Farm Animal Welfare Concerns And Responses
Background
It is popular to evoke farming with images such as chickens scratching around in the dirt, pigs snuffling their way through piles of apples in an orchard and cows chewing the cud lazily. But these images go back to past generations of farms when they were usually 'mixed' operations, that is to say they grew mostly small grains, had a few dozen chickens for eggs and pigs for meat. In hilly areas the farmer would keep sheep and would also have cows for milk. At that time, farming was primarily a means to feed the farmer's family, and the luxury of surplus crops earned some limited income through the sale of produce at the local market.
After the Second World War, technology allowed farmers to produce more food for a rapidly increasing world population, one that was increasingly urban with fewer and fewer people engaged in primary agricultural production. It was the beginning of the "green revolution" in agriculture, and the implementation of large-scale production techniques and facilities that transformed a farmer from someone who produced food for the farm family and a few other people, into someone who could produce food for the farm family and 100 other people. The use of chemical inputs and heavier agricultural machinery was introduced. Animals started to be fed with processed feeds which were nutritionally balanced so that they would grow faster and produce more, and to optimize these gains, most pigs, chickens, cows and sheep were kept inside. Farmers, understandably, are trying to maximize productivity in an economic climate where the cost of producing food has to be kept as low as possible to meet consumer demand while still yielding a profit for farmers.
There are limits, therefore, to the extent of animal welfare if agricultural productivity is to continue. From the farmer's point of view, animals are there to produce food: living creatures that turn raw materials - forages, grains and water - into meat, eggs, dairy products and clothing. To provide the same level of welfare as for a pet would involve extra costs that consumers are not willing to pay. There is, then, a balance: farmers know that an animal that is well fed, well housed and content is one that will be productive. Even though the animal will eventually be slaughtered for consumption, making sure the animal is comfortable in its environment for the length of its life, however short, is of utmost concern to the farmer.
Close confinement, overcrowding, intensive feeding, lack of food or water, inadequate housing or shelter, poor health care, psychological stresses such as very early weaning, and physical abuses are the general welfare concerns for farm animals. While most of the attention is paid to the egg-laying hens housed in battery-cages, these concerns apply to range animals as well. Fairbairn quotes British animal scientist A. J. F. Webster to make the point: "The British suburban sheep kept underfed over winter on a soaking pasture close to a housing estate may be half starved, uncomfortably cold and wet, suffer from crippling foot rot and parasitism, and be in constant danger of attack from marauding dogs. It is, however, free to indulge in normal activities (like panic and flight), so has attracted less concern than, say, the battery hen."
There is, therefore, a plus and a minus to every situation where animals are raised for food. The balance between extremes is the essential element in enhancing the welfare of the animal while permitting the farm to operate in a reasonably efficient manner. Chickens are raised for meat and eggs and are kept confined in order to maximize their productive capacity. They receive a nutritious diet, clean and dry shelter, are free from pests as well as the aggressive behaviour of neighbours and predators. The agricultural evaluation of an animal's condition is that poor or inappropriate welfare conditions leads to stress, which in turn can lead not only to loss of productivity but also to illness and eventually death.
Balance
The essential element in welfare of confined farm animals is whether certain modern practices can be modified or eliminated, in particular whether better management can replace physical constraints. In the poultry sector, for example, lighting and population densities can be adjusted to minimize aggressive behaviour and therefore eliminate the need for de-beaking. Similarly for pigs, the introduction of "toys" such as rattling chains prevents boredom and the consequent tail biting that ensues; tail docking can also be eliminated. In sheep, however, tail docking remains a necessity, especially since the animals remain outside most of the year on pasture. Sheep with tails get very dirty around their hind quarters, attracting flies, other parasites and eventually infection and disease if the tail is not removed at an early age.
The farmer has to weigh every change in animal welfare between the improved comfort of the animal and the costs of implementing those modifications, and whether or not the consumer is willing to pay an increased price for the food produced in such a manner. For example, a lot of research work has been carried out at the University of Guelph on alternate housing facilities for sows as a replacement for the farrowing crate. Farrowing crates have received a lot of criticism for the way in which they confine the sow, not allowing any lateral movement for weeks at a time; the sow can only stand up or lay down. The farrowing crate is used widely, however, as the best way to prevent the mother sow from crushing her piglets when she lays down; as she does so, the piglets all rush toward her in anticipation of feeding at her teats, and prior to the introduction of the farrowing crate, piglet mortality was high due to the sow laying down on top of eager and unwitting piglets. New pens have been designed and experimented to replace the crates but will cost large sums of money to install as replacements for existing facilities.
Exercise
Some farm animals have a life span of only a few weeks, others of many years, and so exercise is a situation that varies. Broiler hens now mature to market weight in only six weeks, and pigs in five months; exercise is less of an issue, then, than with dairy cows or sows which have breeding lives of four to ten years. Exercise promotes longevity and lack of it results in leg and foot problems, compromising the animal's welfare. The veal sector has suffered a lot of criticism, especially for the production of white veal, for keeping the calves immobile in very small pens in order to produce the most tender meat. Recent regulations mandate larger pen sizes to allow the calves to move around and group pens are being introduced for in some types of production.
Natural Behaviours
The replication of a state as close to the natural environment of the animal as possible is, of course, one of the hardest things to do. Such natural behaviours as nesting, dustbathing and burrowing have therefore disappeared in confinement housed animals. Research has been on-going to look at ways in which some of these activities might be re-introduced as means of increasing animal comfort.
Dehorning and Castration
If both these practices are carried out when the animals are very young, the discomfort is brief and minimized. Horns can be cauterized or removed with a paste, and castration is a simple and effective operation using a surgical knife and disinfectant or an elastic band. They are, however, painful and stressful procedure for mature animals and should be, if necessary, carried out with the assistance of a vet.
De-horning can also be eliminated through genetic selection, whereby hornless animals become the predominant breed. Castration can also, in many cases, be eliminated through different approaches to raising animals. Castration of the testicles has been traditionally used to remove the very strong odour imparted to the meat by uncastrated males which grew to full maturity before being slaughtered. Now, beef and pork males are slaughtered before full maturity and with proper management can be marketed uncastrated with only a few carcasses tainted by the strong male odour. The problem for farmers, however, is who will pay for those few animals that are tainted as the consumer will not buy them and the abattoirs will not purchase them either. A mechanism for achieving consensus between the farmgate and the kitchen table would be necessary to establish a means to implement such a change in production practices even if it is technically feasible.
Handling
Below: cow being clipped.
Poor handling practices are both a serious welfare and economic problem.
They can result in significant pain, injury, stress and distress
for the animal and in a loss of income from bruising, susceptibility
to disease (the immune response is decreased) and lower reproductive rates. The principal reasons for poor cattle handling are the lack of knowledge
of animal behavior, such as the reasons for balking or stampeding,
for example. Others are poor equipment or improper use of existing
equipment. Much of this could be resolved with appropriate information
and encouraging the use of more "animal-friendly" equipment (without sharp edges for example). A number of specialty productions have brought criticism to animal-based
agriculture because of the particular way the animals are confined;
most notable of these is the white veal sector. Again, white veal
is a traditional delicacy food in which the old ways have had difficulty
adapting to the introduction of modern production methods. White
veal was traditionally a calf raised only on it's mother's milk and
then slaughtered at a very early age, providing for a very light-coloured
and finely textured meat. In modern confinement systems, the cow's
milk was replaced with powder milk substitutes and calves confined
in individual, small enclosures that deprived the calves of several normal behaviors.
To obtain white veal under these conditions, producers restricted
the iron intake of the calves since the redness of the meat depends
on certain iron-containing compounds found in muscles and blood.
Hence, this diet can produce anemia in some calves. Another dietary
welfare problem is that veal are fed only with milk or milk replacer
and no roughage. In such a case, the rumen and its microflora develop
unnaturally and leading to enteritis and indigestion from hairballs. Recent management codes for veal producers have altered these production
techniques. Instead, calves are fed adequate roughage from the second
week of life. Group housing (also called loose housing) allows the
calves limited movement and the chance to interact with one another.
This also has its problems as less aggressive calves may not receive
proper amounts of feed and disease can be transmitted more easily
due to common bedding and drinking source. Specialty Productions
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