Digital Commons Network^™

Chickens Play To The Crowd, Cinzia Chiandetti

Animal Sentience

The time was ripe for Marino’s review of chickens’ cognitive capacities. The research community, apart from expressing gratitude for Marino’s work, should now use it to increase public awareness of chickens’ abilities. People’s views on many animals are ill-informed. Scientists need to communicate and engage with the public about the relevance and societal implications of their findings.

Post-Darwin Skepticism And Run-Of-The-Mill Suicide, John Hadley

Animal Sentience

Peña-Guzmán’s depiction of the opponent of animal suicide as a conservative is a straw man. It is possible to accept that animals are self-conscious and reflexive yet still reject the view that they have the mental wherewithal to commit run-of-the-mill suicide. That animal behaviour can be positioned on a continuum of self-destructive behaviour does not establish that animals can intentionally kill themselves.

An Adaptationist Perspective On Animal Suicide, Timothy P. Racine

Animal Sentience

Peña-Guzmán’s discussion of suicide in nonhuman animals has broad implications. In this commentary, I focus on the logical relation between suicide and intention. Proximate cause must be distinguished from ultimate function in explanations of suicide. I briefly discuss two adaptationist accounts of suicidal behavior.

Lessons From Chimpanzee Sign Language Studies, Mary Lee Jensvold

Animal Sentience

Claims are often made about behaviors being unique to humans; the evidence usually shows they are not. Sign language studies on chimpanzees may provide a useful model for comparative studies of suicide. A productive approach to comparative studies is to focus on observable behaviors rather than getting lost in the pitfalls of vague definitions and changing measures.

Animal Suicide: An Account Worth Giving?, Irina Mikhalevich

Animal Sentience

Peña-Guzmán (2017) argues that empirical evidence and evolutionary theory compel us to treat the phenomenon of suicide as continuous in the animal kingdom. He defends a “continuist” account in which suicide is a multiply-realizable phenomenon characterized by self-injurious and self-annihilative behaviors. This view is problematic for several reasons. First, it appears to mischaracterize the Darwinian view that mind is continuous in nature. Second, by focusing only on surface-level features of behavior, it groups causally and etiologically disparate phenomena under a single conceptual umbrella, thereby reducing the account’s explanatory power. Third, it obscures existing analyses of suicide in biomedical ethics and …

Can Nondolphins Commit Suicide?, David M. Peña-Guzmán

Animal Sentience

This Response addresses the scientific and philosophical criticisms of my 2017 target article “Can nonhuman animals commit suicide?” It defends my key claims and explores topics (such as animal judgment, animal theory of mind, and the evolution of suicide) that did not appear in the original article. It also points out areas in which further research is needed and concludes that we should be wary of accusations of “anthropomorphism” in debates about animal suicide.

Prodigal Pets: A History Of Animal Sheltering In America And The Origin Of The No Kill Movement, Susan K. Houser

eBooks

In 224 pages, this book traces the history of animal sheltering in the United States of America and its gradual transition from 1990 onwards into support for the "no-kill" goal in which less than 10% of animals entering shelters are euthanized. The includes extensive reporting identifying trends in animal shelter intakes and outcomes. All sources are carefully cited.

Encouraging Self-Reflection By Veterinary Clinicians: Ethics On The Clinic Floor, Sandra A. Corr, Clare Palmer, Peter Sandøe

Veterinary Medicine - Ethics

In this commentary, we agree that veterinarians often face troubling ethical decisions involving potential over- or undertreatment of their animal patients, the financial constraints of their clients, and, sometimes, the goals of the institutions that employ them. While we accept that a CEC may, in some contexts, be an appropriate structure in which to deal with such difficult decisions, we argue that this is not the only, or necessarily the best, approach. We suggest that the ethical problems facing veterinarians differ significantly in different countries; that many acute ethical issues typically arise before animals even arrive at the veterinary specialty …

Street Dog Management Program Monitoring And Evaluation Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India October 2018, Tamara Kartal, Jamie Sneddon, Amit Chaudhari

Demographics and Populations

In 2016, Humane Society International India signed a Dog Population Management MoU with three Municipal Corporations in Uttarakhand (Dehradun, Nainital and Mussoorie). As part of the MoUs three individual dog population surveys were conducted in three cities in October 2016 to estimate the dog population and to establish a baseline against which progress can be measured.

In Mussoorie, due to infrastructure challenges the sterilization program was delayed until 2018 and the team started the sterilization program in September/October 2018. Due to the delay there are no effects of the program measurable yet. However, surveys continued and we have observed an …

The Impact Of An Integrated Program Of Return-To-Field And Targeted Trap-Neuter-Return On Feline Intake And Euthanasia At A Municipal Animal Shelter, Daniel Spehar, Peter Wolf

Management - TNR

Available evidence indicates that overall levels of feline intake and euthanasia at U.S. shelters have significantly declined in recent decades. Nevertheless, millions of cats, many of them free-roaming, continue to be admitted to shelters each year. In some locations, as many as 70% of cats, perhaps up to one million or more per year nationally, are euthanized. New approaches, including return-to-field (RTF) and targeted trap-neuter-return (TNR) appear to have transformative potential. The purpose of the present study was to examine changes in feline intake and euthanasia, as well as additional associated metrics, at a municipal animal shelter in Albuquerque, New …

A Case Study In Citizen Science: The Effectiveness Of A Trap-Neuter-Return Program In A Chicago Neighborhood, Daniel Spehar, Peter Wolf

Management - TNR

The use of trap-neuter-return (TNR) as a method of managing free-roaming cat populations has increased in the United States in recent decades. Historically, TNR has been conducted most often at a grassroots level, which has led to inconsistent data collection and assessment practices. Consequently, a paucity of analyzable data exists. An initiative is underway to standardize TNR program data collection and assessment. However, it could be some time before scientifically sound protocols are implemented on a broad scale. In the interim, sets of data collected by nascent citizen scientists offer valid opportunities to evaluate grassroots TNR programs. The purpose of …

The War On Animal Product Alternatives 2018, Lewis Bollard

Diet

The meat and dairy industries’ war on alternatives to their products is underway. In May, meat lobbyists got US House lawmakers to insert language into a spending bill directing the USDA to regulate all meat and poultry grown from cells. After the FDA held a surprisingly balanced forum on such “clean meat,” which it indicated its intention to regulate, the American Farm Bureau joined with all the major animal ag groups to lobby President Trump to put the USDA in charge. This may seem like an obscure jurisdictional dispute. But the stakes could be high: one FDA and USDA law …

Ultrasonic Deterrents Reduce Nuisance Cat (Felis Catus) Activity On Suburban Properties, Heather M. Crawford, Joseph B. Fontaine, Michael C. Calver

Predation and Wildlife

Urban environments are increasingly important for biodiversity conservation, but pet cats threaten wildlife therein, displaying nuisance behaviour such as hunting, fighting, fouling and urine spraying. In an attempt to empower landholders wishing to reduce cat incursions humanely, we tested the effectiveness of two ultrasonic cat deterrents (CatStop© and On-Guard Mega-Sonic Cat Repeller©).

After confirming in arena trials that cats detect and respond negatively to an ultrasonic device, we tested both deterrents in 18 suburban gardens in Perth, Western Australia. Camera monitoring at foci of cat activity (e.g. fish ponds, property entry/exit points) occurred for two weeks before (Period 1: device …

Tail Docking Of Canine Puppies: Reassessment Of The Tail’S Role In Communication, The Acute Pain Caused By Docking And Interpretation Of Behavioural Responses, David J. Mellor

General - Animal Welfare

Laws, regulations and professional standards increasingly aim to ban or restrict non-therapeutic tail docking in puppies. These constraints have usually been justified by reference to loss of tail participation in communication between dogs, the acute pain presumed to be caused during docking itself, subsequent experiences of chronic pain and heightened pain sensitivity, and the occurrence of other complications. These areas are reconsidered here. First, a scientifically robust examination of the dynamic functional foundations, sensory components and key features of body language that are integral to canine communication shows that the role of the tail has been greatly underestimated. More specifically, …

Forensic Use Of The Five Domains Model For Assessing Suffering In Cases Of Animal Cruelty, Rebecca A. Ledger, David J. Mellor

General - Animal Welfare

Conceptual frameworks for understanding animal welfare scientifically have become influential. An early “biological functioning” framework still influences expert opinions prepared for Courts hearing animal cruelty cases, despite deficiencies revealed by the emergence and wide scientific adoption of an “affective state” framework. According to “biological functioning” precepts, indices of negative welfare states should predominantly be physical and/or clinical and any reference to animals’ supposed subjective experiences, i.e., their “affective states”, should be excluded. However, “affective state” concepts, which have neuroscience and animal behaviour foundations, show that behavioural indices may be used to credibly identify negative welfare outcomes or affects. Acceptance of …

Identifying Best Practice Domestic Cat Management, Bidda Jones

Management - General

The purpose of this report is to identify current best practice approaches to domestic cat management, to help address poor welfare and high euthanasia rates of domestic cats and mitigate their impacts on humans and wildlife. This document builds on knowledge gained from previous cat management strategies,including examining the effectiveness of existing legislation, reviewing current research, and considering relevant aspects of feral cat management. Although considerable efforts have been made to reduce the unwanted domestic cat population, the complexity of the problem makes effective cat management very difficult. Effective cat management requires a high level of government and community support, …

Our Top Victories For Animals In 2018

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

From The President, Kitty Block

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Our Mission / How We Work

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Together, We're Building A More Humane World

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Keeping Fur On Animals And Out Of Shops

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Exposing Puppy Mills And Protecting Dogs Bred For Profit

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Reducing The Suffering Of Farm Animals

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Working To End The Use Of Animals In Product Testing

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Defending Wildlife

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Caring For Companion Animals

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Ending The Trade In Dog Meat And Saving Farmed Dogs

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Stopping Animal Crimes, Fighting And Cruelty

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Rescuing Animals In Crisis

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.

Our Care Centers Help, Heal And Shelter Animals In Need

HSUS Annual Reports 2005-18

No abstract provided.