A survey of attitudes towards the welfare and rights of animals was conducted in universities in 11 European and Asian countries, to improve understanding of cultural differences that might impact on trade and international relations. Collaborators' universities were recruited in each country to assist in the design, translation and administration of the survey via the internet in a convenient selection of the country's universities, providing 3,433 student responses from at least 103 universities. Respondents rated the acceptability of 43 major concerns about animals (focused on type of use, animal integrity, killing animals, animal welfare, experimentation on animals, changes in animal genotypes, the environment for animals and societal attitudes towards animals). Students from European countries had more concern for animal welfare than students from Asian countries, which may be partly explained by increased affluence of European students as there was a positive correlation between student expenditure and concern for animal welfare and rights. Southern and central European countries had most concern for animal rights and unnatural practices. Those in communist or former communist countries in Asia and Europe had most concern about killing animals and those in northern European countries the least. Regional similarities between neighbouring countries were evident in responses to animal issues and there were no differences between ethnic groups within a country. Thus, there were national and continental differences in European and Asian students' attitudes to animals' welfare and rights, which appear to arise as a result of the socio-political situation in regions rather than religious or other differences.

Simple SummaryWe surveyed university students in 11 Eurasian countries for their attitudes to animals, using an internet-based questionnaire to which 1,902 female and 1,530 male student responded from 102 universities. Across countries female students had greater concern for animal welfare and rights than males, but especially so in more gender empowered countries. One contributing factor appeared to be the greater association of females than males with pets, and a possible outcome was greater female avoidance of meat consumption, especially red meat.AbstractPrevious research has demonstrated that in households where the male partner is more dominant, there is convergence in male and female attitudes towards animals, whereas if the female partner is empowered they exhibit greater empathy towards animals than the male partner. We tested this theory of ‘female empowered empathy’ internationally in a survey of female and male students' attitudes towards use of animals, conducted in 11 Eurasian countries: China, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Iran, Ireland, South Korea, Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Spain and Sweden. Gender empowerment was estimated for each country using the Gender Empowerment Measure designed by the United Nations. The survey was administered via the internet in universities within countries, and 1,902 female and 1,530 male student responses from 102 universities were received. Respondents rated the acceptability of 43 major concerns about human use of animals, and the importance of 13 world social issues, including animal protection, environmental protection and sustainable development. Females had greater concern for animal welfare and rights than males. There was a positive correlation between the Gender Empowerment Measure and the ratio of female to male concern for animal welfare and rights, but not for other world issues. Thus in countries where females were more empowered, principally Sweden, Norway and Great Britain, females had much greater concern than males for animal issues, whereas in other countries the responses of males and females were more similar. Across countries female students were more likely to avoid meat and less likely to avoid eggs, milk and seafood than male students, and were more likely to have kept pets than males. Females rated cats as more sentient than males did. The results demonstrate that females have greater concern for animal welfare and rights than males, and that this is more likely to be expressed in countries where females are relatively empowered, suggesting that ‘emancipated female empathy’ operates across countries as well as at a local level.

We conducted three experiments to assess how nursing frequency affects milk output in early pig lactation. In Exp. 1, nursing behavior of 12 individually penned sows was recorded on d 1 through 3 postpartum. The milk output was measured using the weigh-suckle-weigh method. The spontaneous changes in the nursing frequency between d 1 and 2 were positively correlated with the changes in milk output (rS = .64), and the same was true for changes between d 2 and 3 (rS = .77). In Exp. 2, we forced sows, 7 to 8 d after parturition, to nurse every 35 min (10 sows) or every 70 min (eight sows) for 24 h. Sows nursing at short intervals had more nursings without milk ejection, but they gave 27% more milk and their litters gained 44% more weight during the experimental 24 h than sows nursing at long intervals. Litters nursed at long intervals massaged the udder longer after milk ejection. In Exp. 3, milk output was measured after intervals of 35, 50, and 70 min imposed in varied order on 11 experimental sows in the second week of lactation. In a separate recording of two 50-min nursings, we measured milk output from teats that were, or were not, sucked at the first nursing (i.e., giving within-sow comparison of 50 or 100 min). The milk output after 35, 70, and 100 min did not differ from that after 50 min, although there was a tendency for a slight increase with longer intervals. The results suggest that glands are refilled early after milk ejection and that the increase in milk available with prolonged intervals is only slight. As a result, it is the nursing frequency that plays a crucial role in adjusting the milk output.

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Following a pilot study, the aim of this study was to test the hypothesis whether occurrence of massaging the anogenital region of a calf by a non-maternal hind is a reliable indicator of adoption. The investigation was conducted between 28 May (1st day of calving) and 2 September (abrupt weaning of all calves) on a red deer farm at Vimperk, Czech Republic. Fifty hinds and their calves were observed but only complete data sets of sucking bouts were considered for evaluation. Massaging occurred mostly during the 1st month of the calf’s life. All filial calves were massaged repeatedly. Other calves received ano-genital massage at least twice (termed adopted), on a single occasion or not at all (termed non-filial). Filial and adopted calves behaved in a similar way but differently from non-filial calves. They sucked in an antiparallel standing position so that the hind could lick their ano-genital region more often than the non-filial calves. This occurred even when two calves were involved in the bout. When two calves were involved in the sucking bout, non-filial calves sucked from behind, between the hind’s hind legs. This position occurred more frequently with non-filial than among the filial and adopted calves. It was therefore concluded, that repeated allonursing accompanied with massaging of the ano-genital region of the sucking calf by the hind can be considered a signal of adoption. Hinds usually adopted calves older than their own progeny. The adopted calves were on average 2·5 days old. This suggests that it is most likely the calf’s activity which leads to bonding. No reciprocity was found in allosucking and/or allonursing. The fact that non-filial calves commonly initiated allosucking from a non-maternal hind during the day when she gave birth appeared crucial for establishing bonding which subsequently led to adoption. Hinds may be bonded with several calves including their own. Therefore, bonding with a non-filial calf did not principally mean failure in looking after their own progeny as shown in other studies.

Parental recognition of offspring is important in highly social animals. Both wild and free-ranging domestic sows live in groups during lactation, except for a few days of isolation directly after parturition. It is therefore important that a sow is able to discriminate her own piglets from alien piglets both at close contact and from a distance. We investigated whether piglets' vocalizations at 10 days of age may serve this function. Vocalizations of own and alien piglets were recorded on day 9 post partum whilst the piglets were isolated from the sow for 5 min (isolation calls, i-calls) and when piglets were returned to their sows afterwards (contact calls, c-calls). We first examined whether the two types of piglet vocalizations include cues which make it possible to discriminate between individual litters. A total of 2155 i-calls and 475 c-calls were sampled. From digitized calls, a total of 50 acoustic parameters were calculated and then subjected to a discriminant function analysis (forward stepwise method). Both i-calls and c-calls could be classified significantly better to the correct litters than would be expected by chance. In a playback experiment, whether sows isolated from their piglets respond more strongly to i-calls and c-calls of their own piglets than to alien calls was tested. For both the i-calls (N = 12 sows) and c-calls (N = 8 sows) sows responded with more vocalizations to the playback of own piglets' voices than to the playback of alien piglets' voices. The study shows that piglet calls contain acoustic cues that are litter typical and that sows are able to recognize their offspring based on these cues.

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