Digital Commons Network^™

The Anniversary Of The Unea Nexus Resolution, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

On March 2, 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly (the world’s environment parliament) passed a landmark resolution calling on the United Nations Environment Program to produce a report on the Nexus between animal welfare, the environment, and sustainable development. This Resolution offers enormous potential for a significant reset in how humanity approaches, values, and interacts with our world moving towards a more holistic global approach (including humans, animals, and the environment).

Bird Flu: Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza – An Update, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

In the last few years, a highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI) virus has caused the deaths of millions of seabirds and waterfowl worldwide, and many more millions of factory-farmed poultry being culled to halt the spread of the virus. WBI wrote about the emergence of this virus and its potential danger to humans in our last WellBeing News. The virus continues to spread and mutate and has caused the deaths of some mammals and a few humans.

The Use And Misuse Of Emotional Support Animals, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Companion Animal Issues

In the United States, trained service dogs are permitted in public places that do not allow pets. In contrast, emotional support animals are not trained and only have access to no-pet housing such as apartments, condos, and dorms. One in four emotional support animal owners obtained their ESA letters through internet sites rather than from personal health professionals.

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, Andrew N. Rowan, Kathleen Rowan

WellBeing News

The avian flu virus was the agent that caused the devastating worldwide influenza pandemic in 2018 that killed an estimated 50-100 million people, and health authorities continue to pay close attention to periodic outbreaks of avian flu. Currently, an H5N1 influenza virus is leading to millions of wild birds and domestic poultry deaths. Recently, this virus spread in a mink farm in Spain, raising the stakes that it might be able to spread among humans. While the current avian flu pandemic is a major economic problem for global farms and a major animal welfare concern for domestic poultry and wild …

Rhino Conservation In Africa, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

The recovery of white rhinos from a small population of 20 animals in 1895 to tens of thousands today is a major conservation success story, but we are again facing a rapid decline in the numbers of both species of African rhinoceros due mainly to poaching. Demand for rhino horn, mainly from the Far East, has led to an epidemic of poaching. The healthy population of white rhinos in South Africa’s Kruger National Park has fallen from just under 12,000 individuals in 2010 to around 2,200 in 2022. At the current rate of decline, white rhinos will be eliminated from …

Update – Food & Drug Administration’S Animal Testing Mandate, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

Following the end of the Second World War, the World Medical Association developed new ethical guidelines regarding research involving human subjects. These guidelines included requirements to obtain informed consent from research subjects but also emphasized the importance of conducting animal research before engaging in human clinical trials and other human research. This principle was included in legislation mandating the FDA to require prior animal research before permitting human trials of new drugs. That mandate was recently eliminated by new US legislation cosponsored by Senators Cory Booker and Rand Paul. The FDA can now encourage non-animal methods and no longer has …

Animal Welfare - Environment - Sustainable Development Nexus: Scoping Study, Janice H. Cox

Nexus – UNEP – Animal Welfare, Environment, Sustainable Development

A detailed report on the links between animal welfare, environmental health and global sustainability. Issues discussed include climate change, biodiversity, pollution and waste management, one health, sustainable development and just transitions.

Bringing Back Former Vegans And Vegetarians: An Obstacle Analysis, Jo Anderson, Coni Arévalo

Diet

People have a variety of motivations for switching to plant-based diets, yet not all people who begin the transition to a vegan or vegetarian (collectively called veg*n) diet maintain it long-term. In fact, Faunalytics’ study of current and former veg*ns (2014) found that the number of lapsed (former) vegans and vegetarians in the United States far surpasses the number of current veg*ns, and most who lapse do so within a year. Are these people the low-hanging fruit for diet advocates? They could be—there are many of them and they’re clearly at least somewhat willing to go veg*n, so maybe more …

Animal Shelter Management Of Feline Leukemia Virus And Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Infections In Cats, Julie Levy, Cynda Crawford, Keegan Spera, E. Susan Amirian, Paola Dezubiria

Diseases and Health

Approximately 5% of cats in animal shelters in the United States test positive for either feline leukemia virus (FeLV) or feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), which translates to more than 100,000 positive cats managed by shelters each year. Little is known about the current status of retroviral management in animal shelters, particularly in regions burdened by chronic pet overpopulation and high shelter admissions, such as the southern United States. The purpose of this study was to describe feline retroviral management in Florida shelters. Shelters were surveyed on practices including selection of cats for testing, diagnostic techniques, and outcome options for cats …

Jurisprudence And Animal Protection, Carlos Montemayor

Animal Sentience

Jurisprudence is based on normative principles that go beyond instrumental reasoning and practical goals concerning what is convenient. It concerns justice and truth. The empirical evidence justifies the legal protection of various species on legal grounds. Given the risks we face regarding climate degradation, international legal agencies must expand the framework of human rights and environmental law in order to effectively protect animals and their environments.

Defining And Exploring Animal Sentience, Andrew N. Rowan, Joyce M. D'Silva Mrs, Ian J.H. Duncan, Nicholas Palmer

Animal Sentience

One of the commentaries on the target article notes that "animal sentience" is difficult to define operationally. This response to the commentaries develops a working, usable definition of animal sentience and examines the relationships between animal emotions and sentience.

Appraising Evidence For Valence, Víctor Carranza-Pinedo

Animal Sentience

I make some remarks about whether evidence of valenced responses constitutes evidence of valenced states, and therefore of sentience, in organisms.

Plant Sentience Revisited: Sifting Through The Thicket Of Perspectives, Paco Calvo, Miguel Segundo-Ortin

Animal Sentience

In our target article (Segundo-Ortin & Calvo 2023), we proposed the intriguing possibility of plant sentience, drawing parallels with non-human animal studies. This response aims to sift through the rich thicket of perspectives offered by our commentators. To do so, we assess the risks of employing double standards, as well as the tendencies of anthropomorphizing and zoomorphizing in plant studies. We also emphasize the need for clarity in linguistic and conceptual terms, examine the neurophysiological evidence for plant sentience, and discuss the ethical implications of such recognition.

Language Matters, Teya Brooks Pribac

Animal Sentience

The term sentience tends to be associated with affective valence along with affectively neutral sensory states. In the absence of evidence for affectively laden states in plants, the use of the term sentience in the exploration of plant sensory and behavioral complexity is misleading and ethically problematic for its potential to trivialize animal sentience.

Plant Sentience? Between Romanticism And Denial: Science, Miguel Segundo-Ortin, Paco Calvo

Animal Sentience

A growing number of non-human animal species are being seriously considered as candidates for sentience, but plants are either forgotten or explicitly excluded from these debates. In our view, this is based on the belief that plant behavior is hardwired and inflexible and on an underestimation of the role of plant electrophysiology. We weigh such assumptions against the evidence to suggest that it is time to take seriously the hypothesis that plants, too, might be sentient. We hope this target article will serve as an invitation to investigate sentience in plants with the same rigor as in non-human animals.

"Regarding Animals" By Arnold Arluke, Clinton R. Sanders, And Leslie Irvine, Andrew Rowan

Tales of WellBeing

The new edition of Regarding Animals is an update of a modern classic on the sociology of human-animal interactions.

The Long Journey Home For The Holidays, Kathleen Rowan, Andrew Rowan

Tales of WellBeing

The Ukraine war threatens animals in zoos. Read about the journey for eleven lions from Ukraine to new homes in the United States and South Africa.

Do Emotional Support Animals Actually Help?, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Companion Animal Issues

U.S. federal law allows people with mental-health disorders to have emotional support animals in college dorms and no-pet apartments. This legislation assumes there are proven benefits of of living with emotional support animals. There is no substantial research that supports the use of emotional support animals in public housing or for air travel.

The Wellbeing Nexus, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

Progress following the Passage of the 2022 Animal Welfare, Environment and Sustainable Development Resolution at the UN Environment Assembly

In March of this year (2022), the UN Environment Assembly passed a Resolution (EA.5/Res.1) that requested the Executive Director of the UN Environment Program (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya, to produce a report on the Nexus (or links) between animal welfare, the environment, and sustainable development. The passage of the Resolution is a landmark event because, in WellBeing International’s opinion, it emphasizes the importance of a holistic approach to global health that addresses the well-being of people, animals, and the …

Living With Urban Foxes, John Hadidian

WellBeing News

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is the most widely distributed wild carnivore on the planet, with a natural range that spans the entire Northern Hemisphere. Below the equator, foxes have been introduced to the Falkland Islands and Australia, where they cause widespread damage to domestic livestock and native fauna. Fox predation is a common cause of fox-human conflict throughout their range, leading to a complex relationship with humanity. This relationship varies where the fox is alternatively regarded as verminous, if not demonic, but is also an object of affection and regard — a typically bipolar human-animal relationship.[i]

Aquaculture In Africa: Aquatic Animal Welfare, Impact On The Environment And The Sustainability Of The Sector, Mwenda M. Mbaka, Janice H. Cox, Stephen Ronan

Aquaculture

The African aquaculture sector recorded the fastest growth in the world between 2006-2018, averaging 10% or more, and is expected to partially fill the growing fish supply-demand gap up to 2063. In 2018, there were about 1.2 million aquafarmers across the continent, an increase from 920 thousand in 2014. According to the African Development Bank, expansion of aquaculture in Africa is hampered by "the overwhelming predominance of tilapia farming, which relies heavily on the production of fingerlings from a limited number of genetically improved strains that are resistant to the many diseases affecting this species, and on the production of …

Nexus Between Animal Welfare, Environment, And Sustainable Development: Resource Document, Wellbeing International

Nexus – UNEP – Animal Welfare, Environment, Sustainable Development

This Resource Document has been developed to explore the Nexus (links) between Animal Welfare, the Environment, and Sustainable Development. The document includes relevant citations and reports addressing the topics encompassed by the Nexus. It will be maintained as a “living document” (subject to revision) in the WellBeing International Studies Repository. The original document and subsequent revisions will be kept in the Repository to provide a record of the changes.

The Meatless Thanksgiving Dinner Paradox, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Companion Animal Issues

Americans will eat more plant-based Thanksgiving dinners this year. The percentage of Americans who do not eat meat has doubled in the past two decades. Per capita meat consumption in the U.S., though, has not changed in decades and remains among the highest in the world.

The Nexus Between Animal Welfare, Environment, And Sustainable Development, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

The Nexus between Animal Welfare, the Environment, and Sustainable Development was the focus of a Resolution (sponsored by six African states and Pakistan) passed by consensus at the Fifth United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA-5) in March of 2022. The Resolution requested the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Executive Director produce a report on the Nexus between animal welfare, the environment, and sustainable development.

Slowly But Steadily, Animals Are Being Replaced In Safety Testing, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

Periodically, WellBeing News (WBN) carries a story on using animals to test the safety of chemicals (see May 2021 and December 2021). Advocacy campaigns to switch from animal tests to non-animal alternatives started over a hundred years ago. Public policy initiatives and technological advances leading to the implementation of alternatives began several decades ago. The WBN December 2021 story included an illustration of five selected countries showing animal use in laboratories increased rapidly from 1900 to the mid-1970s and then declined almost as rapidly to around 20-40% of peak laboratory animal use. It should be noted that the technical …

Does Your Dog Really Have A Better Life Than Other Dogs?, Harold Herzog

Herzog - Companion Animal Issues

In a recent study, subjects rated the welfare of dogs, ranging from street dogs and fighting dogs to show dogs and personal pets. Nearly everyone thought their dog had a better life than other types of dogs—including other peoples' pets. This finding could be due to a cognitive bias called "the Lake Wobegon Effect"—the tendency for people think they are above average.

Chinese Consumers’ Attitudes Toward Animal Welfare: Behaviors, Beliefs, And Responses To Messaging, Jo Anderson

General - Animal Protection

Despite being comparatively neglected until recently, the suffering of animals in Asia is starting to command more attention from global animal advocacy activists. In particular, as the largest country in the world by both human and farmed animal population, and among the largest when measured by economy and land mass, China plays a central role here. However, the key question of how best to improve outcomes for farmed animals in China remains difficult to answer, due to the recency of the movement and a comparative lack of research on the topic.

Although China’s per capita meat consumption is lower than …

The Donkey: An Unsung Hero Of Human Civilization, Andrew Rowan

Tales of WellBeing

Donkeys receive little respect but provide critical support and livelihood for millions of people worldwide.

Letter From The President: Biodiversity And The Smallest Floral Kingdom, Andrew N. Rowan, Kathleen Rowan

WellBeing News

As attention to global biodiversity heats up because of the upcoming December meeting (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal, media stories on the state of the globe’s biodiversity are becoming more numerous. Humans love lists, and someone would inevitably produce a list of countries ranked according to their biodiversity. Swiftest, a data analytics company interested in the insurance and travel industries, has recently created a country-by-country biodiversity ranking. Their list includes 201 countries (193 member countries in the UN). The list is based on a relatively simple index that counts all the species of five …

Advocacy & Funding For Farmed Animal Welfare, Andrew N. Rowan

WellBeing News

Campaigns focusing on farmed animal welfare are relatively recent events of global animal advocacy, even though the UK animal protection movement is frequently identified as being launched when Richard Martin introduced his Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act in 1822. However, farmed animal advocacy only began following the 1964 publication of Animal Machines, a book by Ruth Harrison. In her book, she describes how farm animals were suffering in new systems of industrialized animal agriculture (dubbed “Factory Farming”) and were mostly viewed as units of production rather than sentient animals. From 1950 to 1990, the movement primarily addressed companion and …