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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Dairy Farmer Attitudes And Empathy Toward Animals Are Associated With Animal Welfare Indicators, Camilla Kielland, Eystein Skjerve, Olav Østerås, Adroaldo José Zanella Jul 2010

Dairy Farmer Attitudes And Empathy Toward Animals Are Associated With Animal Welfare Indicators, Camilla Kielland, Eystein Skjerve, Olav Østerås, Adroaldo José Zanella

Societal Attitudes Toward Animals Collection

Attitudes and empathy of farmers influence human–animal interaction, thereby affecting their behavior toward animals. The goal was to investigate how measures of attitude and empathy toward animals were associated with animal welfare indicators such as milk yield, mastitis incidence, fertility index, and the prevalence of skin lesions on cows. To assess empathy toward animals, a photo-based pain assessment instrument was developed depicting various conditions that could be associated with some degree of pain in cattle and included questions aimed at assessing attitudes toward animals. Photos of painful conditions are useful in eliciting measurable empathic responses to pain in humans. A …


On-Farm Welfare Assessment For Regulatory Purposes: Issues And Possible Solutions, Jan Tind Sørensen, David Fraser Jun 2010

On-Farm Welfare Assessment For Regulatory Purposes: Issues And Possible Solutions, Jan Tind Sørensen, David Fraser

Assessment of Animal Welfare Collection

On-farm welfare assessment has been used mainly for non-regulatory purposes such as producer education or to qualify for voluntary welfare-assurance programs. The application of on-farm assessments in regulatory programs would require four issues to be addressed: (1) selecting criteria that are widely accepted as valid by diverse citizens, (2) setting minimum legal levels, (3) achieving the high level of fairness and objectivity required for legally binding requirements, and (4) achieving the cost-efficiency needed for widespread use of the methods. Issues 1 and 2 pose a particular problem because different citizens disagree on what they understand as good animal welfare, with …