Measuring Welfare

Question 1

Why should welfare be measured scientifically?

Answer 1

Adds objectivity to the debate

Impartial evidence as to the state of welfare in different conditions and environments

Question 2

What five factors contribute to ones views on animal welfare issues?

Answer 2

Economics
Ethical stance
Pyschological factors and life experience 
Politics 
Scientific information

Question 3

Give two definitions of welfare

Answer 3

McGlone 1993 - A poor state of welfare exists only at the point where physiological systems are disturbed and survival or reproduction is impaired
Duncan 1993 - neither health nor lack of stress nor fitness is necessary or sufficient to conclude that an animal has good welfare - welfare is dependant upon what an animal feels

Question 4

How do consciousness and cognition differ?

Answer 4

Cognition - processing/understanding information

Conciousness - feeling emotions

Question 5

What are the two approaches to measuring welfare?

Answer 5

Motiviation and preference testing 
Welfare indicators (behaviour/physical/physiological)

Question 6

Define suffering or what may cause suffering?

Answer 6

“Animlas differ if denied resources they are strongly motivated to obtain or if exposed to stimuli they will work chard to avoid”

Question 7

What are the problems associated with preference and motivation testing? How have some of these been overcome?

Answer 7

• may show short term preference for something that is damaging in the long term (i.e. proximate v ultimate needs)
  > long term, closed economy studies
• limited number of alternative choices, dictated by the experimenter
  > use food as a baseline need/reuirement/desire
• individual animal preferences (experiential and genetic components)
• difficult to evaluate existing husbandry systems in the long term

Question 8

What are the assumptions used when looking at welfare indicators?

Answer 8

• biological response of animals in apparently unpleasant situations reflects the degree of suffering they experience
• anthropomorphic - bio indicators of humans reflect animals in similar states

Question 9

Outline the process of developing a welfare indicator test

Answer 9

• Situation defined as unpleasant (BY US)
• Animal exposed to this
• Biological response measured
• Consistent réponse to a number of unpleasant situations taken as indictors of poor welfare and suffering
• indicators used to assess the impact of a new situation on welfare and suffering
• situation defined as unpleasant!
  > Bit of a vicious cycle

Question 10

Which three points should be considered when using welfare indicators?

Answer 10

• Measurements should be non-invasive so as not to stress the animals
• Indicators should be appropriate to the situation eg. long/short term
• knowledge of the function of the indicator will aid interpretation eg. cortisol/cortisone may be released in + encounters (eg. sex) as well well as -, and there are stressful situations (eg. heat stress) where cortisol is not released

Question 11

What is the optimum way to measure welfare? Give an example where this has been used

Answer 11

Combine welfare indicators with motivate/preference testing
- Welfare of fur farmed mink
> 8 resources offered
> measures of desire include
= ELASTICITY of demand for resources (does demand v as price^)
= max COST paid per resource in kg
= TOTAL EXPENDITURE (no. of times accessed * price)
- top three resources denied for 24 hours
- urinary cortisol measured -> was high

Question 12

What are the problems still remaining with preference testing?

Answer 12

• experience of the resource may be necessary before it becomes valuable
• deprivation may only be stressful in the short term
• other resources may be more valued in the presence/abscence of others eg. if ball and swimming pool are offered may both appear to be less valued whereas if only one play related option present may be highly valued