Improving Animal Welfare

A Practical Approach

Temple Grandin

• Publisher: CAB International
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781789245240
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Veterinary Medicine

Completely revised, updated and with four new chapters on sustainability, new technologies, precision agriculture and the future of animal welfare, the third edition of this highly successful textbook: · Is edited by an outstanding world expert on animal welfare.· Emphasizes throughout the importance of measuring conditions that compromise welfare, such as lameness, heat stress, body condition, and bruises during transport.· Combines scientific information with practical recommendations for use on commercial operations.· Reviews practical information on livestock handling, euthanasia, slaughter, pain relief, and assessments of abnormal behavior. Improving Animal Welfare: A Practical Approach remains essential reading for students and practitioners of ethology, animal and veterinary science, veterinary medicine, as well as those working directly with farm animals and committed to improving their welfare.

1 An Introduction to Implementing an Effective Animal Welfare Program

TEMPLE GRANDIN¹

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

¹ Email: [email protected]

Summary

There has been an exponential increase in the publication of guidelines and scientific papers on animal welfare. Students, farm managers, veterinarians, and others who work in the field might ask themselves, “Animal welfare is so complex, where do I start?” The first step is to improve management, breeding, housing, and handling to reduce conditions that cause suffering. Some examples are lameness (difficulty in walking), bruises from rough handling, leg injuries, poor body condition, high ammonia levels in the air, dirty animals, and tail biting. In poultry, it is important to prevent breast blisters, foot pad lesions and hock burn. There are three components of an effective welfare program: a guidance document; assessment tools; and standard operating procedures. There are six internationally recognized conceptual frameworks for assessing welfare. They are: Understanding Animal Welfare: The Science in its Cultural Context (Fraser, 2008); The Five Freedoms (FAWC, 1992); Welfare Quality Network (2009); Mellor (2017); Dawkins (2012); and the World Organisation for Animal Health (Organisation Mondiale de la Santé Animale, OIE) Guiding Principles on Animal Welfare (OIE, 2019a). Recommendations on how to interpret the OIE principles are included in this chapter. Studies have shown that in addition to preventing suffering, a higher level of animal welfare can be attained if environments are provided that enable animals to experience positive emotions. Converting multiple welfare measures to a single score is risky because it may mask a serious welfare problem such as lameness. For people implementing an animal welfare program, all the different conceptual frameworks may become confusing. They can be summarized into three components: (i) health and biological function; (ii) affective state (feelings), both positive and negative (fear or pain); and (iii) natural living (telos) and highly motivated behaviors. Animal welfare has become increasingly important. During the COVID-19 pandemic, caring for animals was deemed an essential activity in the USA. Stores selling animal products and veterinary offices were allowed to remain open. This clearly shows that the status of animals has improved.

Learning Objectives

• How to implement animal welfare assessment programs

• Identify the most severe animal welfare problems that must be corrected immediately

• How to measure bruises, injuries, and other animal welfare problems at the slaughter plant

• Understand the conceptual frameworks for forming animal welfare guidance documents

• How to apply the OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) general principles of animal welfare

Introduction

The status of animals has improved. During the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA and many other countries, care of pets and livestock was deemed essential. When people were ordered to stay at home, they were allowed to leave their homes to care for animals or buy food for them.

Since the publication of the second edition of this book in 2015, there has been a continuing increase in the number of research studies, books, new animal welfare guidelines, legislation, and websites about animal welfare (Walker et al., 2014). Government regulations in different countries vary greatly, from very strict to none at all. A person who is new to the field of animal welfare is likely to become overwhelmed by the massive amounts of new information. Students, farm managers, veterinarians, and others who are in the field may say to themselves, “Animal welfare has become so complex; where do I start?” This book will not attempt to review all the regulations and new literature but, instead, it will include the most practical scientific information and combine it with recommendations for use on commercial operations. Animal welfare is a global issue (Fraser et al., 2013) and this book contains information that can be put to everyday use in both the developed and the developing world. There is certain basic information that can be used to improve animal welfare anywhere in the world. Quick Access Information boxes have been placed throughout the text to allow the reader easy access to summarized basic information.

There is also a need for information on how to implement assessment programs, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and other strategies that will improve animal welfare and prevent animal abuse. This is a hands-on, “how-to” guide that provides practical information for veterinarians, animal scientists, producers, transporters, auditors, government agencies, quality assurance managers, and others who work in the field with animals. Too often, legislation will be passed to ban some terrible practice, but it still continues because little is done in the field to implement change. Another problem is that people who draft legislation may have little knowledge of conditions in the field.

Recommendations on implementing animal welfare programs are based on over 20 years of the editor’s experience in developing and implementing welfare auditing systems for major retailers and restaurants (Grandin, 2000, 2005). The author has visited over 550 farms and slaughter plants in 26 different countries. This book will also help the reader to use more effectively the knowledge that can be obtained from many other sources. It will make it possible to bring about real changes that will improve the treatment of livestock, poultry, and fish on farms, in transport vehicles, and in slaughter plants. The principles of implementing an effective animal welfare program are the same for all species. During the COVID-19 pandemic, auditors who assessed animal welfare were deemed essential and continued to work. There is also increasing use of video cameras for conducting animal welfare audits.

The World Organisation for Animal Health published specific welfare guidelines for the slaughter of livestock and poultry, the transport of livestock, depopulation of farms after a disease outbreak, beef cattle production, dairy cattle, pigs, and broiler chicken production (OIE, 2019a). Additional guidelines are available for farmed fish slaughter, transport, and depopulation (OIE, 2019a). Guidelines for laying hens are under development. OIE guidelines are minimum, basic international standards for the entire world. Many countries and large meat-buying customers will often have stricter standards.

Large food retailers and restaurant chains are now requiring that their suppliers comply with their own animal welfare standards. The economic incentive provided by these large buyers is a major force for improving animal welfare in both the developed and the developing world (Webster, 2012). Non-governmental organization (NGO) animal advocacy groups are also influential in promoting the development of animal welfare standards and legislation.

Goals of the book

This book has six main goals:

1. To help managers, veterinarians, and policy makers to implement effective practical auditing, regulatory, and assessment programs that will improve the welfare and treatment of livestock, poultry, and farmed fish.

2. To provide practical information that will directly improve welfare in critical areas such as slaughter, transport, handling, euthanasia, care of working animals, and painful surgical procedures.

3. To understand the use of numerically scored animal-based outcome measures.

4. To help the reader understand the importance of animal behavior in assessing animal welfare and its role in the design of production housing and handling systems.

5. To discuss the role of ethics in animal welfare in an easy-to-understand manner.

6. To understand how economic incentives can be used both to improve welfare and reduce economic losses in farm animals. Improvements in husbandry, handling, stockmanship, and transport will improve animal productivity, and reduce losses due to bruises, sickness, mortalities, lameness, and other problems (Hemsworth and Coleman, 2010; Huertas et al., 2010).

Effects of electronic media on animal welfare

Since the second edition of this book, there has also been a massive increase in the number of mobile telephones that can take high-quality videos. Videos of atrocious animal abuse have caused trade disruptions and public outcry, and have forced companies to improve practices. The first step in creating an effective animal welfare program is to prevent animal abuse. Compliance with legislative paperwork is not going to protect a farm when animal abuse is caught on video that has been shown around the world. Some videos have gone viral and have been seen by millions of viewers. There is a tendency in many welfare guidelines and legislation to turn compliance into keeping records and filling out forms instead of monitoring actual practices in the field. The author’s emphasis is going to be on what is actually happening on the farm or at the slaughter plant.

The first step in implementing an animal welfare program is stopping obvious abusive practices. Some examples of overt abuse that is not permitted by the OIE (2019a) are beating animals, deliberately breaking legs, cutting tendons, dragging non-ambulatory downed animals, or driv...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• 1 An Introduction to Implementing an Effective Animal Welfare Program
• 2 The Importance of Measurement to Improve the Welfare of Livestock, Poultry, and Fish
• 3 Why is Agricultural Animal Welfare Important? The Social and Ethical Context
• 4 Implementing Effective Animal-Based Measurements for Assessing Animal Welfare on Farms and Slaughter Plants
• 5 How to Improve Livestock Handling and Reduce Stress
• 6 Painful Husbandry Procedures in Livestock and Poultry
• 7 The Importance of Good Stockmanship and its Benefits to Animals
• 8 Animal Behavior and Emotions – On-farm Considerations
• 9 Improving Livestock, Poultry and Fish Welfare in Slaughter Plants with Auditing Programs and Animal-based Measures
• 10 Recommended On-Farm Euthanasia Practices
• 11 Welfare During Transport of Livestock and Poultry
• 12 Animal Well-being on Organic Farms
• 13 A Practical Approach on Sustainability for Supply Chain Managers of Meat, Dairy, and Other Animal Proteins
• 14 The Effect of Economic Factors on the Welfare of Livestock and Poultry
• 15 Improving Animal Care and Welfare: Practical Approaches for Achieving Change
• 16 Successful Technology Transfer of Behavioral and Animal Welfare Research to the Farm and Slaughter Plant
• 17 Future of Animal Welfare – Technological Innovations for Individualized Animal Care
• 18 Technology Designed to Enhance Poultry Welfare
• 19 Precision Livestock Farming and Technology in Swine Welfare
• 20 Practical Methods for Improving the Welfare of Equids: Horses, Donkeys, and Mules
• Appendix: Video Library
• Index
• Cabi
• Back