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Citizens’ understanding of welfare of animals on the farm: An empirical study
Contributor(s):: Heise, Heinke, Theuvsen, Ludwig
Many people believe that welfare standards for nonhuman animals on farms need to be improved. However, the definition of farm animal welfare (FAW) remains unclear, as different disciplines have developed competing understandings of FAW. Some studies have investigated citizens’ understanding of...
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A comparison of inferential analysis methods for multilevel studies: Implications for drawing conclusions in animal welfare science
Contributor(s):: Stevens, Kara N., Asher, Lucy, Griffin, Kym, Friel, Mary, O'Connell, Niamh, Collins, Lisa M.
Investigations comparing the behaviour and welfare of animals in different environments have led to mixed and often conflicting results. These could arise from genuine differences in welfare, poor validity of indicators, low statistical power, publication bias, or inappropriate statistical...
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Influences on the avoidance and approach behaviour of dairy goats towards an unfamiliar human - an on-farm study
| Contributor(s):: Mersmann, D., Schmied-Wagner, C., Nordmann, E., Graml, C., Waiblinger, S.
The human-animal relationship (HAR) is an important factor for successful animal husbandry and animal welfare. Thus, the HAR is included in on-farm assessments to evaluate overall welfare. For dairy goats, validated tests to assess the HAR are lacking. The aim of the present study was to evaluate...
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Determinants of individual attitudes toward animal welfare-friendly food products
| Contributor(s):: Cembalo, L., Caracciolo, F., Lombardi, A., Giudice, T. del, Grunert, K. G., Cicia, G.
Animal welfare involves societal and human values, ethical concerns and moral considerations since it incorporates the belief of what is right or what is wrong in animal treatment and care. This paper aims to ascertain whether the different dimensions of individual attitudes toward animal welfare...
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The Chicken Challenge – What Contemporary Studies Of Fowl Mean For Science And Ethics
| Contributor(s):: Carolynn L. Smith, Jane Johnson
Studies with captive fowl have revealed that they possess greater cognitive capacities than previously thought. We now know that fowl have sophisticated cognitive and communicative skills, which had hitherto been associated only with certain primates. Several theories have been advanced to...
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Interviewer guides used in cruelty research
| Contributor(s):: Arluke, A.
The following interviewer guides have been developed and used by the author in his research on animal abusers as well as on complainants and battered women whose animals have been abused.
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Owning a dog and working: a telephone survey of dog owners and employers in Sweden
| Contributor(s):: Norling, A. Y., Keeling, L.
Many dog owners are faced with the problem of what to do with their dog when they go to work. Different solutions to the problem may affect dogs, owners, and employers. In this study, 204 working, Swedish dog owners and 90 employers were interviewed by telephone regarding practical issues and...
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Animal experimentation in cancer research: a citation analysis
| Contributor(s):: Dagg, A. I.
Cancer research involves the use of millions of nonhuman animals and billions of dollars in public funds each year, but cures for the disease remain elusive. This article suggests ways to reduce the use of animals and save money by identifying articles that garnered few citations over the 9 years...
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Animal welfare - scientific approaches to the issues
| Contributor(s):: Millman, S. T.
Nonhuman animal welfare is of significant public interest, globally and within the United States. Value-based judgments are intrinsic to animal welfare assessment, according to the relative weighting of factors associated with animal performance, health, affective states, and natural living. The...
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Animal welfare beyond the cage ... and beyond the evidence?
| Contributor(s):: Blanchard, R. J.
In "Laboratory Rodent Welfare: Thinking Outside the Cage," Balcombe (2010/this issue) suggests that laboratory cage housing is damaging to rats and mice because it does not meet their evolved needs and may damage their psychological and physical health. The article also indicates that larger and...
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Assessing acute effects of trapping, handling, and tagging on the behavior of wildlife using GPS telemetry: a case study of the common brushtail possum
| Contributor(s):: Dennis, T. E., Shah, S. F.
Trapping, handling, and deployment of tracking devices (tagging) are essential aspects of many research and conservation studies of wildlife. However, often these activities place nonhuman animals under considerable physical or psychological distress, which disrupts normal patterns of behavior...
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Characteristics of relinquished dogs and their owners at 14 rehoming centers in the United Kingdom
| Contributor(s):: Diesel, G., Brodbelt, D., Pfeiffer, D. U.
In the United Kingdom, each year many companion animal (pet) caregivers (owners) hand over dogs to shelters for rehoming. Studies conducted in the United States and Australia have shown that accommodation issues and problematic behaviors are the most common reasons for dogs to be relinquished....
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Determination of sheep learning responses to a directional audio cue
| Contributor(s):: Morris, J. E., Fisher, A. D., Doyle, R. E., Bush, R. D.
There are scientific opinions that a nonhuman animal cannot feel emotions, and, hence, positive experiences, without being cognitive. Therefore, determining an animal's cognitive capacity can be useful in supporting the existence of emotions. Research shows that sheep can perform tasks based on...
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Development and validation of a behavioral acclimation protocol for cats to respiration chambers used for indirect calorimetry studies
| Contributor(s):: Gooding, M. A., Duncan, I. J. H., Atkinson, J. L., Shoveller, A. K.
Cats exposed to novel environments initiate stress responses by behavioral and physiological changes that modify metabolism and lead to the collection of unreliable data. Fourteen cats (10+or-2 months) were subjected to an 11-week acclimation procedure to adapt to restriction within chambers used...
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Impact of publicly sponsored neutering programs on animal population dynamics at animal shelters: the New Hampshire and Austin experiences
| Contributor(s):: White, S. C., Jefferson, E., Levy, J. K.
This study found that government-funded surgical sterilization of companion animals has been widely promoted as a means of decreasing shelter intake and euthanasia. However, little information is available about the true impact of these programs on community and shelter nonhuman animal population...
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Improving the welfare of captive macaques ( Macaca sp.) through the use of water as enrichment
| Contributor(s):: Robins, J. G., Waitt, C. D.
This review evaluates the use of water as a tool for enriching the environments of macaques (Macaca sp.) in captivity. Many macaque species are known to swim and forage in water in the wild, and in-situ reports suggest that access to water promotes activity and cultural behavior. Yet, there is a...
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Noncompliance with Public Health Service (PHS) policy on humane care and use of laboratory animals: an exploratory analysis
| Contributor(s):: Gomez, L. M., Conlee, K. M., Stephens, M. L.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is a major biomedical research-funding body in the United States. Approximately 40% of NIH-funded research involves experimentation on nonhuman animals (Monastersky, 200811. Monastersky, R. 2008, April 18. Protesters fail to slow animal research. The...
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Primate location preference in a double-tier cage: the effects of illumination and cage height
| Contributor(s):: Maclean, E. L., Prior, S. R., Platt, M. L., Brannon, E. M.
Nonhuman primates are frequently housed in double-tier arrangements with significant differences between the environments of the upper and lower-row cages. Although several studies have investigated whether this arrangement alters monkeys' behavior, no studies have addressed the two most notable...
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Production costs and animal welfare for four stylized hog production systems
| Contributor(s):: Seibert, L., Norwood, F. B.
Nonhuman animal welfare is arguably the most contentious issue facing the hog industry. Animal advocacy groups influence the regulation of hog farms and induce some consumers to demand more humane pork products. Hog producers are understandably reluctant to improve animal well being unless the...
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Risk factors and remediation of self-injurious and self-abuse behavior in rhesus macaques
| Contributor(s):: Rommeck, I., Anderson, K., Heagerty, A., Cameron, A., McCowan, B.
Considered signs of decreased welfare - abnormal behaviors such as self-injury and self-abuse among nonhuman primates housed in the laboratory - may put into question the validity and reliability of scientific research using these animals as models. Providing environmental enrichment decreases...
