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Understanding Mortality Rates Of Laying Hens In Cage-Free Egg Production Systems, The Humane Society Of The United States

Agribusiness Collection

In cage-free egg production systems, concerns have been raised over hen mortality rates. High mortality is an obvious indicator of poor welfare, and problems should be addressed without delay. It is important to note, however, that mortality can vary substantially between hen flocks, and that some cage-free systems have healthy flocks that do not suffer substantial death losses. These systems can serve as models for the rest of the industry, since mortality is not inherent to any particular system, but a consequence of how well the system is managed.

Farm Animal Welfare: In Legislatures, Corporate Boardrooms, And Private Kitchens, Andrea Gavinelli, Miyun Park

State of the Animals 2007

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, globally, approximately 56 billion land animals—including nearly 48 billion broiler chickens— are slaughtered for human consumption in a single year (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2004), in addition to an untold number of aquatic animals. The numbers of individual animals raised and killed by the meat, egg, and dairy industries far surpass the number of animals with whom human beings have any other relationship—whether they be those seen as fabric, target practice, test tubes, companions, or sideshow spectacles.

Farm Animals And Their Welfare In 2000, David Fraser, Joy Mench, Suzanne Millman

State of the Animals 2001

Farm animals have been a traditional concern of the modern animal protection movement. In the early 1800s, when the movement emerged as a significant sociopolitical force in the United Kingdom, its first priority was protection of farm animals, with particular emphasis on cattle and horses. Subsequently priorities changed, and throughout most of the 1900s, animal protectionism in Europe and the English-speaking world focused more strongly on the use of animals for scientific research and on the rescue of abandoned or ill-treated companion animals. Today, however, with vigorous public debate over animal agriculture and its effects, farm animals are re-emerging as …

The Case Against Intensive Farming Of Food Animals, Linda D. Mickley, Michael W. Fox

Agribusiness Collection

The well-being of American agriculture is indeed a complex subject, fraught with interrelationships, predictions, recriminations, and at times, high emotionalism. In this paper, we will be concentrating on several aspects of the entire picture that we feel are fundamental to the issue of animal welfare in modern agriculture. First, we will take a brief look at two farm animal species maintained in very restrictive systems, that is, battery-caged laying hens and tethered and/or crated brood sows.

Next, the human costs in terms of occupational diseases and consumer health hazards will be considered. Finally, some humane alternatives to the factory systems …

The Case For Intensive Farming Of Food Animals, Stanley E. Curtis

Agribusiness Collection

Our world is still a hungry place. At the same time, the number of people worldwide who grow food for themselves continues to dwindle. Most U.S. citizens have never set foot on a farm or harvested one mouthful-let alone a lifetime's worth-of daily bread. Yet our farmlands and climates and our agricultural and food industries are this nation's ultimate resources. By increasing productivity, our farmers and the scientific and business endeavors that support our nation's food production, processing, and distribution have proved to be able and reliable husbands of these precious resources. But make no mistake: The challenge to increase …

The Definition, Current Knowledge And Implementation Of Welfare For Farm Animals--A Personal View, Ron Kilgour

Agribusiness Collection

Being humane to farm animals (welfare) must include (1) having a sound knowledge of their normal and anomalous behavior responses in a farm context and heeding this in a practical way and (2) adopting handling procedures which elicit minimal distress in the species concerned. Building up an ethogram of predictable responses and recording the patterns of behavior during key events, mating, birth, and care of the young are essential. There are still gaps in the recorded ethograms offarm animals. Objective measurements of distress, including an index of its seriousness, are also a priority.

The results from animal preference tests can …

The Behavior Of Confined Calves Raised For Veal: Are These Animals Distressed?, M. Kiley-Worthington

Ethology Collection

The behavior of 12 calves confined in crates was recorded at 1-minute intervals for 12-hour periods. These recordings were made at fortnightly intervals from approximately 2 to 16 weeks of age. In all, 864 hours of observations were recorded.

The activities that were performed and the amount of time spent doing each are outlined. Circadian rhythms were controlled largely by feeding time, although there was a difference between diurnal and nocturnal behavior. Individual calves vaned tn how they adapted to the restricted environment. Individual personality profiles and data on the ontogeny of behavior under these conditions are presented.

At 10 …

The Economics Of Farm Animal Welfare, A. J. F. Webster

Agribusiness Collection

The number of ways that one can be nice or nasty to animals are legion. This article will consider only one very specific aspect of farm animal welfare, namely, those systems of intensive animal production in which the system itself, irrespective of the quality of the stockmanship within the system, appears to restrict the normal behavior of farm animals to an unacceptable degree. The systems that were considered by the House of Commons Select Committee on Agriculure (1981) include egg production from hens in battery cages, production of veal from calves deprived of solid food and isolated in wooden crates, …

Farm Animal Welfare: Some Economic Considerations, Frances Turner, John Strak

Agribusiness Collection

Farmers, just like other businessmen, attempt to produce a saleable product at the least possible cost to themselves. In this way they hope to assure themselves of some profit, and hence to earn a living. In itself this profit motive cannot be criticized, but in attempting to maintain their profits, farmers have adopted more intensive systems of animal production. In turn, the benefits from farmers using these new techniques have accrued to consumers in the form of relatively less expensive food. Clearly, by restricting the use of factory farming methods (which are associated with lower unit costs of production) there …

Farm Animal Welfare: Some Opinions, Michael W. Fox

Agribusiness Collection

The subject of farm animal welfare has evoked a wide range of responses from those involved in the livestock industry and those concerned about the humaneness of intensive husbandry farming practices. Books have been published on the subject as well as a large number of articles in professional and popular magazines. Three international symposia dealing with animal rights have been held in the last two years and a major European conference dealing with farm animal welfare and involving veterinarians, farmers, animal scientists and animal welfare groups was held in Amsterdam in 1979.

In the U.K., a governmental Farm Animal Welfare …

Productivity And Farm Animal Welfare, Michael W. Fox

Agribusiness Collection

In the search for and debate over objective indices of farm animal welfare, productivity is regarded by many animal scientists and others in the livestock industry as the most reliable measure of an animal's overall well-being and adaptability. On the surface, this would seem to be so, as productivity--in terms of growth rate, milk yield, feed-conversion and egg production--can be easily quantified. However, there are serious flaws in this assumption.

The Involvement Of The Farm Animal Veterinarian In Animal Welfare, David G. Llewellyn

Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection

The farm animal practitioner has always played a dual role. The primary role is humanitarian, concerned with the well-being of the livestock, and the secondary role relates to the economics of the enterprise.