A Critical Literature on Animal Welfare (original) (raw)

Animal Welfare and Animal Rights: an Examination of some Ethical Problems

Journal of Academic Ethics, 2017

The spectacle of the relentless use and abuse of animals in various human enterprises led some human beings to formulate animal welfare policies and to offer philosophical arguments on the basis of which the humane treatment of animals could be defended rationally. According to the animal welfare concept, animals should be provided some comfort and freedom of movement in the period prior to the moment when they are killed. This concept emphasizes the physiological, psychological, and natural aspects of animal life with the focus on freedom. Ironically, however it is not concerned with the rights of animals; nor is it interested in their remaining alive. So, animals are least benefitted by such provisions, which is the major concern for those who defend animal rights. It seems dubious to demand comfort for a being in life, but not security for its actual life, since rights and freedom are essential for the maintenance of a normal life. This paper aims to (a) critically analyze the animal welfare system, which prioritizes only freedom; (b) to demonstrate how animal welfare is incomplete without animal rights and how they are closely related to each other; and (c) to bridge the gap between animal welfare and animal rights. The underlying principle of animal welfare concept is restricted by its anthropocentric framework with the result that the ethical element is missing. Mere 'freedom' is not sufficient for constituting an ideal animal welfare domain. In order to achieve real animal well-being, it is necessary to consider both the rights as well as the welfare of animals.

Recent Studies and Issues in Animal Welfare (Review Essay)

Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics

Scholarly work on animal welfare has become a vast and multidimensional field in the last couple of decades. This review looks at two general books that offer helpful overviews of some of the central issues and perspectives involved, as well as one more specialized study. The first book, The Human Use of Animals, is, as its Preface notes, "the first volume of case studies devoted to the ethical issues of human interactions with animals" (v). Collaboratively written by experts from diverse backgrounds, including philosophy, veterinary medicine, and law, the book includes sections on biomedical research, cosmetic safety testing, behavioral research, wildlife research, education, food and farming, companion animals, and religious rites. The longest sections are those on biomedical and behavioral research and farming practices, traditional foci for debates on animal welfare. While far from exhausting the situations that raise ethical questions regarding the treatment of non-human animals, the case studies cover the best-known controversies, including medical research on primates, ape language studies, and veal farming, among others.

Animal Welfare: From Concepts to Reality

Oecologia Australis, 2009

In this review, we provide a brief retrospective history of the science of animal welfare and recognize the sentience of non-human animals; however, we emphasize that crucial problems remain regarding how to define and measure animal welfare. In general, the use of physiological measures to assess welfare is discouraged. Furthermore, there is a theoretical background for measures of stress, but not for welfare states because life may not be at risk. Instead, a preference or choice-based approach, which is based on the animal decision, is recommended. To this end, welfare is discussed and then contrasted with disease, health, stress and distress. In addition, the importance of prospective capacities for the welfare of human and non-human animals is discussed.

The three pillars of applied farm animal welfare

Veterinarski glasnik, 2021

There is an evident difference in the implementation level of animal welfare (AW) across the societies and countries worldwide. Although multiple factors contribute to these differences, we can summarize them into a three pillar concept, the three aspects of applied farm AW. The objective of this review is to analyse applied AW on farms from the ethical, economic and animal health aspects. Modern ethics emphasizes biocentrism against anthropocentrism, the modern ethical concept of bioethics. Additionally, beside the differences among the major ethical concepts, there is a consensus that AW deserves a respectful place. An animal?s economic value is not only limited by its material value determined by the inputs and outputs. Thus, rather than being simply considered as a ?stock-good? machine, animals are valued as a sentient beings with ?added value?, which has an impact on the final product price. Animal health and welfare are interconnected and are based on the impact of AW on healt...

Animal welfare: a progressive construction from the animal background and its environment

Animal welfare is a growing issue in modern farming systems due to a perceived mismatch between animals’ actual environments and their natural habitats, acknowledgement that animals are sentient beings, and societal awareness not only that animal production matters but also that the production methods matter. Welfare implies that the biological needs of animals are fulfilled and, more importantly, that the animals feel “well.” What emotions animals can feel is now documented, and methods have been developed to assess how well an animal feels. The welfare of an individual depends on its living environment, genetics, and past experiences, with the result that each individual may perceive a triggering situation differently. Farming system design needs to evolve to encompass the welfare provided to animals based on actual living conditions and the animals’ background. Improvements have been proposed so that it is now possible to integrate animal welfare into farming conditions that meet...

Farm animal welfare concept: From beginnings to integration in modern production systems

Biotehnologija u stocarstvu

The farm animal welfare science has undergone a thorny path of development, often disputed because of its lack of measurability and the purpose of existence. At the very beginning, primarily based on moral and ethical attitudes, over time it pointed to the importance of meeting the needs of animals and the consequences of their neglect and exhaustion in the conditions of intensive livestock production. An important segment of its development was the definition and development of methodologies for the assessment of welfare indicators, which made it measurable and accepted as a scientific discipline with the knowledge applicable and useful in modern production systems. This paper is a concise review of the evolution of the animal welfare science, but also an indication of its future in the context of the development of "symbiotic" connections with the concepts of sustainable agriculture and food safety as integral parts of the modern ecological movement arose from a unified ...