Animal Welfare

Millions of unwanted pets enter animal shelters each year in the USA, but only a portion leave alive. Previous research has found that morphology and in-kennel behavior influence adoption. The current study evaluated whether any behaviors exhibited by dogs during an out-of-kennel interaction with a potential adopter predicted adoption. In addition, we evaluated whether other predictors such as the morphology of the dog, intention to adopt a dog that day, and location of the interaction influenced adoption. Finally, the study assessed correspondence between the potential adopters’ answers on a questionnaire and the dogs’ behavior during the interactions. The behavior of shelter dogs in out-of-kennel interactions with potential adopters was observed (n = 250). After each interaction, visitors were given a questionnaire to indicate their reasons for adopting or not adopting that specific dog. The vast majority of shelter visitors only requested to interact with only a single dog and the average duration of interaction was 8 min. Only two behaviors: ignoring play initiation by and lying in proximity to the potential adopter, but no morphological variables, influenced adoption decisions. Dogs that were adopted spent half as much time ignoring play initiation by and twice as much time lying in proximity to the adopter than dogs that were not adopted. The probability (P) of adoption was higher in a smaller outdoor concrete area (P = 0.423) than in both large grass area (P = 0.320) or an indoor room (P = 0.229). Intention to adopt a dog that day resulted in the highest probability of adoption (P = 0.586), whereas an intention to not adopt resulted in a low probability (P = 0.102). Dogs that were labeled as not social by non-adopters after an interaction had higher scores than average in ignoring play initiations. However, non-adopter reports did not exactly correspond with the dogs’ behavior during the interactions. Our findings may be used to develop targeted training programs for shelter dogs.

All farmed animals, are regarded as sentient beings so their welfare is a matter of much public concern. Positive and negative aspects of the welfare of animals during transport should be assessed using a range of behavioural, physiological and carcass quality measures. Health is an important part of welfare so the extent of any disease, injury or mortality resulting from, or exacerbated by, transport should be measured. Many of the indicators are measures of stress, involving long-term adverse effects, or indicators of pain, fear or other feelings. Some welfare assessment methods are research tools whilst others are welfare outcome indicators that can be used by a veterinary or other inspector.
Some of the key factors affecting the welfare of animals during handling and transport are: attitudes to animals and the need for staff training; methods of payment of staff; laws and retailers’ codes; journey planning; traceability of animals; genetic selection; rearing conditions and experience; the mixing of animals from different social groups; handling procedures; driving methods; space allowance per animal on the vehicle; journey length; increased susceptibility to disease; increased spread of disease and the extent to which each individual can be inspected during the journey.

Dossier de Presentación del Programa Viopet VioPet es un programa que acoge temporal o definitivamente a los animales domésticos de
víctimas de la violencia familiar. Esta iniciativa surge desde GEVHA (Grupo para el Estudio de la Violencia hacia Humanos y Animales) y el
Observatorio de Violencia Hacia los Animales a partir de la relación establecida entre la violencia hacia animales y humanos y debido a
la falta de protección de los animales que desemboca en una desprotección total de les víctimas humanas que sufren este
fenómeno.

Abstract: This paper explores consumer understanding and perception of organic food, with specific reference to the relatively new concept of organic farmed salmon. Key themes associated with the term “organic” and its meaning, as determined by consumers, are explored and the role of labelling and regulatory authorities considered. Focus groups in five countries (UK, Germany, Spain, Norway and France) consisting of 196 participants showed that most consumers are confused about the meaning of the term organic and are largely ...

The issue of using animals for research raises many concerns for Buddhists. Buddhism recognizes that all sentient life shares the same fundamental consciousness but also recognizes a difference in the ability of a species to express that basic, underlying consciousness.Ahimsa or no-harm has been a guiding principle of Buddhist ethics which applies to nonhuman species as well as humans. Conflict arises when available methods for removing some forms of human suffering are dependent upon inflicting suffering on animals. This paper explores several resolutions to the conflict, with the resulting opinion that Buddhism will condone some forms of animal research.

Modern-day zoos and aquariums market themselves as places of education and conservation. A recent study conducted by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) (Falk et al., 2007) is being widely heralded as the first direct evidence that visits to zoos and aquariums produce long-term positive effects on people’s attitudes toward other animals. In this paper, we address whether this conclusion is warranted by analyzing the study’s methodological soundness. We conclude that Falk et al. (2007) contains at least six major threats to methodological validity that undermine the authors’ conclusions. There remains no compelling evidence for the claim that zoos and aquariums promote attitude change, education, or interest in conservation in visitors, although further investigation of this possibility using methodologically sophisticated designs is warranted.

The purpose of this research was to document the alleged underrepresentation of African Americans employed in U.S. nonhuman animal welfare organizations. A telephone survey of 32 animal welfare organizations yielded responses from 13 with 1,584 employees. Almost all organizations were reluctant to respond. Of the 13 organizations responding, 62% (N = 8) had no African American employees. African Americans made up 4% (N = 63) of the total number of employees with only 0.8% (N = 12) at the top levels (officials, managers, and professionals). African Americans never made up more than 7% of the employees in their respective organization. This paper discusses a model of, and resources for, successful diversity building in nonprofit organizations.

Ahmed Khan, the author of the book being reviewed here, is the editor of CellAgri (www.cell.ag), a news and research startup which he founded in 2017 with the goal of making it the go-to place for information on cellular agriculture. Ahmed uses the catch-all term “Cell Ag” (short for cellular agriculture) to encompass this broad field of innovative products. His 59-page, free-on-line book provides a layperson-accessible explanation of Cell Ag, its origin, its scientific background, its problems, and its prospects. A key reason for the book is to provide the public with “radical transparency” about exactly what Cell Ag is, because Ahmed hopes that an educated public will be accepting of cell ag products. In addition to downloading the book and reading the CellAgri newsletter, you can listen to Ahmed talk about Cell Ag at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WlAJmQSn2c

ABSTRACT

Social relationships guide humans’ and great apes’ behaviors with conspecifics. Inter-individual relationships, based on shared social history, guide behaviors with familiar others; “generalized” relationships, based on the history of interactions with relevant classes of individuals, may guide behavior with unfamiliar others. On that basis, Hosey (2008) proposed that different human-animal relationships (HARs) guide zoo primates’ behaviors with familiar and unfamiliar humans. HARs are characterized as positive, neutral, or negative based on individual primates’ confidence, indifference, or fear with humans and their acceptance, ignoring, or avoidance human proximity and contact. I conducted the first systematic analysis of HARs with orangutans (Pongo abelii) and gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) at Toronto Zoo, Toronto, Canada by studying ape-initiated human-directed behaviors (HDBs). MANOVAs showed that human familiarity, ape age, and ape species each independently predicted affiliative HDBs (aHDBs). aHDB rates and durations were significantly higher for familiar versus unfamiliar humans [Pillai’s Trace = 0.69, F (3,18) = 13.32, p<0.01],  immature versus adult apes [Pillai’s Trace = 0.50, F (3,18) = 5.90, p=0.01], and orangutans versus gorillas [Pillai’s Trace = 0.45, F (3,18) = 4.85, p=0.01]. aHDB patterns suggest that apes used human familiarity to guide ape-human interactions, were consistent with positive and neutral/negative HARs with familiar and unfamiliar humans respectively, and suggest that negative, stressful interactions typically reported in visitor effect studies represent only one aspect of zoo ape-human interaction.

In view of recent developments in human-animal relations, vets and ethicists face a new problem: On the one hand, animals such as mammals and birds are used extensively and are in danger to be reduced to mere production units e. g. in the agricultural production, measuring devices in laboratories, sports equipment etc. On the other hand, biologically similar animals are perceived as family members or partners and are almost treated like humans. The article summarizes the results of a workshop that dealt with reductionism and anthropomorphism in human-animal relations. Vets and ethicists tackled the question how the unequal treatment of biologically similar animals can be better understood and whether it can be ethically justified. In the first section, the problem of inconsistency in human-animals relations is briefly sketched. The second part of the article addresses the ethics of unequal treatment of similar animals in different contexts. The following section inquires possible so...

Notre rapport juridique avec les animaux a-t-il changé depuis la réforme du droit animalier de 2015 ? Le Code civil du Québec établit clairement que les animaux ne sont pas des biens mais des êtres doués de sensibilité. De plus, la Loi sur le bien-être et la sécurité de l’animal prévoit de nouvelles protections juridiques visant à encadrer ce constat. Malgré ces changements législatifs, beaucoup doutent que le droit de mise à mort des animaux non humains ait évolué. Qu’en est-il vraiment ?

Cet article soutient que la réforme du droit animalier limite le droit de vie et de mort que les êtres humains exercent sur les animaux non humains. Il constate d’abord que les tribunaux considèrent que cette réforme n’a imposé aucune restriction à l’euthanasie ou l’abattage des animaux, hormis dans la méthode. L’article explique ensuite en quoi cette interprétation de la réforme du droit animalier, qui conclut à la survie d’un droit de mise à mort quel qu’en soit le motif, semble erronée. Il soutient de plus que l’évolution des mentalités pourra également affecter le droit de tuer les animaux.

This paper sets out to examine the facts behind the trade of long distance transportation of cattle. In particular it looks at the various welfare implications during handling and transport with examples from research work on cattle. The role of the science is explained and the methodology for assessing the welfare of animals is then presented. Finally, public concerns and legal position are presented as they play an important role to promote farm animal welfare principles during transportation.

The current study was performed to understand the level of sound produced by ventilated racks, animal transfer stations, and construction equipment that mice in ventilated cages hear relative to what humans would hear in the same environment. Although the ventilated rack and animal transfer station both produced sound pressure levels above the ambient level within the human hearing range, the sound pressure levels within the mouse hearing range did not increase above ambient noise from either noise source. When various types of construction equipment were used 3 ft from the ventilated rack, the sound pressure level within the mouse hearing range was increased but to a lesser degree for each implement than were the sound pressure levels within the human hearing range. At more distant locations within the animal facility, sound pressure levels from the large jackhammer within the mouse hearing range decreased much more rapidly than did those in the human hearing range, indicating that...

According to the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, 53,786 horses raced flat in the US, 30,271 in Australia and 22,995 in Japan in 2013 alone.(1) Horse racing is a lucrative business with $682,811,690 in prize money being doled out in flat and jump races in the US in 2013. (1) Unfortunately, there are numerous ethical and welfare issues associated with the practice which this poster will briefly present, arguing that the potential benefits simply do not outweigh the potential welfare costs suffered by the many equines currently racing. Welfare principles based on the Five Freedoms, such as the animal-based measures used in Welfare Quality© provide a way to assess the welfare of individual race horses. The issues include injury (See Figure 1), negative affective states, wastage, overpopulation, drug abuse and early death. While welfare measures can be particularly helpful in determining and improving the welfare of horses used intensively for sport, there still exists the ethical dilemma of using horses that may be injured, have negative affective states or potentially die in the process of providing humans entertainment and/or profit.

Extraterritorial jurisdiction stands at the juncture of international law and animal law and promises to open a path to understanding and resolving the global problems that challenge the core of animal law. As corporations have relocated and the animal industry (agriculture, medical research, entertainment, etc.) has dispersed its production facilities across the territories of multiple states, regulatory gaps and fears of a race to the bottom have become a pressing issue of global policy. This book provides enough background to allow readers to understand why extraterritorial jurisdiction must respond to these developments, counters objections that readers might raise, and describes how to improve animal law in tandem. The heart of the work is a fully-fledged catalogue of options for extraterritorial jurisdiction, which states can employ to strengthen their animal laws. The book offers top-down perspectives drawn from general international law and trade law, and complements them by a bottom-up up view from the perspective of animal law. The approach connects the law of jurisdiction to substantive law and opens up deeper questions about moral directionality, state and corporate duties owed animals, and the comparative advantages of constitutional, criminal, and administrative animal law. To ensure that extraterritorial animal law does not become complicit in oppressing ethnic and cultural minorities, the book offers critical interdisciplinary perspectives, informed by posthumanist and postcolonialist discourse. Readers will further learn when and how extraterritorial jurisdiction violates international law, and the consequences of exercising it illegally under international law. This work answers questions about how and why extraterritorial jurisdiction can overcome the steepest hurdles for animal law and help move us toward a just global interspecies community.