Animal Studies Commons^™

The Use Of Judgement Bias To Assess Welfare In Farm Livestock, L. Baciadonna, A. G. Mcelligott

Sentience Collection

The development of accurate measures of animal emotions is important for improving and promoting animal welfare. Cognitive bias indicates the effect of emotional states on cognitive processes, such as memory, attention, and judgement. Cognitive bias tests complement existing behavioural and physiological measures for assessing the valence of animal emotions indirectly. The judgement bias test has been used to assess emotional states in non-human animals; mainly in laboratory settings. The aim of this review is to summarise the findings on the use of the judgement bias test approach in assessing emotions in non-human animals, focusing in particular on farm livestock. The …

Intrasexual Selection Drives Sensitivity To Pitch, Formants And Duration In The Competitive Calls Of Fallow Bucks, Benjamin J. Pitcher, Elodie Briefer, Alan G. Mcelligott

Ethology Collection

Background: Mammal vocal parameters such as fundamental frequency (or pitch; fo) and formant dispersion often provide information about quality traits of the producer (e.g. dominance and body size), suggesting that they are sexually selected. However, little experimental evidence exists demonstrating the importance of these cues in intrasexual competition, particularly fo. Male Fallow deer (bucks) produce an extremely low pitched groan. Bucks have a descended larynx and generate fo well below what is expected for animals of their size. Groan parameters are linked to caller dominance, body size and condition, suggesting that groans are the product of sexual selection. Using a …

Segregation Of Information About Emotional Arousal And Valence In Horse Whinnies, Elodie F. Briefer, Anne-Laure Maigrot, Roi Mandel, Sabrina Briefer Freymond, Iris Bachmann, Edna Hillmann

Sentience Collection

Studying vocal correlates of emotions is important to provide a better understanding of the evolution of emotion expression through cross-species comparisons. Emotions are composed of two main dimensions: emotional arousal (calm versus excited) and valence (negative versus positive). These two dimensions could be encoded in different vocal parameters (segregation of information) or in the same parameters, inducing a trade-off between cues indicating emotional arousal and valence. We investigated these two hypotheses in horses. We placed horses in five situations eliciting several arousal levels and positive as well as negative valence. Physiological and behavioral measures collected during the tests suggested the …

Compassion As A Practical And Evolved Ethic For Conservation, David Ramp, Marc Bekoff

Conservation Collection

The ethical position underpinning decisionmaking is an important concern for conservation biologists when setting priorities for interventions. The recent debate on how best to protect nature has centered on contrasting intrinsic and aesthetic values against utilitarian and economic values, driven by an inevitable global rise in conservation conflicts. These discussions have primarily been targeted at species and ecosystems for success, without explicitly expressing concern for the intrinsic value and welfare of individual animals. In part, this is because animal welfare has historically been thought of as an impediment to conservation. However, practical implementations of conservation that provide good welfare outcomes …

Predator Recognition And Responses In The Endangered Macquarie Perch (Macquaria Australasica), Culum Brown, Jennifer Morgan

Sentience Collection

Macquarie perch, Macquaria austalasica, is an endangered species endemic to southern Australia whose distribution is highly fragmented and continues to decline. Key threatening processes include habitat destruction, dams and weirs, overfishing and interactions with introduced species. Here, we examined the responses of small and large Macquarie perch to two native predators and to the introduced redfin perch, Perca fluviatilis. Our results showed that Macquarie perch generally avoided large-bodied native predators but was attracted to small-bodied native predators. Responses to large and small redfin perch lay between these two extremes, suggesting that the Macquarie perch does treat these foreign fish as …

The Role Of Professionalization Regarding Female Exploitation In The Nonhuman Animal Rights Movement, Corey Lee Wrenn

Animal Rights Movement Collection

Adams (2004, The pornography of meat. London: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd), Deckha (2008, Disturbing images: PETA and the feminist ethics of animal advocacy. Ethics and the environment, 13(2), 35–76), Gaarder (2011, Women and the animal rights movement. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press), Glasser (2011, Tied oppressions: an analysis of how sexist imagery reinforces speciesist sentiment. The Brock review, 12(1), 51–68), and others have criticized People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) for sexually exploiting young women in outreach and fundraising efforts. This article extends these critiques in addressing the problematic relationship between objectified volunteer female activists and …

“Goats That Stare At Men” – Dwarf Goats Alter Their Behaviour In Response To Human Head Orientation But Do Not Spontaneously Use Head Direction As A Cue In A Food-Related Context, Christian Nawroth, Eberhard Von Borell, Jan Langbein

Social Cognition Collection

Recently, comparative research on the mechanisms and species-specific adaptive values of attributing attentive states and using communicative cues has gained increased interest, particularly in non-human primates, birds, and dogs. Here, we investigate these phenomena in a farm animal species, the dwarf goat (Capra aegagrus hircus). In the first experiment, we investigated the effects of different human head and body orientations, as well as human experimenter presence/absence, of a human on the behaviour of goats in a food-anticipating paradigm. Over a 30-sec interval, the experimenter engaged in one of four different postures or behaviours (head and body towards the subject, head …

Animal Rights Is A Social Justice Issue, Robert C. Jones

Animal Rights Movement Collection

The literature on social justice, and social justice movements themselves, routinely ignore nonhuman animals as legitimate subjects of social justice. Yet, as with other social justice movements, the contemporary animal liberation movement has as its focus the elimination of institutional and systemic domination and oppression. In this paper, I explicate the philosophical and theoretical foundations of the contemporary animal rights movement, and situate it within the framework of social justice. I argue that those committed to social justice – to minimizing violence, exploitation, domination, objectification, and oppression – are equally obligated to consider the interests of all sentient beings, not …

Histological Sequences Of Long Bone Development In The New Zealand White Rabbits, Yasser A. Ahmed, Eman A. Abdelrahim, Fatma Khalil

Histology Collection

Long bone development occurred through endochondral ossification. The current study investigated the main histological changes associated with the development of humerus from the New Zealand white rabbits. The upper limb or humerus during embryonic (12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 24 and 27 days) and neonatal (3 and 7 days) development was processed for light microscopy. Three stages preceded endochondral ossification; limb bud (mesenchymal cells), cartilage primordia (mesenchymal condensation and differentiation into chondrocytes) and cartilage template (organization of chondrocytes into proliferative and hypertrophic zones) by 12, 14 and 15 days, respectively. At day 16, cartilage template elongated forming a cartilaginous …

Maintaining Ethical Standards During Conservation Crises, Ryan K. Brook, Mark Cattet, Chris T. Darimont, Paul C. Paquet, Gilbert Proulx

Ethics and Conservation Biology Collection

Many species at risk in Canada and globally are at or approaching a crisis, especially where little or nothing consequential is being done to prevent extirpation. Such is the case of endangered boreal caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) in southern Alberta, Canada. Expedient but inadequate emergency ‘fixes’ have been experimentally implemented to arrest their decline and potential extirpation, but use of these measures raises important ethical problems. In their study of the effects of killing wolves (Canis lupus) on the Little Smoky woodland caribou population, Hervieux et al. (2014a) employed lethal methods that included shooting a firearm from a helicopter and …

Updated Marine Mammal Distribution And Abundance Estimates In British Columbia, Benjamin D. Best, Caroline H. Fox, Rob Williams, Patrick H. Halpin, Paul C. Paquet

Population Distribution and Habitat Collection

Information relating to the distribution and abundance of species is critical for effective conservation and management. For many species, including cetacean species of conservation concern, abundance estimates are lacking, out of date and/or highly uncertain. Systematic, line-transect marine mammal surveys were conducted in British Columbia’s (BC) coastal waters over multiple years and seasons (summer 2004, 2005, 2008, and spring/autumn 2007). In total, 10,057km of transects were surveyed in an 83,547km2 study area. Abundance estimates were calculated using two different methods: Conventional Distance Sampling (CDS) and Density Surface Modelling (DSM). CDS generates a single density estimate for each stratum, whereas DSM …

Sustainability, Thoroughbred Racing And The Need For Change, Iris M. Bergmann Phd

Horse racing and competitions

Globally, the thoroughbred breeding and racing industry is reporting a declining trend. A report commissioned by the Jockey Club in the US, known as the McKinsey report, explicitly linked the public’s concern with animal welfare and the use of drugs to declining betting and attendance in the US. In various racing nations in Europe, in Australia and the US, thoroughbred racing is experiencing pressures from external sources and from within, with even industry participants calling for change. The industry is concerned with the integrity of racing. Structural changes, regulation and transparency in reporting are all issues identified in need of …

Scent Of The Familiar: An Fmri Study Of Canine Brain Responses To Familiar And Unfamiliar Human And Dog Odors, Gregory S. Berns, Andrew M. Brooks, Mark Spivak

Social Cognition Collection

Understanding dogs’ perceptual experience of both conspecifics and humans is important to understand how dogs evolved and the nature of their relationships with humans and other dogs. Olfaction is believed to be dogs’ most powerful and perhaps important sense and an obvious place to begin for the study of social cognition of conspecifics and humans. We used fMRI in a cohort of dogs (N = 12) that had been trained to remain motionless while unsedated and unrestrained in the MRI. By presenting scents from humans and conspecifics, we aimed to identify the dimensions of dogs’ responses to salient biological …

A General Framework For Animal Density Estimation From Acoustic Detections Across A Fixed Microphone Array, Ben C. Stevenson, David L. Borchers, Res Altwegg, René Swift, Douglas M. Gillespie, G. John Measey

Bioacoustics Collection

1. Acoustic monitoring can be an efficient, cheap, non‐invasive alternative to physical trapping of individuals. Spatially explicit capture–recapture (SECR) methods have been proposed to estimate calling animal abundance and density from data collected by a fixed array of microphones. However, these methods make some assumptions that are unlikely to hold in many situations, and the consequences of violating these are yet to be investigated.
2. We generalize existing acoustic SECR methodology, enabling these methods to be used in a much wider variety of situations. We incorporate time‐of‐arrival (TOA) data collected by the microphone array, increasing the precision of calling animal density estimates. …

A Balanced Perspective On Animal Welfare For Improved Meat And Meat Products, A. Y. Chulayo, V. Muchenje

Farm Animal Welfare Collection

Increased public concern for animal welfare in the logistics chain has led to a rise in the scrutiny of the treatment of food animals. Factors affecting the status of welfare of slaughter animals begin at the farm and occur during transportation and at the abattoir. The activities that animals pass through before slaughter are thought to have negative effects on both the animal and the product. Before or during this period, animals suffer pain, which compromises their physical, health and biochemical status, and meat quality and quantity; which leads to economic losses. Environmental impact plays a role in the behaviour, …

Specters Of Nature; Or, From Metaphor To Murder: The Nonhuman-Animal In Rash's Serena, Pat Siebel

Bridges: A Journal of Student Research

This paper explores the marginalized roles of the non-human animal throughout Ron Rash's 2008 novel, Serena, by classifying various types of animal occurrences into three categories: "The Metaphorical," "The Authentic," and "The Murderous," to investigate their role(s), significance, and signification in the text.

Abundance, Density, And Opinions About Columbian Black-Tailed Deer, Whidbey Island, Washington, Robert P. Wingard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Obtaining reliable knowledge is the first step towards properly managing wildlife species. Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) on Whidbey Island, Washington have not been the subject of study, and little is known about the population, or the opinion of resident’s of Whidbey Island towards the deer population. However, wildlife managers suggest deer on the island may be overabundant or over social carrying capacity. Given the lack of empirical knowledge about the deer population or human opinions towards deer on Whidbey Island, I designed research to determine the abundance and density of Columbian black-tailed deer on Whidbey Island, …

The Medicalization Of Nonhuman Animal Rights: Frame Contestation And The Exploitation Of Disability, Corey Lee Wrenn, Joanne Clark, Maddie Judge, Katharine A. Gilchrist, Delanie Woodlock, Katherine Dotson, Riva Spanos, Jonothan Wrenn

Animal Rights Movement Collection

Nonhuman Animal rights activists are sometimes dismissed as ‘crazy’ or irrational by countermovements seeking to protect status quo social structures. Social movements themselves often utilize disability narratives in their claims-making as well. In this article, we argue that Nonhuman Animal exploitation and Nonhuman Animal rights activism are sometimes medicalized in frame disputes. The contestation over mental ability ultimately exploits humans with disabilities. The medicalization of Nonhuman Animal rights activism diminishes activists’ social justice claims, but the movement’s medicalization of Nonhuman Animal use unfairly otherizes its target population and treats disability identity as a pejorative. Utilizing a content analysis of major …

Use Of Endocrine And Immune Responses As Predictors Of Bull Sperm Motility, Lydia Mitchener, Rick Rorie, Michael Looper, Charles Rosenkrans Jr.

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Research has shown that peripheral blood cell populations change in response to an immune challenge, and hormone concentrations directly affect sperm characteristics. The objective of this study was to utilize immune responses and hormone concentrations as biomarkers for yearling bull sperm motility. Seventeen Brahman-influenced bulls (mean age 1.1 ± 0.1 yr; body weight 478 ± 38 kg) were administered an intraperitoneal injection of lipopolysaccharide (Salmonella typhimirium 0.7 µg/kg of body weight). Blood was collected 0, 3, 6, 9, and 24 h after LPS injection then analyzed for differential cell count and endocrine concentrations of prolactin, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF), and …

Jessie Huey Laurence Papers - Accession 5, Jessie Huey Laurence

Manuscript Collection

The Jessie Huey Laurence Papers primarily consist of correspondence, but also included are speeches, program notes, minutes, financial records, photographs, clippings, and scrapbooks relating to her role in the South Carolina Federation of Women’s Clubs (1928-1937); her promotion of a compulsory school attendance bill for South Carolina (1934-1936); the formation of the South Carolina Council for the Common Good (1935); Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Public Works Administration (PWA) projects in South Carolina; and her interest in the Catawba Indians of York County, as chairman of Indian Affairs Committee for the Catawba Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. …