Animal welfare science is the scientific study of the welfare of animals as pets, in zoos, laboratories, on farms and in the wild. Although animal welfare has been of great concern for many thousands of years in religion and culture, the investigation of animal welfare using rigorous scientific methods is a relatively recent development. The world's first Professor of Animal Welfare Science, Donald Broom, was appointed by Cambridge University (UK) in 1986.
Animal welfare science can be considered as the assessment of welfare. The first publication to include the term "assessment" appears to be a 1965 appendix by William Homan Thorpe entitled The assessment of pain and distress in animals.[3] This was followed 20 years later by a highly influential paper on assessing pain and distress in laboratory animals by Morton and Griffiths.[4]
Methods of assessment
Animal welfare science uses a variety of behavioural or physiological measures or indicators. Integrated approaches to assess animal welfare include risk analysis and semantic modelling[clarification needed] of animal welfare.[5]
Organisations interested in animal welfare science were set up before the subject became recognised as a science. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was founded in 1824 by a group of twenty-two reformers led by Richard MartinMP (who would thereby earn the nickname Humanity Dick), William Wilberforce MP and the ReverendArthur Broome. The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) history can be traced to the founding in 1926 of the University of London Animal Welfare Society (ULAWS) by Major Charles Hume. The name was changed to the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare in 1938, reflecting the increasingly wide range of people and institutions involved.
More recent organisations involved in animal welfare science include the Scientists Center for Animal Welfare (SCAW) and university departments specialising in this branch of science including the Animal Welfare and Anthrozoology Center at Cambridge University, the Animal Welfare Science Centre at The University of Melbourne in Australia and the Animal Welfare Science and Bioethics Centre at Massey University in New Zealand.
Veterinary journals carrying articles on animal welfare have been published for many years, for example, the Veterinary Record has been published weekly since 1888. Peer-reviewed scientific journals have been launched more recently, e.g. Applied Animal Behaviour Science in 1974, Animal Welfare in 1992, the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science in 1998,[32] and Frontiers in Veterinary Science—Animal Behavior and Welfare in 2014.
Many books on animal welfare science have been written, for example those by Professor Marian Stamp Dawkins,[33] Professor David Fraser,[34] Michael Appleby, Barry Hughes and Joy Mench,[35] John Webster,[36] and David Mellor et al.[37]
Teaching
In 2011 in an article on the history of animal welfare science, Donald Broom wrote "The numbers of animal welfare scientists is increasing rapidly. The subject is now being taught in all European countries and the number of university courses on animal welfare in Brazil has increased from one to over 60 in 15 years. The diversity of animal welfare science is increasing and the expansion is likely to continue. The decision by the American Veterinary Medical Association to promote the teaching of the subject in all American veterinary schools will have a substantial effect."[38]
^"AWIC". Archived from the original on 2 March 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2011.
^Thorpe, W.H., (1965). The assessment of pain and distress in animals. Appendix III in the report of the technical committee to enquire into the welfare of animals kept under intensive husbandry conditions, F.W.R. Brambell (chairman). H.M.S.O., London
^Morton D.B.; Griffiths P.H.M. (1985). "Guidelines on the recognition of pain, distress and discomfort in experimental animals and an hypothesis for assessment". Veterinary Record. 116 (16): 431–436. doi:10.1136/vr.116.16.431. PMID3923690. S2CID34686008.
^Claes A.; Attur Shanmugam A.; Jensen P. (2010). "Habituation to environmental enrichment in captive Sloth Bears-effect on stereotypies". Zoo Biology. 29 (6): 705–714. doi:10.1002/zoo.20301. PMID20069629.
^ abSherwin C.M.; Richards G.J.; Nicol C.J. (2010). "Comparison of the welfare of layer hens in 4 housing systems in the UK". British Poultry Science. 51 (4): 488–499. doi:10.1080/00071668.2010.502518. PMID20924842. S2CID8968010.
^Brunberg E.; Wallenbeck A.; Keeling L.J. (2011). "Tail biting in fattening pigs: Associations between frequency of tail biting and other abnormal behaviours". Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 133 (1–2): 18–25. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2011.04.019.
^Dawkins M.S. (1989). "Time budgets in red junglefowl as a baseline for the assessment of welfare in domestic-fowl". Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 24: 77–80. doi:10.1016/0168-1591(89)90126-3.
^McBride G.; Parer I.P.; Foenander F. (1969). "The social organization and behaviour of the feral domestic fowl". Animal Behaviour Monographs. 2: 125–181. doi:10.1016/s0066-1856(69)80003-8.
^Stolba A.; Wood-Gush D.G.M. (1989). "The behaviour of pigs in a semi-natural environment". Animal Production. 48 (2): 419–425. doi:10.1017/s0003356100040411.
^Sherwin C.M.; Glen E.F. (2003). "Cage colour preferences and effects of home-cage colour on anxiety in laboratory mice". Animal Behaviour. 66 (6): 1085–1092. doi:10.1006/anbe.2003.2286. S2CID53191108.
^Sherwin C.M. (2004). "The motivation of group-housed laboratory mice, Mus musculus, for additional space". Animal Behaviour. 67 (4): 711–717. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.08.018. S2CID53181481.
^Mendl M.; Burman O.H.P.; Parker R.M.A.; Paul E.S. (2009). "Cognitive bias as an indicator of animal emotion and welfare: Emerging evidence and underlying mechanisms". Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 118 (3–4): 161–181. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2009.02.023.
^Zimmerman P.H.; Lundberg A.; Keeling L.J.; Koene P. (2003). "The effect of an audience on the gakel-call and other frustration behaviours in the laying hen (Gallus gallus domesticus)". Animal Welfare. 12 (3): 315–326. doi:10.1017/S0962728600025823. S2CID145114602.
^Laws N.; Ganswindt A.; Heistermann M.; Harris M.; Harris S.; Sherwin C. (2007). "A case study: fecal corticosteroid and behavior as indicators of welfare during relocation of an asian elephant". Journal of Applied Animal Wlfare Science. 10 (4): 349–358. doi:10.1080/10888700701555600. PMID17970634. S2CID46617133.
^Accorsi P.A.; Carloni E.; Valsecchi P.; Viggiani R.; Garnberoni M.; Tarnanini C.; Seren E. (2008). "Cortisol determination in hair and faeces from domestic cats and dogs". General and Comparative Endocrinology. 155 (2): 392–402. doi:10.1016/j.ygcen.2007.07.002. PMID17727851.
^Royo F.; Mayo S.; Carlsson H.E.; Hau J. (2008). "Egg corticosterone: A noninvasive measure of stress in egg-laying birds". Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery. 22 (4): 310–314. doi:10.1647/2008-001.1. PMID19216258. S2CID21155214.
^Lewis M.H., Presti M.F., Lewis J.B. and Turner, C.A. (2006). The neurobiology of stereotypy I: Environmental complexity. In Stereotypic Animal Behaviour: Fundamentals and Applications to Welfare, G. Mason and J. Rushen (Editors). CABI pp. 190-226. doi:10.1079/9780851990040.0190
^Hughes B.O.; Gilbert A.B.; Brown M.F. (1986). "Categorisation and causes of abnormal egg shells: relationship with stress". British Poultry Science. 27 (2): 325–337. doi:10.1080/00071668608416885. PMID3742268.