can be best assessed by evaluation of resources (i.e. inputs) that are valued by an animal and by positive outcomes such as behavioural responses, influences on cognitive processes and physiological markers. Since negative welfare is often inversely correlated with positive welfare measures, current welfare policy will have been achieving some positive welfare outcomes, however the explicit inclusion of positive welfare outcomes in the framework allows for analyses that are both deeper and more in tune with commonsense, which can hopefully yield more objective policies.     

How to improve housing conditions of laboratory animals: The possibilities of environmental refinement

Housing systems for captive animals have often been designed on the basis of economic and ergonomic considerations, such as equipment, costs, space, workload, ability to observe the animals and to maintain a certain degree of hygiene, with little or no consideration for animal welfare. Environmental refinement can be defined as any modification in the environment of captive animals that seeks to enhance the physical and psychological well-being of the animals by providing stimuli which meet the animals’ species-specific needs. This article provides an overview of environmental factors that influence the well-being of captive animals with specific reference to the needs of the most common laboratory species.It is important to evaluate environmental refinement in terms of the benefit to the animal, by assessing the use of and preference for certain enrichment, the effect on behaviour, and the performance of species-typical behaviour on physiological parameters. It is also necessary to evaluate the impact of refinement on scientific outcome, including whether and how statistical power is affected. Communication and team work between animal welfare scientists, animal research scientists, institutional animal welfare officers, veterinarians and animal ethics committees, animal facility management and personnel, are essential for success.     

Cognitive enrichment in zoo and farm animals--implications for animal behaviour and welfare

Animals in the wild are facing a wide variety of challenges and ever-changing environmental stimuli. For successful coping, animals use both innate behavioural programs and their cognitive skills. In contrast, zoo- and farm animals have to cope with restricted husbandry conditions, which offer only few opportunities to adequately satisfy their various needs. Consequences could be sensory and cognitive underchallenge that can cause boredom and frustration as well as behavioural disturbances. Initially intended for improvement of management and husbandry, different forms of operant behavioural training have been applied firstly in zoo- and later also in farm animals. It has been suggested that successful coping with appropriate cognitive challenges is a source of positive emotions and may lead to improved welfare. Under the term cognitive enrichment, new approaches have been developed to integrate cognitive challenges into the housing of zoo- and farm animals. The present article reviews actual research in the field. Previous results indicate that, beyond improvement of management and handling routines, such approaches can positively affect animal behaviour and welfare. The combination of explorative and appetitive behaviour with successful learning improves environmental predictability and controllability for the animals, activates reward-related brain systems and can directly affect emotional processes of appraisal. For practical implementation in farm animal husbandry, it sounds promising to link individual access to e.g. automated feeders or milking systems with previously conditioned stimuli and/or discriminatory learning tasks. First experimental approaches in pigs, dwarf goats and cattle are available and will be discussed in the present article.     

动物园动物的应激行为与动物福利管理

动物园动物是人工驯养的动物,动物的应激行为表现是动物与饲养管理人员、游人之间和与笼舍环境的应激,是人为造成的。分析广州动物园动物应激行为表现,与广州动物园动物的福利水平,提出动物园动物福利管理思路和方法。减少动物园动物的应激行为,在饲养管理中定人、定点、定时、定量。在动物繁殖期分笼,设立专门的产房和育幼室。应用动物行为丰容技术和动物园笼舍建设生态化。让动物康乐生活,防疫好,疾病少,寿命长,合理繁殖。     

Social defeat models in animal science: What we have learned from rodent models

Studies on stress and its impacts on animals are very important in many fields of science, including animal science, because various stresses influence animal production and animal welfare. In particular, the social stresses within animal groups have profound impact on animals, with the potential to induce abnormal behaviors and health problems. In humans, social stress induces several health problems, including psychiatric disorders. In animal stress models, social defeat models are well characterized and used in various research fields, particularly in studies concerning mental disorders. Recently, we have focused on behavior, nutrition and metabolism in rodent models of social defeat to elucidate how social stresses affect animals. In this review, recent significant progress in studies related to animal social defeat models are described. In the field of animal science, these stress models may contribute to advances in the development of functional foods and in the management of animal welfare.     

Board-invited review: the ethical and behavioral bases for farm animal welfare legislation

Concerns about farm animal welfare vary among individuals and societies. As people increasingly consider the values underlying current farm animal production methods, farm animal welfare policy debates have escalated. Recent food animal protection policies enacted in the European Union have fueled highly contentious discussions about the need for similar legislative activity in the United States. Policymakers and scientists in the United States are apprehensive about the scientific assessment, validation, and monitoring of animal welfare, as well as the unforeseen consequences of moving too hastily toward legislating farm animal welfare. The potential impact of such legislation on producers, food prices, animals, and concerned citizens must also be considered. Balancing the interests of all stakeholders has therefore presented a considerable challenge that has stymied US policymaking. In this review, we examine the roles of ethics and science in policy decisions, discuss how scientific knowledge relative to animal behavior has been incorporated into animal welfare policy, and identify opportunities for additional refinement of animal welfare science that may facilitate ethical and policy decisions about animal care.     

圈养猩猩的行为训练

南京红山森林动物园圈养的3只猩猩在接受了行为训练后,相继完成了串笼、称重、肌肉注射、前臂静脉穿刺,及眼、耳、口、鼻、腹部和四肢检查等训练项目。所有训练项目均使用食物、响片正强化,动物在完全放松的状态下主动完成,去除了化学保定或强制保定对动物造成的伤害。动物行为训练极大地方便了日常管理,丰富了动物行为,减少了刻板行为,提高了动物福利。训练发现,训练效果主要受不同的强化物、强化时间和训练环境的影响。刺激强烈或动作复杂的训练项目可以通过动作拆分来解决。     

Science, values, and common ground

In this paper, I argue that there may be common ground shared by animal science and its critics insofar as animal scientists seek improvement in their field in four areas: the quality of their products, the quality of life for those who make their livelihood in food production, the fair treatment of human workers, and the humane treatment of animals. I also propose that there are fundamental differences between improvement motivated by profit and improvement motivated by ethical values. Positive moral change is sometimes revolutionary, although it is often a matter of promoting positive incremental changes and keeping one's attention on the effects of actions and attitudes. In conclusion, I suggest that in animal agriculture, positive change can be brought about by "getting closer" to the objects of scientific research, including nonhuman animals, by paying more attention to their welfare.     

From a philosopher's perspective, how should animal scientists meet the challenge of contentious issues?

This article reviews how professional ethics can be useful in helping animal scientists meet new responsibilities. The transition to a postindustrial period in animal production signals a shift in the nature of contentious issues that animal producers face. Whereas farm income was once the most controversial issue in animal production, producers and animal scientists now face complex risk issues that have overlapping constituencies. Animal scientists need to develop a professional ethic that will stress open and active debate on these issues. Discussion of these issues must take place in the animal science classroom. The new professional ethic should be based on core values required for scientific research. However, departments and professional societies must develop institutions that will permit the values and methods of rationality and truth seeking to be applied in areas where measurement and experimental method are unlikely to resolve disputes, (i.e., to controversial issues that require public discussion and debate). Several specific proposals for such institution building are discussed.     

动物园环境丰容与动物福利管理

环境丰容是我国动物园近十几年来新接触的概念。近年来,环境丰容逐渐地被引入到我国动物园的建设和管理中,我国动物园相继开展丰容的相关工作,并取得了一定的成效,是动物园工作中的一个热门话题。动物福利是动物的一种康乐状态。开展动物福利,对于人类、自然及社会的和谐发展有着重要的作用。要强化和完善我国的动物福利保护,必须明确动物福利的管理,确定有关的强制性法律规范,提高民众的动物福利意识。本文简要介绍了丰容原则、内容和动物福利的管理,为动物园今后更好地开展环境丰容的相关工作和如何提高动物福利的问题提供借鉴。     

Ethical stockmanship

The objective of this review is to consider the ethics of stockmanship, particularly from the perspective of the nature and extent of the duties of stockpeople to their farm animals. It will consider what science tells us about the impact of stockmanship on the animal, particularly the welfare of the farm animal. The effects of human-animal interactions on the stockperson will also be considered, since these interactions affect the work performance and job satisfaction of the stockperson and thus indirectly affect animal welfare. Animal ethics is broader than animal welfare and includes economic as well as philosophical, social, cultural and religious aspects. This paper is predicated on the view that farm animals can suffer, and that animal suffering is a key consideration in our moral obligations to animals. Housing and husbandry practices affect farm animal welfare and thus farmers and stockpeople have a responsibility to provide, at minimum, community-acceptable animal housing and husbandry standards for their animals. The farmer's or stockperson's attitudes and behaviour can directly affect the animal's welfare and thus they also have a responsibility to provide specific standards of stockmanship for these animals. However, research suggests that the behaviour of some stockpeople is not as correct as it might be. Such situations exemplify the inevitably unequal human - domestic animal relationship, and this inequality should be considered in analysing the boundary between right and wrong behaviour of humans. Thus ethical discussion, using science and other considerations and involving stockpeople, livestock industries, government and the general public, should be used to establish and assure acceptable stockperson competencies across the livestock industries. Training programs targeting the key attitudes and behaviour of stockpeople presently offer the livestock industries good opportunities to improve human-animal interactions.     

科学实验中动物致死方式的选择

在动物科学、动物医学或人类医学科研工作中,常常见到在实验过程或实验结束后,为节约成本等需要,会将实验动物致死,抱着对生命的敬畏,对动物选择适当的致死方式,使动物痛苦降低到最低程度,将成为每个科研人员必修的一课,这不但有利于科研结果得出正确的结论,也完全符合动物福利原则。     

Effects of confinement and research needs to underpin welfare standards

Although there is no agreement on how to measure animal welfare, how to interpret some of the observed changes in behavior and physiology, and how much confinement of animals is acceptable, this has not stopped animal welfare standards from being set in the form of either voluntary or mandatory recommendations. Notwithstanding that there are gaps in knowledge about a number of farming practices, there is some emphasis by scientists, industry, politicians, and some animal welfare groups for any changes to welfare-related recommendations to be based on scientific evidence. This article discusses the related issues of confinement and its effects on farm animals, research gaps in the field of animal welfare, the development of welfare standards, and whether such standards should be underpinned by science. For some issues there is a general consensus, for example, that animals feel pain and have emotions and that animals' appearance and behavior are used by good farmers to recognize both the ‘normality’ and deviations from normal of their animals. However, these variables are difficult to measure or define. Nevertheless, if issues are considered important to animals' welfare, should difficulty of measurement or definition be a barrier to the creation of legislated standards? Thus, options for legislated standards include either comprehensive standards, some of which may be difficult to measure, similar to current legislation on cruelty to animals, or only a limited number of standards with targets that can be measured, some of which may have less relevance to welfare outcomes.     

Bioethics Symposium: The ethical food movement: What does it mean for the role of science and scientists in current debates about animal agriculture?

Contemporary animal agriculture is increasingly criticized on ethical grounds. Consequently, current policy and legislative discussions have become highly controversial as decision makers attempt to reconcile concerns about the impacts of animal production on animal welfare, the environment, and on the efficacy of antibiotics required to ensure human health with demands for abundant, affordable, safe food. Clearly, the broad implications for US animal agriculture of what appears to be a burgeoning movement relative to ethical food production must be understood by animal agriculture stakeholders. The potential effects of such developments on animal agricultural practices, corporate marketing strategies, and public perceptions of the ethics of animal production must also be clarified. To that end, it is essential to acknowledge that people's beliefs about which food production practices are appropriate are tied to diverse, latent value systems. Thus, relying solely on scientific information as a means to resolve current debates about animal agriculture is unlikely to be effective. The problem is compounded when scientific information is used inappropriately or strategically to advance a political agenda. Examples of the interface between science and ethics in regards to addressing currently contentious aspects of food animal production (animal welfare, antimicrobial use, and impacts of animal production practices on the environment) are reviewed. The roles of scientists and science in public debates about animal agricultural practices are also examined. It is suggested that scientists have a duty to contribute to the development of sound policy by providing clear and objectively presented information, by clarifying misinterpretations of science, and by recognizing the differences between presenting data vs. promoting their own value judgments in regard to how and which data should be used to establish policy. Finally, the role of the media in shaping public opinions on key issues pertaining to animal agriculture is also discussed.     

Farm animal welfare research in interaction with society

Over the last 30 years concern about farm animal welfare has increased and has become a public issue in the Netherlands. Public discussion has stimulated research in this field, financed by both government and industry. Dutch society in general and consumers of animal products in particular, want to see high standards of welfare for production animals. Good animal welfare has gradually gained more impact in the total quality concept of the product. This will encourage scientists to continue to analyse the welfare status of animals and to come up with innovative solutions for the remaining problems. At ID-Lelystad much effort is put into farm animal welfare research. This research includes for example, the development of behavioural tests for quantifying and interpreting fear in cattle, investigations into the effects of dietary iron supply and a lack of roughage on behaviour, immunology, stress physiology, and pathology in veal calves, studies of the ontogeny of tail biting in finishing pigs and feather pecking in laying hens as well as evaluation of the welfare effects of automatic milking in dairy cows. The results of these projects contribute to concrete improvements in animal husbandry and expertise and support policy making and legislation. The animal industry as well as retailers should aim at the further implementation of this knowledge and to specify welfare standards to guarantee consumer acceptance of animal production.     

丰容对圈养双角犀鸟日常行为的影响

丰容是为圈养动物提供适宜生活环境，改善圈养动物行为结构的重要方法。为了探究丰容对圈养双角犀鸟日常行为的影响，于2013年1～4月对上海动物园3只双角犀鸟进行展区丰容实验。丰容方法包括在栖架上设置云梯、悬挂麻绳和玩具、使用饲喂器等。采用瞬时扫描法观察双角犀鸟的日常行为并进行统计学分析。实验结果表明，丰容前后双角犀鸟个体间行为时间分配在社群、休息、运动、动喙行为方面有显著差异；丰容对双角犀鸟的日常行为有显著的影响，且丰容后各个个体均在修饰行为、休息行为、运动行为和动喙行为方面出现显著差异，具体表现为：修饰行为、运动行为、动喙行为增加，休息行为减少。丰容前后双角犀鸟的Et常行为变化具有个体特异性及行为连锁性。丰容有利于丰富双角犀鸟的日常行为，减少刻板行为的发生，有效提高了动物福利。     

Livestock, ethics, and quality of life

Agricultural and animal scientists need to embrace a new vision beyond the single-minded existing pursuit of biological efficiency. The public in the West is no longer concerned solely with cheap food. Other paramount issues define quality of life, including: health and safety of foods; nutritional value; traditional, regional, locally produced, and organic foods; animal welfare; sustainable farming, environment, and rural resources. The paper provides examples of how the credibility of animal scientists has been lost due to some recent unethical behavior. Research, teaching and application of agricultural and animal science, especially of biotechnology, need to be reshaped into a new "Quality of Life Agricultural Era" to replace the "Era of Intensification." This new era will need fresh assumptions, beliefs and leadership to match the emerging social agenda of the 21st century. Animal scientists have a special role in implementing this new plausibility structure.     

Extending ideas about animal welfare assessment to include 'quality of life' and related concepts

Ideas within the animal welfare science arena have evolved continuously throughout the last 30 years, and will continue to do so. This paper outlines some of these developments. These included reformulation of the five freedoms concept into the five domains of potential welfare compromise. This accommodated weaknesses in the former by distinguishing between the physical/functional and the mental factors that contribute to an animal's welfare state. This development reflected a rising scientific acceptance that the mental experiences of animals were legitimate foci for study and highlighted that what the animal itself experiences represents its welfare status. Initially, most concepts of animal welfare emphasised predominantly negative subjective experiences, such as thirst, hunger and pain, and negative affective states or feelings including anxiety, fear and boredom, but today positive experiences or emotions such as satiety, vitality, reward, contentment, curiosity and playfulness are also considered to be important. During the same period, the focus shifted from evaluating the impacts of individual mental subjective experiences or emotions towards seeking a more comprehensive, multifactorial understanding. The five domains concept was specifically designed to achieve this. Subsequent notions about quality of life (QoL) had the same objective, and emphasised the importance of positive experiences. However, some approaches to QoL assessment relied heavily on empathetic speculation about what animals may experience subjectively and this raised concerns about inappropriate anthropomorphic projections. Such pitfalls may be minimised when informed personnel rigorously apply objectively based methodologies to QoL assessments limited to a short time frame. It is clear that both formal and somewhat less formal QoL assessments of this type are already used to guide decision-making about the ongoing care and therapeutic management of animals on a daily basis. However, application of the recently introduced concepts of 'a life not worth living', 'a life worth avoiding', 'a life worth living' and 'a good life' is problematical, because extending the assessment time scale to the whole of life is attended by a number of as yet unresolved difficulties. Accordingly, their value in the practical management of animals is limited so that, at present, reliance on the minimum standards and recommendations for best practice outlined in codes of practice or welfare will continue to be necessary and worthwhile. Nevertheless, these concepts have value in providing a contextual theme that strongly focuses attention on the promotion of a lifelong QoL with an overall balance that is positive.