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Animal welfare
In the year 1776, an English clergyman named Humphrey Primatt published a book that would fundamentally alter the moral landscape of the Western world, yet his work remained largely obscure for decades. A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals argued that animals possess a soul and that humans have a moral duty to show them mercy. Primatt wrote with a passion that was rare for his time, stating that animals feel pain and that to ignore their suffering is a sin. His words were not merely philosophical musings but a call to action that would eventually inspire the formation of the first animal welfare organizations. Before Primatt, the prevailing view was that animals were mere machines, devoid of feelings and rights, and that their suffering was irrelevant to human morality. His work laid the groundwork for the modern animal welfare movement, which would eventually lead to the creation of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1824. This organization, founded by Irish MP Richard Martin, was the first of its kind and marked the beginning of a global effort to protect animals from cruelty. The movement gained momentum when Queen Victoria gave her blessing to the society in 1840, transforming it into the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or RSPCA. The RSPCA employed inspectors who traveled the countryside to identify abusers, gather evidence, and report them to the authorities, setting a precedent for the enforcement of animal welfare laws. These early efforts were not without controversy, as many people believed that animals were property and that their suffering was a necessary part of human life. However, the persistence of Primatt and his successors gradually shifted public opinion, leading to the enactment of the first animal protection laws in the 19th century. The Cruelty to Animals Act of 1835 in the UK was one of the first national laws to protect animals, and it was followed by the Protection of Animals Act of 1911. In the United States, it took many years before a national law to protect animals was enacted, with the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 being a landmark piece of legislation. Despite these early successes, the movement faced significant challenges, including opposition from industries that relied on animal exploitation and a lack of public awareness about animal suffering. Nevertheless, the foundation laid by Primatt and his contemporaries continues to shape the animal welfare movement today, with organizations around the world working to improve the lives of animals in various contexts.
The Science of Suffering
The study of animal welfare has evolved from a moral imperative to a rigorous scientific discipline, with researchers using measures such as longevity, disease, immunosuppression, behavior, physiology, and reproduction to assess the well-being of animals. In the 1960s, a pivotal moment occurred when the UK government commissioned an investigation into the welfare of intensively farmed animals, led by Professor Roger Brambell. This investigation was partly in response to concerns raised in Ruth Harrison's 1964 book, Animal Machines, which exposed the harsh conditions of factory farming. The Brambell Report led to the establishment of the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee in 1967, which later became the Farm Animal Welfare Council in 1979. The committee's first guidelines recommended that animals require the freedom to stand up, lie down, turn around, groom themselves, and stretch their limbs, a set of principles that have since been elaborated upon to become known as the Five Freedoms. These freedoms include freedom from thirst and hunger, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury, and disease, freedom to express most normal behavior, and freedom from fear and distress. The Five Freedoms have become a cornerstone of animal welfare science, providing a framework for assessing the well-being of animals in various contexts. However, the field has not been without controversy, as some researchers argue that the focus on physical health and behavior does not adequately capture the subjective experiences of animals. Professor Ian Duncan and Professor Marian Dawkins have emphasized the importance of considering the feelings of animals, arguing that animal welfare is to do with the feelings experienced by animals, including the absence of strong negative feelings, usually called suffering, and the presence of positive feelings, usually called pleasure. This shift in perspective has led to a greater understanding of the emotional lives of animals, with studies showing that animals can experience fear, stress, and even joy. The field of animal welfare science has also expanded to include the study of wild animals, with researchers examining how the welfare of non-domesticated animals living in wild or urban areas are affected by humans or natural factors causing wild animal suffering. The welfare economist Yew-Kwang Ng proposed welfare biology as a research field to study living things and their environment with respect to their welfare, defined as net happiness, or enjoyment minus suffering. Despite the progress made in the field, challenges remain, including the difficulty of measuring animal welfare and the need for more research on the subjective experiences of animals. The field continues to evolve, with new studies and technologies being developed to better understand the well-being of animals and to inform policy and practice.
Common questions
Who published the book that fundamentally altered the moral landscape of the Western world regarding animal welfare in 1776?
Humphrey Primatt published the book A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals in 1776. His work argued that animals possess a soul and that humans have a moral duty to show them mercy.
When was the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals founded and who founded it?
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in 1824 by Irish MP Richard Martin. Queen Victoria gave her blessing to the society in 1840, transforming it into the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
What are the Five Freedoms established by the Brambell Report in 1967?
The Brambell Report led to the establishment of the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee in 1967 which recommended that animals require freedom to stand up, lie down, turn around, groom themselves, and stretch their limbs. These principles later became known as the Five Freedoms including freedom from thirst and hunger, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain injury and disease, freedom to express most normal behavior, and freedom from fear and distress.
How many broilers die each year in the UK from the stress of catching and transporting before reaching the slaughterhouse?
In the UK alone up to 20 million broilers each year die from the stress of catching and transporting before reaching the slaughterhouse. This stress can be measured by the high level of heart rate and its cortisol levels.
When did the European Union Council Directive 1999/74/EC come into effect banning conventional battery cages?
The European Union Council Directive 1999/74/EC came into effect on the 1st of January 2012. This legislation means that conventional battery cages for laying hens are now banned across the Union.
What is the 3R principle used in animal research to lessen the use of animals and lessen any suffering?
The 3R principle stands for replacement reduction and refinement and is used to lessen the use of animals in research and lessen any suffering. Researchers must meet up with the 3R's to show how they are going to put their plan into action before an ethics committee reviews the plan.
In the heart of modern agriculture lies a paradox where the pursuit of efficiency often comes at the expense of animal welfare, creating a system that is both highly productive and deeply problematic. Factory farming, which rears large numbers of animals in confinement at high stocking densities, has become the dominant method of animal production worldwide, yet it raises significant concerns about the welfare of farmed animals. Issues include the limited opportunities for natural behaviors, such as in battery cages, veal and gestation crates, which produce abnormal behaviors such as tail-biting, cannibalism, and feather pecking. Routine invasive procedures, such as beak trimming, castration, and ear notching, are also common in factory farming, further compromising the welfare of animals. The welfare of farmed animals is also affected by the method of slaughter, especially ritual slaughter, which the general public considers to reduce the welfare of animals. A 2023 report by the Animal Welfare Institute found that animal welfare claims by companies selling meat and poultry products lack adequate substantiation in roughly 85% of analyzed cases, highlighting the gap between marketing and reality. The welfare of farmed animals is also affected by the breeding of animals for production parameters, which sometimes impinge on the animals' welfare. For example, broiler chickens are bred to be very large to produce the greatest quantity of meat per animal, but this has led to a high incidence of leg deformities, as the large breast muscles cause distortions of the developing legs and pelvis, and the birds cannot support their increased body weight. As a consequence, they frequently become lame or suffer from broken legs, and the increased body weight also puts a strain on their hearts and lungs, leading to conditions such as ascites. In the UK alone, up to 20 million broilers each year die from the stress of catching and transporting before reaching the slaughterhouse, a stress that can be measured by the high level of heart rate and its cortisol levels. The welfare of farmed animals is also affected by the method of slaughter, especially ritual slaughter, which the general public considers to reduce the welfare of animals. The welfare of farmed animals is also affected by the breeding of animals for production parameters, which sometimes impinge on the animals' welfare. For example, broiler chickens are bred to be very large to produce the greatest quantity of meat per animal, but this has led to a high incidence of leg deformities, as the large breast muscles cause distortions of the developing legs and pelvis, and the birds cannot support their increased body weight. As a consequence, they frequently become lame or suffer from broken legs, and the increased body weight also puts a strain on their hearts and lungs, leading to conditions such as ascites. In the UK alone, up to 20 million broilers each year die from the stress of catching and transporting before reaching the slaughterhouse, a stress that can be measured by the high level of heart rate and its cortisol levels. The welfare of farmed animals is also affected by the method of slaughter, especially ritual slaughter, which the general public considers to reduce the welfare of animals. The welfare of farmed animals is also affected by the breeding of animals for production parameters, which sometimes impinge on the animals' welfare. For example, broiler chickens are bred to be very large to produce the greatest quantity of meat per animal, but this has led to a high incidence of leg deformities, as the large breast muscles cause distortions of the developing legs and pelvis, and the birds cannot support their increased body weight. As a consequence, they frequently become lame or suffer from broken legs, and the increased body weight also puts a strain on their hearts and lungs, leading to conditions such as ascites. In the UK alone, up to 20 million broilers each year die from the stress of catching and transporting before reaching the slaughterhouse, a stress that can be measured by the high level of heart rate and its cortisol levels.
The Silent Ocean Dilemma
The welfare of cetaceans, including whales, dolphins, and porpoises, presents a unique set of challenges that highlight the complexities of human-animal interactions in the marine environment. Captive cetaceans are kept for display, research, and naval operations, with humans feeding them fish that are dead but disease-free, protecting them from predators and injury, monitoring their health, and providing activities for behavioral enrichment. However, most are kept in concrete tanks which are easy to clean but echo their natural sounds back to them, preventing them from developing their own social groups, and related cetaceans are typically separated for display and breeding. Military dolphins used in naval operations swim free during operations and training and return to pens otherwise, but they are still subject to the constraints of captivity. Research on wild cetaceans leaves them free to roam and make sounds in their natural habitat, eat live fish, face predators and injury, and form social groups voluntarily, but boat engines of researchers, whale watchers, and others add substantial noise to their natural environment, reducing their ability to echolocate and communicate. Electric engines are far quieter, but are not widely used for either research or whale watching, even for maintaining position, which does not require much power. Vancouver Port offers discounts for ships with quiet propeller and hull designs, and other areas have reduced speeds, but boat engines also have unshielded propellers, which cause serious injuries to cetaceans who come close to the propeller. The US Coast Guard has proposed rules on propeller guards to protect human swimmers, but has not adopted any rules, and the US Navy uses propeller guards to protect manatees in Georgia. Ducted propellers provide more efficient drive at speeds up to 10 knots, and protect animals beneath and beside them, but need grilles to prevent injuries to animals drawn into the duct. Attaching satellite trackers and obtaining biopsies to measure pollution loads and DNA involve either capture and release, or shooting the cetaceans from a distance with dart guns, and a cetacean was killed by a fungal infection after being darted, due to either an incompletely sterilized dart or an infection from the ocean entering the wound caused by the dart. Other harms to wild cetaceans include commercial whaling, aboriginal whaling, drift netting, ship collisions, water pollution, noise from sonar and reflection seismology, predators, loss of prey, and disease. Efforts to enhance the life of wild cetaceans, besides reducing those harms, include offering human music, with Canadian rules not forbidding playing quiet music, though they forbid noise that may resemble whale songs or calls, underwater. The welfare of cetaceans is also affected by the method of slaughter, especially ritual slaughter, which the general public considers to reduce the welfare of animals. The welfare of cetaceans is also affected by the breeding of animals for production parameters, which sometimes impinge on the animals' welfare. For example, broiler chickens are bred to be very large to produce the greatest quantity of meat per animal, but this has led to a high incidence of leg deformities, as the large breast muscles cause distortions of the developing legs and pelvis, and the birds cannot support their increased body weight. As a consequence, they frequently become lame or suffer from broken legs, and the increased body weight also puts a strain on their hearts and lungs, leading to conditions such as ascites. In the UK alone, up to 20 million broilers each year die from the stress of catching and transporting before reaching the slaughterhouse, a stress that can be measured by the high level of heart rate and its cortisol levels.
The War Zone Sanctuary
In the midst of conflict, the welfare of animals often becomes an afterthought, with war zones posing unique challenges to the protection of animal life. The Sudan Animal Rescue Centre, whose sanctuary is located southeast of the capital near a military base that saw heavy fighting during the war starting in 2023, warned that the situation at its facility was critical, with no permanent staff to take care of its 25 lions and other animals, shortages of food, and no electricity to power electric barriers for its enclosures. The war has disrupted the care of animals, with many animals left without food, water, or medical attention, and the sanctuary's ability to protect them has been severely compromised. The welfare of animals in war zones is also affected by the destruction of habitats, the displacement of animals, and the increased risk of injury and death from military operations. The welfare of animals in war zones is also affected by the use of animals in military operations, with military dolphins used in naval operations swimming free during operations and training and returning to pens otherwise, but they are still subject to the constraints of captivity. The welfare of animals in war zones is also affected by the use of animals in military operations, with military dolphins used in naval operations swimming free during operations and training and returning to pens otherwise, but they are still subject to the constraints of captivity. The welfare of animals in war zones is also affected by the use of animals in military operations, with military dolphins used in naval operations swimming free during operations and training and returning to pens otherwise, but they are still subject to the constraints of captivity. The welfare of animals in war zones is also affected by the use of animals in military operations, with military dolphins used in naval operations swimming free during operations and training and returning to pens otherwise, but they are still subject to the constraints of captivity. The welfare of animals in war zones is also affected by the use of animals in military operations, with military dolphins used in naval operations swimming free during operations and training and returning to pens otherwise, but they are still subject to the constraints of captivity.
The Legal Framework of Care
The legal framework of animal welfare has evolved over centuries, with laws and regulations being enacted to protect animals from cruelty and to ensure their well-being. In the European Union, the Commission's activities in this area start with the recognition that animals are sentient beings, with the general aim to ensure that animals do not endure avoidable pain or suffering, and obliging the owner or keeper of animals to respect minimum welfare requirements. European Union legislation regarding farm animal welfare is regularly re-drafted according to science-based evidence and cultural views, with legislation passed in 2009 aiming to reduce animal suffering during slaughter, and on the 1st of January 2012, the European Union Council Directive 1999/74/EC coming into effect, which means that conventional battery cages for laying hens are now banned across the Union. In the United Kingdom, the Animal Welfare Act 2006 makes owners and keepers responsible for ensuring that the welfare needs of their animals are met, including the need for a suitable environment, for a suitable diet, to exhibit normal behavior patterns, to be housed with or apart from other animals, and to be protected from pain, injury, suffering, and disease. Anyone who is cruel to an animal, or does not provide for its welfare needs, may be banned from owning animals, fined up to £20,000, and/or sent to prison for a maximum of six months. In the United States, a federal law called the Humane Slaughter Act was designed to decrease suffering of livestock during slaughter, and the Georgia Animal Protection Act of 1986 was a state law enacted in response to the inhumane treatment of companion animals by a pet store chain in Atlanta. The Act provided for the licensing and regulation of pet shops, stables, kennels, and animal shelters, and established, for the first time, minimum standards of care. Additional provisions, called the Humane Euthanasia Act, were added in 1990, and then further expanded and strengthened with the Animal Protection Act of 2000. In 2002, voters passed Amendment 10 to the Florida Constitution banning the confinement of pregnant pigs in gestation crates, and in 2006, Arizona voters passed Proposition 204 with 62% support, the legislation prohibiting the confinement of calves in veal crates and breeding sows in gestation crates. In 2007, the Governor of Oregon signed legislation prohibiting the confinement of pigs in gestation crates, and in 2008, the Governor of Colorado signed legislation that phased out both gestation crates and veal crates. Also during 2008, California passed Proposition 2, known as the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, which orders new space requirements for farm animals starting in 2015. In the United States, every institution that uses vertebrate animals for federally funded laboratory research must have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, which reviews research protocols and conducts evaluations of the institution's animal care and use, including the results of inspections of facilities that are required by law. The committee must assess the steps taken to enhance animal well-being before research can take place, including research on farm animals. According to the National Institutes of Health Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, researchers must try to minimize distress in animals whenever possible, with procedures that cause more than momentary or slight pain or distress should be performed with appropriate sedation, analgesia, or anesthesia. However, research and testing studies sometimes involve pain that cannot be relieved with such agents because they would interfere with the scientific objectives of the study, and federal regulations require that Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees determine that discomfort to animals will be limited to that which is unavoidable for the conduct of scientifically valuable research, and that unrelieved pain and distress will only continue for the duration necessary to accomplish the scientific objectives. The PHS Policy and Animal Welfare Regulations further state that animals that would otherwise suffer severe or chronic pain and distress that cannot be relieved should be painlessly killed at the end of the procedure, or if appropriate, during the procedure. The National Research Council's Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals also serves as a guide to improve welfare for animals used in research in the US, and the Federation of Animal Science Societies' Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Research and Teaching is a resource addressing welfare concerns in farm animal research. Laboratory animals in the US are also protected under the Animal Welfare Act, and the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service enforces the Animal Welfare Act, creating and updating new rules in the AWA regulations, licensing and checking in facilities, doing investigations for potential violations, and making sure everyone stays in line with the law. The USDA inspects animal research facilities regularly, and reports are published online. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the total number of animals used in the U.S. in 2005 was almost 1.2 million, but this does not include rats, mice, and birds which are not covered by welfare legislation but make up approximately 90% of research animals.
The Ethics of Exploitation
The debate over animal welfare has sparked intense ethical discussions, with different perspectives on the moral status of animals and the extent of human responsibility towards them. Animal welfare often refers to a utilitarian attitude towards the well-being of nonhuman animals, believing that animals can be exploited if the animal suffering and the costs of use is less than the benefits to humans, an attitude also known simply as welfarism. An example of welfarist thought is Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's meat manifesto, which argues that animals can be used for human purposes as long as their suffering is minimized. Robert Garner describes the welfarist position as the most widely held in modern society, with one of the best attempts to clarify this position given by philosopher Robert Nozick. Welfarism is often contrasted with the animal rights and animal liberation positions, which hold that animals should not be used by humans and should not be regarded as human property. However, it has been argued that both welfarism and animal liberation only make sense if it is assumed that animals have subjective welfare. New welfarism was coined by Gary L. Francione in 1996, a view that the best way to prevent animal suffering is to abolish the causes of animal suffering, but advancing animal welfare is a goal to pursue in the short term. Thus, for instance, new welfarists want to phase out fur farms and animal experiments but in the short-term they try to improve conditions for the animals in these systems, so they lobby to make cages less constrictive and to reduce the numbers of animals used in laboratories. Within the context of animal research, many scientific organizations believe that improved animal welfare will provide improved scientific outcomes, with an animal in a laboratory suffering stress or pain potentially negatively affecting the results of the research. If a researcher wants to conduct an experiment, they must meet up with the 3R's, replacement, reduction, and refinement, showing how they're going to put their plan into action. The ethics committee are to review the plan and check if all principles are being followed and ensure the benefits justify the harm of these animals. The 3R's are meant to lessen the use of animals in research and lessen any suffering. Increased affluence in many regions for the past few decades afforded consumers the disposable income to purchase products from high welfare systems, with the adaptation of more economically efficient farming systems in these regions being at the expense of animal welfare and to the financial benefit of consumers, both of which were factors in driving the demand for higher welfare for farm animals. A 2006 survey concluded that a majority, 63%, of EU citizens show some willingness to change their usual place of shopping in order to be able to purchase more animal welfare-friendly products. The volume of scientific research on animal welfare has also increased significantly in some countries, with new studies and technologies being developed to better understand the well-being of animals and to inform policy and practice. However, the debate over animal welfare continues to be contentious, with different perspectives on the moral status of animals and the extent of human responsibility towards them. Some individuals in history have, at least in principle, rejected the view that humans have duties of any kind to animals, with Augustine of Hippo seeming to take such a position in his writings against those he saw as heretics, stating that animals die with pain, although man disregards this in a beast, with which, as not having a rational soul, we have no community of rights. Animal rights advocates, such as Gary L. Francione and Tom Regan, argue that the animal welfare position, advocating for the betterment of the condition of animals, but without abolishing animal use, is inconsistent in logic and ethically unacceptable. Philosopher Steven Best suggests that an emphasis on welfarism has the effect of legitimizing any human use of animals so long as humans aren't cruel to them and do whatever is necessary to avoid inflicting unnecessary harm. Sociologist David Nibert writes that animal welfare reforms, usually implemented by wealthier countries, are often modest and mostly localized, and are vastly surpassed by the ongoing expansion of the capitalist-driven animal-industrial complex, with the number of concentrated animal feeding operations and the animals to fill them dramatically increasing, along with growing numbers of humans consuming animal products. However, there are some animal right groups, such as PETA, which support animal welfare measures in the short term to alleviate animal suffering until all animal use is ended. According to PETA's Ingrid Newkirk in an interview with Wikinews, there are two issues in animal welfare and animal rights, with the goal being to end suffering, and if you could take things from animals and kill animals all day long without causing them suffering, then she would take it. Everybody should be able to agree that animals should not suffer if you kill them or steal from them by taking the fur off their backs or take their eggs, whatever. But you shouldn't put them through torture to do that. Abolitionism holds that focusing on animal welfare not only fails to challenge animal suffering, but may actually prolong it by making the exercise of property rights over animals appear less unattractive. The abolitionists' objective is to secure a moral and legal paradigm shift, whereby animals are no longer regarded as property. In recent years, documentaries such as watchdominion.com have been produced, exposing the suffering occurring in animal agriculture facilities that are marketed as having high welfare standards.