Franck Meijboom - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Franck Meijboom

Animal Welfare, 2023

Rodent control tends to involve methods that cause animal suffering, but little attention has bee... more Rodent control tends to involve methods that cause animal suffering, but little attention has been paid to the animal welfare implications of rodent control. The aim of the current study was to gain insight into the opinions and attitudes of clients of Dutch pest controllers, regarding liminal rodents, rodent control, and rodent welfare. A better understanding of their attitudes may contribute to more ethical rodent management programmes. An online survey among 248 clients of Dutch pest controllers was carried out. Respondents, especially those within the agricultural sector, have a relatively negative attitude towards rats and mice. Respondents in the agricultural subgroup do not consider the welfare of liminal rodents important. They also think that the welfare impact of commonly used control methods is limited, and they have low tolerance levels for the presence of rodents. Respondents from other sectors have a far more positive attitude towards rats and mice, consider their welfare to be of greater importance, have a greater estimation of the welfare impact of control methods and show greater tolerance levels towards rodents. The respondents from the latter subgroup have a similar attitude compared to Dutch pest controllers participating in a previous survey. The findings of the current study firstly provide useful information for the further development and practical implementation of preventive control methods. Secondly, they provide input for a more animal-friendly rodent control and for the development of an assessment framework to support ethical decisionmaking. Finally, they can be helpful for further research and the communication and cooperation between professional pest controllers and their clients. Introduction Commensal Norway and black rats (Rattus norvegicus and R. rattus) and house mice (Mus musculus) are killed in large numbers globally because they cause different forms of nuisance and are considered pest animals. Nuisance can take various forms, including damage to human property, consumption or contamination of food and feed, spread of disease or simply being an unwanted presence. Rodents, that can be considered liminal animals, are often stigmatised as aliens or invaders that do not belong in human societies (Donaldson & Kymlicka 2011). Liminal animals are non-human animals that are neither wild, nor domesticated, and live their lives amidst humans between nature and culture (Donaldson & Kymlicka 2011). Commensal rats, house mice and pigeons are examples of animals that are considered liminal by Donaldson and Kymlicka (2011). Little attention tends to be paid to the welfare and moral status of liminal rodents and this topic remains is often largely neglected in the practice of rodent management (Van Gerwen & Meijboom 2018). Meanwhile such controls as coagulant rodenticides, cholecalciferol and glue traps are commonly used which have a severe or even an extreme impact on animal welfare (

Animals in Education: Ethical Perspectives

What does it take to know nonhuman animals? In this essay, we explore diverse ways of knowing ani... more What does it take to know nonhuman animals? In this essay, we explore diverse ways of knowing animals in veterinary education, bringing out biases and preconceptions that determine not only which animals are known, but also how they are known. Contemplative pedagogy engenders a more holistic way of knowing by fostering one’s ability to be truly present with others.

Trust is on the public agenda. This general attention to trust is remarkable, because it is not a... more Trust is on the public agenda. This general attention to trust is remarkable, because it is not a new phenomenon. It has a long tradition and has been considered as an essential element within a society for ages. On top of this, trust is essential for social life, but also implicit by nature. All this attention to trust is a signal putting us on the alert. People have to rely on others, but often do not know whom to trust. I call this the 'problem of trust'. To focus on this problem in general runs the risk of making the discussion rather indefinite. To forestall such vagueness I focus my analysis on a specific sector: the agricultural and food sector. The problem of trust can easily be recognised in this sector. The study analyses the ‘problem of trust’ as a question of trustworthiness. Rather than conceiving the problem of trust as a failure of the truster, I treat the public attention to trust as a sign of questions of trustworthiness. This is, as a problem that focuses...

Public Understanding of Science

Gene editing is an emerging technology with diverse applications in the making, including in live... more Gene editing is an emerging technology with diverse applications in the making, including in livestock. While the technology is commonly represented as offering unbounded possibilities and societal benefit, it remains unclear how to characterise public views and the process through which responses are developed. Rather than simply being about individual attitudes, beliefs or preferences, we explicate an interpretative approach that seeks to understand how people make sense of the technology in the form of shared cultural idioms and stories. Based on five anticipatory focus group discussions with Dutch publics, we found the prevalence of five narratives shaping public talk, namely, technological fix, the market rules, in pursuit of perfection, finding the golden mean and governance through care. We explore the implications of these findings for governance and reflect on the virtues of sophrosyne and phronesis as offering ways to reconfigure the practice and politics of gene editing.

Animal Ethics in Animal Research

Human Rights and Sustainability, 2016

The Routledge Handbook of Trust and Philosophy, 2020

Climate change and sustainable development, 2012

Recently the Council for Animal Affairs issued a report, entitled the ‘Agenda for Future Animal P... more Recently the Council for Animal Affairs issued a report, entitled the ‘Agenda for Future Animal Policy’. One of the topics in this report is the emphasis on the need for the government to come to a more explicit and transparent justification for animal use. It is claimed that arguments that refer to tradition or existing practices of animal use are, or at least will be no longer a sufficient justification for the use of animals for a number of goals including, company, sports, science, and food. This need was recognized by the government and resulted in a project of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture, and Innovation on the ethical justification of keeping animal (2011). One of the elements of this project was a series of focus group discussions with stakeholders on the moral values that underlie their practices of keeping animals. A second part of this project is an analysis of the problem of moral justification of keeping animal. This paper is the result of and presents some parts of this project. I start with a discussion of the question of why justification is needed. At this point the answer can both start from respect for public opinions and from specific views on the moral status of animals. In the latter case there are regular references to the intrinsic value of the animal. A notion that is even included in the law. The problem is that this concept is not used in a clear and univocal way. This is problematic, because a reference to intrinsic value may include different points of view on the moral position of animals and the acceptability of keeping animals. In this short paper, I try to distinguish three different views on the moral value of animals and the related view on the justification on animal use. And I propose to reserve only one interpretation to the reference of intrinsic value, i.e. the view that animals, based on some (higher) cognitive capacities, are worth of due respect as individuals and thus should be considered as end in themselves and not merely as means to human goals. This does not disqualify the other views. On the contrary, by using a more strict definition of the intrinsic value view, I think it is possible to understand and value the other moral position better.

Effectiviteit en welzijnsaspecten van kastvallen (verdrinkingsvallen) voor de bestrijding van sch... more Effectiviteit en welzijnsaspecten van kastvallen (verdrinkingsvallen) voor de bestrijding van schadelijke wilde knaagdieren. Wageningen Livestock Research, Openbaar Rapport 1362. Samenvatting NL In dit rapport worden de effectiviteit en welzijnsaspecten van kastvallen (verdrinkingsvallen) voor de bestrijding van schadelijke wilde knaagdieren onderzocht, met speciale aandacht voor de Ekomille  of EKO1000 val. De conclusie is dat dergelijke systemen effectief kunnen zijn in bepaalde situaties, maar dat de welzijnsimpact van de Ekomille  wordt ingeschat op ernstig tot extreem. Dat komt doordat dieren in de Ekomille  bij bewustzijn verdrinken. Fabrikanten zouden bij een herontwerp aandacht kunnen besteden aan het direct bedwelmen van dieren en/of het verkorten van de tijd tot bewustzijnsverlies en/of overlijden. Summary EN This report examines the effectiveness and animal welfare aspects of drowning traps for the control of harmful wild rodents, with special attention to the Ekomille  or EKO1000 trap. The conclusion is that such systems can be effective in certain situations, but that the welfare impact of the Ekomille  is estimated to be severe to extreme. This is because animals in the Ekomille  drown consciously. When redesigning, manufacturers could pay attention to direct stunning of animals and/or shortening the time to loss of consciousness and/or death. Dit rapport is gratis te downloaden op https://doi.org/10.18174/565367 of op www.wur.nl/livestock-research (onder Wageningen Livestock Research publicaties). Dit werk valt onder een Creative Commons Naamsvermelding-Niet Commercieel 4.0 Internationaallicentie.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-lan-10.1177_0023677221990688 for Animal models for cystic fibrosi... more Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-lan-10.1177_0023677221990688 for Animal models for cystic fibrosis: a systematic search and mapping review of the literature. Part 2: nongenetic models by Cathalijn HC Leenaars, Rob BM de Vries, Joey Reijmer, David Holthaus, Damian Visser, Anna Heming, Janneke Elzinga, Rosalie WM Kempkes, Wouter Beumer, Carine Punt, Franck LB Meijboom and Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga in Laboratory Animals

Supplemental Material for Animal models for cystic fibrosis: A systematic search and mapping revi... more Supplemental Material for Animal models for cystic fibrosis: A systematic search and mapping review of the literature – Part 1: genetic models by Cathalijn HC Leenaars, Rob BM De Vries, Anna Heming, Damian Visser, David Holthaus, Joey Reijmer, Janneke Elzinga, Rosalie WM Kempkes, Carine Punt, Wouter Beumer, Franck LB Meijboom and Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga in Laboratory Animals

Drug development suffers from high attrition rates; promising drug candidates fail in clinical tr... more Drug development suffers from high attrition rates; promising drug candidates fail in clinical trials. Low animal-to-human translation may impact attrition. We previously summarised published translational success rates, which varied from 0% to 100%. Based on analyses of individual factors, we could not predict translational success. Several approaches exist to analyse effects of combinations of potential predictors on an outcome. In biomedical research, regression analysis (RGA) is common. However, with RGA it is challenging to analyse multiple interactions and specific configurations (≈ combinations) of variables, which could be highly relevant to translation. Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is an approach based on set theory and Boolean algebra. It was successfully used to identify specific configurations of factors predicting an outcome in other fields. We reanalysed the data from our preceding review with a QCA. This QCA resulted in the following formula for successful t...

Clocks & Sleep, 2021

Animals, including humans, frequently make decisions involving risk or uncertainty. Different str... more Animals, including humans, frequently make decisions involving risk or uncertainty. Different strategies in these decisions can be advantageous depending the circumstances. Short sleep duration seems to be associated with more risky decisions in humans. Animal models for risk-based decision making can increase mechanistic understanding, but very little data is available concerning the effects of sleep. We combined primary- and meta-research to explore the relationship between sleep and risk-based decision making in animals. Our first objective was to create an overview of the available animal models for risky decision making. We performed a systematic scoping review. Our searches in Pubmed and Psychinfo retrieved 712 references, of which 235 were included. Animal models for risk-based decision making have been described for rodents, non-human primates, birds, pigs and honey-bees. We discuss task designs and model validity. Our second objective was to apply this knowledge and perform...

Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics, 2015

A common perception in many countries of Europe and North America seems to be that consequences o... more A common perception in many countries of Europe and North America seems to be that consequences of climate change are something to be expected in the future. Yet, if one moves the attention to developing countries of the Global South, e.g. to Southeast Asia and the Oceanic islands, climate change is the reality of adverse conditions that people struggle with now. While rich countries still debate proper mitigation efforts, perhaps slowly moving towards measures of adaptation and resilience, poor countries focus on justice in damage compensation and controls, and restoration efforts-a debate that potentially involves burden sharing with a special responsibility of the rich countries, since their lifestyles caused or at least disproportionally contributed to the problem in the first place. Nowhere is this more evident than in the agricultural and food sector, extending into the overarching questions of sustainable land use under conditions of climate change. This whole complex of issues demands ethical reflection. The community of scholars involved in the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics (www.eursafe.org) hence dedicated the 10th EurSafe Congress to Climate Change and Sustainable Development: Ethical Perspectives on Land Use and Food Production.

Journal of fish biology, 2021

Laboratory Animals, 2020

Before starting any (animal) research project, review of the existing literature is good practice... more Before starting any (animal) research project, review of the existing literature is good practice. From both the scientific and the ethical perspective, high-quality literature reviews are essential. Literature reviews have many potential advantages besides synthesising the evidence for a research question. First, they can show if a proposed study has already been performed, preventing redundant research. Second, when planning new experiments, reviews can inform the experimental design, thereby increasing the reliability, relevance and efficiency of the study. Third, reviews may even answer research questions using already available data. Multiple definitions of the term literature review co-exist. In this paper, we describe the different steps in the review process, and the risks and benefits of using various methodologies in each step. We then suggest common terminology for different review types: narrative reviews, mapping reviews, scoping reviews, rapid reviews, systematic revie...