ANIMAL SCIENCE
CHAPTER 7
STATE OF BEING OF DOMESTIC
ANIMALS
State of Being of Domestic Animals
• Farm Animal – Welfare Debates
– “sparked” by Ruth Harrison’s book Animal
Machines (1964) depicting “factory farming”
– Debates ongoing world-wide
– Weighing the importance of animals in foodproduction and ethical responsibilities to ensure
humane treatment of animals
Purposes of Chapter 7
• Outline and provide examples of ethical,
moral, economic, legal, and policy aspects
pertaining to the state of being of animals
• Describe scientific approaches to assessing
the state of being of agricultural animals
• Identify areas where additional scientific
insight would help ensure animals actually
and usually experience well-being
Terminology Used in Controversies
Surrounding Animal State-of-Being
• Trade-offs = weighing costs and benefits
• Trumps = over-ruling a trade-off (e.g. a
violation of a basic right of an individual
animal so onerous that it cannot be justified
regardless of the benefit to others)
• Sentient = aware (conscious of sense
impressions) (e.g. sensitive to situations
where animals experience pain and suffering)
Welfare and Rights
• Welfare: the state of doing well (basic needs
being met, no abuse)
• Rights: having a basis in moral, legal or
informal claim; rights claims may be
validated by custom, ethics, or by law
Example of Animal Welfare and
Animal Rights Positions
• Downer cattle controversy
– Approximately 1.5% of cattle arriving at slaughter
facilities are non-ambulatory
– Animal rights activists promote immediate euthanasia of
these animals (then inedible)
– Animal welfare advocates promote priority handling of
these animals and humane care while still salvaging
edible meat *recent regulations have altered procedures
– http://www.meatnews.com/archives/archives_stories.asp?ArticleID=86665
Humane Slaughter Act: Example of
Animal Welfare Legislation
• Dragging of downed or crippled cattle is
prohibited
• Slide boards are used to transport nonambulatory livestock to area for inspection
and slaughter*
*recent regulations have altered procedures
Animal Welfare Advocates and
“Downer Cow” Controversy
• Animal Welfare advocates go beyond the
issue of “what to do at the slaughter plant”
to PREVENTION GUIDELINES
– Use non-slip flooring
– Obtain nutritional advice to prevent laminitis
and milk fever
– Breed heifers to bulls which sire low birth
weight calves to minimize calving paralysis
Philosophies in Animal Rights
• Utilitarian strategy
– Can an action or policy be justified based on
the consequences to all affected parties?
– The Humane Slaughter Act is a utilitarian
strategy
• Rights strategy
– Asserts that individual rights are highest
priority
– Would forbid the salvage of downer animals
Leading Advocates in State-of-Being
Controversies in Agriculture
• Raymond Gillespie Frey
– Interests and Rights: the case against animals (1980)
– defends status quo attitudes toward animals
• Peter Singer
– Animal Liberation (1975, 1990)
– Has a utilitarian approach
– Critique of speciesism (favoring human interests over
those of animals)
– Foundation for sentience views
Leading Advocates in State-of-Being
Controversies in Agriculture
• Tom Regan
– The Case for Animal Rights (1983)
– Argues that any animal with consciousness is entitled to
strong protection of its individual interests
– Generally rejects utilitarian trades view
• Bernard Rollin
– Animal Rights and Human Morality (1981)
– Argues that people recognize animal rights and must
extend recognition to regulation of how animals fare in
production, transport and slaughter situations
Four Alternative Approaches to
Intensive Production Practices
• Enact laws ending or substantially modifying
intensive farming
• Enact laws modifying practices documented
to cause animal suffering
• Encourage practices that promote animal
well-being
• Label foods and allow consumers to choose
(e.g. Free Farmed Certification Program
label)
Consequences of Legislation
• May collapse animal industries without
achieving desired goals
• Example is Veal Calf Legislation in Sweden
– Sweden (and other countries) banned raising of
veal calves in crates
– Restaurants in Belgium which previously
imported veal from Sweden now import it from
other countries that do not have this ban
Controversies in Swine Production
• Animal Welfare Institute specifies that pigs
should be raised on family farms and the
animals given access to pens bedded with
straw or pasture
• The increased cost of labor and facilities
would require major increases in pork
prices to be economically feasible
• Piglets raised in “free housing” are at
INCREASED risk for crushing and
hypothermia compared to those in modern
farrowing units
Swine Production Practices:
Legislation and Impact
• England bans castration of pigs and
weaning prior to 21 days
• Sweden bans weaning pigs prior to 28 days
• Research at Iowa State showed weaning at
12-16 days increases production efficiency
• Americans dislike taste/odor of meat from
intact boars (banning castration would
decrease pork consumption in USA)
Scientific Assessment
(recommendations of CAST)
• Producers should adopt scientifically based practices;
voluntary guidelines should be followed
• Educate citizens based on scientific assessment
• Congress should consider scientific assessments when
addressing issues
• Public request to document the presence—and therefore
the need to alleviate— animal suffering
• Should determine the degree to which any proposed
modifications in husbandry would alleviate animal
suffering
• Future animal accommodations/practices should reflect
scientific assessment
Scientific Assumptions Regarding
Animals used in Agriculture
• Humans have the right to use animals in
agricultural production
• Humans have moral responsibility to treat
animals appropriately
• The undomesticated progenitors of agricultural
animals were unusual creatures
• Agricultural animals have specific
environmental sensitivities, tolerances & needs
Assumptions Regarding Animals used
in Agriculture (continued)
• Cruelty to animals may be in form of (1)
abuse, (2) neglect, or (3) deprivation
• Stressors will diminish production
• Careless building designs may jeopardize
animal health (e.g. hazardous pit gases)
• Cannot expect that animals will
continuously experience well-being
Assumptions Regarding Animals used
in Agriculture (continued)
• Animals have adaptive traits
• Certain physiological changes may signal the
start of a pathological state (hyperthermia may
progress to prostration and death unless
cooling intervention is made)
• Accommodation of internally motivated
behaviors (e.g. environmental enrichment)
Assumptions Regarding Animals used
in Agriculture (continued)
• Stressor may have negative impact on
immune system (increasing disease)
• Animals have a conscious perception of
stress
• Both acute and chronic stressors decrease
animal well-being
• A wide variety of agricultural systems can
promote acceptable animal well-being
Defining State of Being
• Must be based on the animal’s response
– Performance criteria emphasized over design
– Response categories scored from 0 to 4
(5 categories established)
Response Category 0
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Basal regulation: normal physiological state
Animal is in harmony with environment
State of being is VERY WELL
Resource expenditure is at basal level
Fitness index is 10
Performance index is 10
Response Category 1
• Animal is showing adaptive responses
• Animal is readily coping using
homeokinetic mechanisms
• State of being is “WELL”
• Animal has a small increment in resource
expenditure and decrement in performance
• Fitness index is 8-9
• Performance index is 8-9
Response Category 2
• Animal is showing adaptive responses and
some stress responses
• Animal is coping but with some difficulty
• State of being is “WELL TO FAIR”
• Medium increment in resource expenditure
and decrement in performance
• Fitness Index 6-8
• Performance Index 6-8
Response Category 3
• Animal is showing stress responses
• Animal is not coping, may collapse or die if
situation not mitigated
• State of being is “ILL”
• Large increment in resource expenditure
and decrement in performance
• Fitness Index 4-6
• Performance Index 4-6
Response Category 4
• Animal shows stress responses or is
moribund (near death)
• Animal is overwhelmed and will die if not
quickly assisted
• State of being is “VERY ILL OR DEAD”
• Fitness index is 0-3
• Performance index <3
Example of Temperature Impact on
Response Category
• Thermally neutral environment  category 0
• Mild cold (e.g. 40 F)  category 1
– Animal seeks shelter from winds decreasing food consumption and
production
• Moderate cold (e.g. 20 F)  category 2
– Animals huddle together decreasing food consumption, increasing
energy expenditure, and decreasing production
• Severe cold (e.g. -20 F wind chill)  category 3
– Animals shiver greatly increasing energy and decrease production
• Frigid (e.g. – 40 F wind chill)  category 4
– Animals will succumb to hypothermia without protection
British Definitions of Animal Welfare
and “Five Freedoms”
• 1965 British Parliament: Animal welfare
refers to both physical and mental well-being
• Five freedoms that animals should have
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Stand without difficulty
Turn around
Groom itself
Lie down
“Stretch its limbs”
Other Approaches to Assessing Animal
Well-Being
• Behavioral and cognitive indicators
• Anatomical, physiological, and
immunological indicators
• Fitness and agricultural performance
indicators
• Use of multiple indicators
Off-Farm Experiences
• Attitudes of livestock handlers are
important
• Multiple handling points between birth,
growing period, finishing period,
transportation, markets, abattoir
Ideal Livestock Handling Systems
• Crowd pens are level
• Single file chutes between crowd pen and
restraint area
• Any ramps are within the single file chute
• Animal standing in the crowd pen can see
2-3 body lengths up the single file chute
• Sides of the chute are solid
• Non-slip flooring
Benefits of Scientific Assessment of
Animal Well-Being
• Moral and ethical considerations
• Productivity considerations
– Heat-stress of dairy cattle endangers well-being
and also decreases production, therefore
producers recognize that it is cost effective to
provide dairy cows with shade, air movement,
ample drinking water, sprinkler systems and
diets with lower heat increments of digestion
during hot weather
Welfare Plateau
• Continuous achievement of highest level of
well-being is rarely feasible and may not be
advisable
• There is a range of acceptable conditions
• Increasing welfare frequently increases the
cost of production, look for an acceptable
balance
Areas of Research Identified by FAIR
(1995)
• Bioethics and conflict resolution
• Responses of individual animals to
production environments
• Stress
• Social behavior and space requirements
• Cognition
• Alternative production practices and
systems
FAIR Research Objectives
• Determine scientific measures of well-being
in food-producing animals
• Develop short-term production practices
and long-term management systems based
on scientific research findings of animal
well-being
1993 USDA Food Animal Well-Being
Research Priorities
• Adaptations and adaptiveness
• Social behavior and space requirements
• Cognition and motivation
Methods of Establishing Criteria to
Assess Animal Well-Being
• Multidisciplinary team
• Assemble database of reliable information
• Utilize appropriate statistical analyses to
elucidate and determine multifactorial
indices of state of being in agricultural
animals
Status of Animal Welfare Debate
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Philosophical origins
Economic implications
Public policy aspects
Legal aspects
Current Opinions
• There are differences between acute and
chronic incidents of anxiety, frustration,
discomfort and pain
• State of being of an animal involves
biological systems that may change during
life-stages of the animal and over natural
history of the population
• Multiple categories of indicators are needed
Recommended Goal
• Animals should experience well-being most
of the time, fair-being some of the time, and
ill-being very rarely