Assessing attitudes toward farm animal welfare: A national survey of animal science faculty members1

Abstract

A survey to measure attitudes toward farm animal welfare was developed. We targeted animal science faculty because of their influence on animal production in the United States. We initially interviewed 34 faculty members from a large Midwestern public university to assist with questionnaire development. After our written survey was developed, we pilot-tested our questionnaire at this same university. Thereafter, we sent an e-mail advance notice, first survey, and follow-up survey/thank-you to the national population of animal science faculty members. With an n = 446 (response rate = 45%), we observed the following: 51% (for layer birds), 58% (for meat birds), 66% (for swine), 84% (for dairy), 86% (for sheep), and 87% (for beef) of our respondents agreed that the predominant methods used to produce various types of animal products provided appropriate levels of animal welfare. Our findings showed that greater than 90% of respondents support general principles of animal welfare, such as keeping animals free from unnecessary fear and distress. However, specific practices that have been shown to elicit distress (e.g., castration without anesthetic) were deemed a concern by only 32% of the respondents. Various industry practices/outcomes were assessed for level of concern and varied from a high of 83% of respondents agreeing that flooring effects on lameness in intensively farmed animals are a concern, to a low of 16% agreeing that early weaning in pigs is a concern. Summed attitude scores showed significant relationships with the demographic variables of gender (P < 0.01) and political ideology (P < 0.01), with women and those holding more liberal political views being more concerned about farm animal welfare issues. Gaining an awareness of various stakeholders' attitudes (e.g., animal scientists, veterinarians, producers, and consumers) toward farm animal welfare will assist animal welfare scientists in knowing which research topics to emphasize and, perhaps, where critical gaps in accessibility of knowledge exist.

Dairy Cattle Welfare Status Measured by Animal-Linked Parameters Under Tunisian Rearing Conditions

“…Management practices associated with fear and pain are also viewed very negatively by animal scientists and veterinarians (Heleski et al, 2004(Heleski et al, , 2005. The analysis of variance showed a significant difference in avoidance distance between cows and heifers.…”

Tail docking in horses: a review of the issues

“…sheep and cattle) for a same operation (e.g. castration) illustrate this subjective aspect of the perception of pain felt by animals (Scott et al, 2003;Heleski et al, 2004). In these studies, scores also relied on several characteristics of the persons who attributed pain scores.…”

“…It should be noted that the measurement and perception of pain felt by animals is often subjective (Hawkins, 2003) and relies on psychological factors (Bennet and Perini, 2003b;Heleski et al, 2004) and philosophical prerequisites (Rollin, 1985;Preece and Fraser, 2000;Broom, 2006; see also open peer commentaries in Dawkins, 1990). The different pain scores attributed to different species (e.g.…”

“…In these studies, scores also relied on several characteristics of the persons who attributed pain scores. As a consequence, the feeling of pain in animals is not systematically taken into account (Morton and Griffiths, 1985;Rollin, 1985;Noonan et al, 1996a) or not taught (McGlone and Hicks, 1993) and methods relieving it are insufficiently used (various species: Heleski et al, 2004;horse: Price et al, 2002;dog: Noonan et al, 1996a;cattle: Whay and Huxley, 2005).…”

Societal views and animal welfare science: understanding why the modified cage may fail and other stories

“…Much of the work to date in North America has been based on quantitative surveys (e.g. Heleski et al, 2004Heleski et al, , 2005Levine et al, 2005;Prickett et al, 2010). Survey studies have real benefits: they can be deployed on a broad scale and can be designed to capture representative samples that offer the opportunity to generalize to broader populations.…”