Principles of animal welfare

The 5 freedoms  Freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition.  Freedom from inappropriate comfort and shelter.  Freedom from injury, disease or parasites with rapid diagnosis and treatment.  Freedom from distress.  Freedom to display normal patterns of behaviour.

Animal welfare  Upheld by Animal Welfare Act – ethics committees, SPCA, NAEAC, NAWAC, NZVA, Federated Farmers, MAF, ANZCCART.  Beyond the five freedoms – upheld by animal activists – SAFE, WSPA, CIWF, ALF. by Lynda Mellor

Eg of when some consider it ok deprive an animal of its freedoms:  Farmers in a drought may think it ok for animals to die of starvation.  People keeping goats on a chain with no shelter.  People who promote and watch dog fighting.  Using irritants to get wild rodeo rides.  Older style zoos.

Imaginary code of welfare from an animal rights group.  Five freedoms.  Animals have the same rights as people.  If you wouldn’t like it being done then it shouldn’t be done on animals.  All research and pharmaceutical testing should be done on humans.

Imaginary code of welfare from an animal liberation group.  Five freedoms.  Complete freedom to move, no cages, fences or barriers.  Animals have the same rights as people.  If you wouldn’t like it being done then it shouldn’t be done on animals.  All research and pharmaceutical testing should be done on humans.

Imaginary code of welfare in 1000 years time.  Freedom to reach optimal weight using individually programmed diets.  Freedom to receive optimum comfort in well designed shelter.  Freedom from disease, diagnosis at the sub-clinical stage.  Freedom from distress, automatic cortisol readings to ensure no distress occurs.  Freedom to display normal behavior using control collars to contain in a safe environment.  Freedom from experimentation as computer modeling can be used.

Empathy = feeling of concern and understanding for an animals situation.

Sentience  Sensate – can sense via the 5 senses  Higher functions – think and reason, predict, sense of self (theory of mind) rationalise.  Need to consider the level of sentience in order to have empathy for an animal. by Lynda Mellor

Anthropomorphic = giving human attributes to an animal, or to the animal's experiences or perceptions.  Anthropormorphism indicates a lack of understanding of the animal and therefore less ability to show true empathy.

Risks of anthropomorphism:  Indicates lack of understanding – so rest of what you say is less believable.  Implies excessive emotion – so colours listeners belief in your objectivity.  If you take an extreme view you are likely either to be met with an extreme view or cause the listener to clam up.

Animal ethics committees  All institutions or people using animals must have the animal use approved by an animal ethics committee.  Made up of people from the institution and people from outside – often Vets or other institutions plus a lay person eg. from SPCA.  Committee monitored by NAEAC.  All protocols must be pre approved, reviewed 3 yearly.  All animal use must be recorded.  Must meet at least once per year to approve new protocols and review animal use.  Premises can be inspected without notice by committee members or NAEAC.

Application to an Ethics Committee  Title of research/training project  Justification - purposes  Description of procedure  Possible adverse effects  Safeguards – Three R’s  Declaration by Lynda Mellor

UCOL Animal ethics committee  Has one protocol to approve the use of animals for teaching.  Only category 0 use – nil to minimal distress/invasiveness.  Meets once a year to review animal use.  Protocol reviewed in  2007 committee:  From UCOL: Peter Murphy (chair), Heather Grady, Jen Trow.  Members also from Massey, MAF and SPCA.

Statistics for animal use record  Every time an animal is used it needs to have its use recorded.  Includes even minimal intervention.  Eg. bandaging.  Only recorded once for a single experiment or teaching event.  Eg. Blood sample every hour for 8 hours is only one use not eight.  Does not include normal care or normal Veterinary procedures.  Eg. excludes observing practice at Totally Vets.

The 3 R’s  Replace  Reduce  Refine  Aims for minimal animal use and ensure use is of maximal scientific value.  NAEAC promotes these principles and every protocol application must be considered against these.

Many journals will not publish unethical work.  For:  Discourages unethical work being done.  Against:  “Wastes” any unethical work that has already been done.  The information gained again using ethical experiments so more animal use.