In the last few years the public has expressed more and more concern about the welfare of farm animals and the types of production systems that are used in animal agriculture. This has increased as agricultural production systems have intensified. Often agriculturists and animal welfare groups have a very poor understanding of each others views and dialog is difficult or unproductive. One reason for this is that the assessment of animal welfare or well-being has proved difficult and controversial.
At perhaps the other extreme is the view that humans have dominion over the world its creatures and environment and the right to exploit them for human benefit and entertainment.
Most people do not subscribe to either extreme but advocate for the humane treatment of animals while accepting that some "use " of animals by society is acceptable. This can be described as being an animal welfare perspective and is probably the majority view in society.
The basis for such legislation is that certain practices are unacceptable because of their impact on animals welfare. This begs the question of how do we assess an animals welfare and particularly the impact of a particular type of farming on that welfare. Four different approaches have been used, alone, or in various combinations.
1. Productivity
The concept is that if animal is growing well, breeding, producing milk optimally etc. its welfare must be acceptable. Clearly if an animal is not being adequately fed or is diseased then its growth and reproduction will be adversely affected. Using this as the sole basis for welfare assessment often leads to the intensive systems showing equal or superior performance to extensive or organic systems. Most people regard this as too narrow a criterium and probably a relatively insensitive measure of welfare.
2. Animal health and disease
An animals welfare is certainly disadvantaged if it diseased. and this may be related to the type of production system. For example overcrowding may lead to increased problems of respiratory or enteric diseases. A solution may be to use antibiotics prophylactically but is this treating the cause of the problem or an effect? In general problems of parasitism are greater in animals that are outside and free range compared to housed animals. Conversely housed animals may suffer greater incidences of lameness than those that are free range.
3. Physiology
Physiology describes the workings of the animal e.g. respiration, blood pressure and heart rate. While the body normally attempts to maintain a steady state (homeostasis) it has mechanisms allowing a departure from the steady state in response to various stimuli. For example if animal is threatened it will release adrenaline and other hormones to prepare it to fight or flee. Stressors such as climate , a changing environment, noise etc. may also act as stressors which, in contrast to a predator, may exhibit a chronic exposure to a stressor. In these circumstances the animal is frustrated in its attempts to resolve the issue (it cannot fight or flee) and the increased levels of hormones may lead to immune suppression and gastric ulceration. This has led to the use of blood samples to measure hormone levels to determine if an animal is stressed. A problem is that the technique is by itself invasive and may create stress. An alternative approach is to measure physiological parameters such as respiration and heart rate, which are affected by stress, by telemetry to avoid this complication.
4. Ethology
Ethology is the study of behavior. The ethologist believes that observing the behavior of an animal may give the most reliable clues as to its welfare. By observing the behaviors that a farm animal carries out in its natural environment and then comparing these with behaviors on the farm it may be possible to determine an animals welfare. For example pigs in the wild like to root around make nests for littering and so on. If kept in a barren environment, in which they are prevented from carrying out these behaviors, they make become frustrated. This may lead to the pig carrying our seemingly pointless repetitive behaviors called stereotypes. Examples are bar biting and pacing up and down. There may also be an increase in aggressive behaviors e.g. tail biting and cannibalism. Similar behaviors are frequently seen in caged animals in zoos. By comparing behavior in different environments it may be possible to reach some conclusions about the production system and animal welfare. For more information on animal behavior follow the link.
The veal calf industry has also attracted significant criticism since calves are kept in a confined space in the dark and fed a milk based diet for many weeks before slaughter. Often the calves are unable to turn around and cannot walk when released from the crates. The veal crate has been banned in Europe.
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