Attitudes of veterinary students in Croatia toward farm animal welfare

Abstract

This survey was undertaken to assess the attitudes of Croatian veterinary students regarding farm animal welfare issues. The study included students of all undergraduate years at the only Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Croatia. First-year students were surveyed twice, ie before and after attending the course on animal welfare, using a written questionnaire containing statements with a five-point Likert scale for choice of answers. Students consider good animal welfare necessary for sustainability of farming systems and food quality and safety, ranking particular issues in the following order: biological functioning > natural living > emotional states. Students also believe that cattle and pigs have greater cognitive abilities and that their welfare is less compromised in comparison with poultry, whereas standard management procedures performed in pig production are perceived as more humane than beak-trimming in poultry. In addition, students tend to consider pain in farm animals caused by management procedures only when these procedures involved the affliction of significant pain. There were no differences between attitude scores on most of the statements from first-year students before and after the course. Furthermore, for the majority of statements, the mean responses were lower in final-year students, suggesting a lower level of empathy toward farm animals. Although similar results have also been recorded elsewhere in the world, these results raise concerns as to the ability of these future veterinarians to promote good farm animal welfare in the country and abroad. The results also suggest a need to modify veterinary student education in Croatia in the field of farm animal welfare.

Knowledge and opinions of veterinary students in Italy toward animal welfare science and law

“…The results concerning cattle contradicted the findings of the DG SANTE study (2016) where students from other faculties were only moderately concerned by this species. It is possible that the different perception of veterinary students toward cattle welfare is due to the longer time that the students spend on a cattle farm as compared, for example, to a chicken farm, as also suggested by Ostović and others (2016). For this reason, cows are probably perceived as being more sentient than other species (Paul and Podberscek 2000, Levine and others 2005).…”

Opinions towards Companion Animals and Their Welfare: A Survey of Croatian Veterinary Students

“…Students of all six study years had the same curriculum on animal welfare. The survey was voluntary, anonymous and approved by the institutional Board for Quality Management (for details, see Ostović et al [12]).…”

“…These statements were in the forms of five-point Likert scale questions (1 = fully disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neutral/unsure, 4 = agree, and 5 = fully agree), Yes/No/I do not know questions, and ratio scale questions. The questionnaire was pre-tested [12], with reliability (α) of 0.683.…”

“…Therefore, studies assessing attitudes and opinions of veterinary students and veterinarians towards animal welfare have been gaining importance, as confirmed by numerous papers published in recent years. Our previous study [12] showed generally concerned attitudes of veterinary students in Croatia towards farm animal welfare. However, upon detailed analysis of their attitudes, it appeared that they did not think rationally about the issue of farm animal welfare, as they might perceive these animals just as food production animals, implying their practical value; this in particular held true for final-year students [13].…”

Attitude toward nonhuman animals and their welfare: Do behaviorists differ from other veterinarians?

“…For example, the gender has been repeatedly found to impact on the empathy toward animals, with women being more empathetic to non-human animals and obtaining higher scores in the Animal Attitude Scale (Herzog et al, 1990;Mazas et al, 2013;Herzog, 2015). In the field of veterinary medicine, both students (Serpell, 2005) and professionals (Ostović et al, 2016;Colombo et al, 2017) were found to be influenced in their attitude toward non-human animals by factors such as the gender and previous experiences with animals. However, until now veterinarians have been investigated as a whole professional category, and scant attention has been reserved to the category of veterinarians who are mostly involved in the assessment of pet behaviour and welfare.…”