Animal Welfare

Researchers in Canada continue to study animal behaviour and housing systems so that improvements in animal production can be made based on sound scientific information, rather than perceptions of what we think animals require. Oxford biologist Marion Stamp Dawkins stresses that we must learn about the real needs of animals, which may differ from species to species. She says that it would be ridiculous to assess the welfare of bats by asking "how would you like to sleep hanging upside down in a damp, dark cave!"

Measuring animal welfare is difficult, simply because an animal cannot verbally express what it prefers. Productivity (how productive the animal is for our purposes) has long been a measure of the "contentedness" an animal feels, in that a stressed animal seldom produces as well as a contented animal. Farmers and the scientific community are now suggesting that other measures besides productivity need to be used as indicators of animal welfare.

Preference testing is the process researchers use to assess the situation animals would most prefer to be in. A simple example from nature would be an animal choosing the shade to rest in, rather than direct sunlight, if it is feeling too hot. Preference tests have been used frequently with domestic fowl, and recent findings in England suggest that hens prefer:

• Larger cages to smaller ones;
• Turf floor to a wire floor in the cage;
• An empty cage or one containing a small number of unfamiliar hens to one containing a large number of unfamiliar hens;
• A cage containing familiar hens to one containing unfamiliar hens.

The problem with preference tests is that they only provide information about the relative properties of the choices given, which makes interpreting results difficult. For instance, some humans might have a strong preference for either butter or margarine, but it is impossible to say from this preference that their welfare is being jeopardized if they are being fed that which they least prefer. Similarly, given a choice of two adverse conditions, both humans and non-human animals will choose the least adverse of the two, but welfare would be reduced by exposure to either.

A Case Study

Compact fluorescent light bulbs are considerably more energy efficient than conventional incandescent light bulbs, but farmers and Ontario Hydro wanted to know if the former would have any effects on poultry before they promoted these bulbs.

Fluorescent tubes flicker at an intensity which mammals cannot detect, but birds are known to have a high critical fusion frequency and could perceive the flickering of the lights. To test the hens' preferred lighting arrangement, researchers gave them a choice between two chambers with different lighting conditions. Overhead video cameras monitored the activity of the birds, and final analysis of their activity indicated that hens actually preferred the chambers with the fluorescent lighting.

More Facts

It has been "proven" that animals in close confinement do suffer even if they are physically healthy. The minimum requirements of food, shelter, and water are no longer enough for the well-being of a farm animal.

Researchers have also noted that animals resort to a "compensatory function" of movement when they need to add stimulation to a boring environment. Conversely, there is also a "de-arousal function," the term given by scientists to describe the motions of an animal in an over-stimulated environment. A researcher must determine which stress (over or under-stimulation) the animal is suffering from before solutions can be recommended. For example, the pacing of a hyena in an enclosure in a zoo could be a result of the animal being bored (under-stimulated), or over-stimulated because of the people looking at it. The researcher must understand the exact motivation for the behavior before changing the animal's surroundings.

The welfare of farm animals has traditionally been understood in terms of the following general principles:

• adequate air, water, and feed-according to the biological requirements of each species;
• safe housing and sufficient space-to prevent injuries and ensure normal health and growth;
• appropriate complexity of the environment-to prevent either deprivation or fear;
• regular (daily) supervision and effective health care-to prevent illness and initiate prompt assistance when required;
• sensible handling-through all stages of an animal's life, to avoid unnecessary suffering.

With the exception of beef cattle (and some goats and sheep) most Canadian farm animals are now raised in some form of controlled housing. This housing protects animals from extreme weather conditions, predators, insects and parasites and many diseases. It also helps farmers monitor the animals' health more closely and provide proper nutrition and sanitation.

Caged laying hens do have restricted movement, but this type of housing provides each hen with clean water, and a regular supply of nutritionally balanced feed. Cleanliness is maintained for both the birds and the eggs we consume.

Research on free-range chickens indicates that all is not perfect with this system. In operations where many birds are housed in one central location, few birds tend to leave the most crowded spaces. This situation may be the result of the birds being unable to find the exits, or dominant birds preventing others from leaving. Chickens are known to prefer dense vegetation, not the grass and open soil which surrounds many chicken yards. Cannibalism, resulting from stressed living conditions, is common in groups of chickens as small as 20 birds.

As well as needing food and water, researchers have recently found that hens need dust baths, perches and moldable nesting material in a larger cage.

Time was when picture perfect farms dotted this rolling countryside. Spacious red barns opened onto breezy pastures. Chickens chased one another round barnyards, stirring up dust devils. And sows lolled in mud on hot summer days, their piglets close by.

Not anymore. Stark metal sheds are gradually replacing barns here and across rural North America. Inside some of them, laying hens are packed wing to wing in wire cages, stacked like crates one above the other. In others, rows of sows chained at the neck lie on their side while newborn piglets clamber over them. Veal calves spend all their short lives in a two-foot wide stalls, unable to turn around. And many former barnyard denizens never see daylight or walk on the ground (Wall Street Journal, 18 December, 1981).

In 1989, the Toronto Humane Society reported that "virtually all of the pork, poultry, eggs, veal, milk and milk by-products come from animals confined in steel, mechanized, factory-like buildings that are scattered throughout the southern third of Canada." The concerns they have with farming include, "the reduction of the numbers of farms and farmers employed in farming, the inhumane and cruel treatment of factory farmed animals, the use of hormones and other drugs for weight gain and disease control and the environmental impact of intensive farming practices."

Veal production as summarized by the Toronto Humane Society in 1989 is as follows:

• Day old calves are tied to bedless crates measuring 66 cm wide, 1.2 m long and 1.2 m high;
• Calves are unable to turn around;
• Calves are fed a watery mix of dried milk laced with starch, sugar, fat and antibiotics;
• Calves suffer from neuroses, anemia, diarrhea, stomach ulcers, bowel problems and swollen joints;
• Two out of every ten veal calves locked in this form of confinement die;
• At 15 weeks of age calves are slaughtered.

The Ontario Farm Animal Council (OFAC) states, in its pamphlet Veal Farming that:

• Veal farmers purchase calves (usually at auction barns). They prefer them to be a minimum of 7-10 d old. Dairy calves are normally separated from the cow within 24 h of birth. The cow is milked and the calf is pail fed for 2-3 d until it receives sufficient colostrum for good health protection. The cow then gets to the business of producing milk. Producing milk is why dairy cows are kept;
• 65% of veal calves are kept in stalls, and the remaining 35% in pens of 20-50. Research studies indicate that calves in stalls are more comfortable and are more easily cared for;
• Calves spend 75-80% of their time laying down, they can stand up, stretch and groom themselves in their stalls;
• Veal calves are fed a diet which is probably more well balanced than most of us eat;
• Veal feeds do not contain any antibiotics without a prescription from a veterinarian. Antibiotics are not used unless there is a specific health problem with an individual calf. Putting any kind of medication into a feed seldom makes sense because a sick animal is unlikely to eat very well;
• Any animal that is clinically anemic will not live long. Veal calves are actually fed iron and are checked several times during their life span to make sure they are not anemic.

Relevant information

• The number of pure vegetarians who can be fed on the amount of land needed to feed one person on a meat-based diet is 20.
• The number of people on earth who starve to death every day is 40 000. The number of people who could be fed by the grain saved if Americans reduced their meat intake by 10% is 60 million.
• The wingspan of the average leghorn chicken is 66 cm, while the space allotted to the average hen in production is 15 cm.
• Since 1900 almost 2 million freeborn wild horses have been killed because they eat grasses wanted by western beef cattle ranchers for their animals.
• The farming community is willing to make changes which will benefit the welfare of their animals. There are often enormous costs for such changes-which the farming community can only make based on accurate scientific data, and the financial support of the consumer.
• Canadians enjoy the second cheapest per capita food costs in the world-partially because of the efficiencies in technology now under scrutiny by animal rights activists.
• Government bodies, research specialists, producers and the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies have banded together to prepare "Recommended Codes of Practice" for each of the commodity groups. These codes define the best conditions for raising farm animals, and are easily revised in response to ongoing research.