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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.
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