Moving beyond the “Five Freedoms” by Updating the “Five Provisions” and Introducing Aligned “Animal Welfare Aims”

Abstract

Simple SummaryA Five Provisions/Welfare Aims paradigm has been formulated as a coherent alternative to the Five Freedoms. It retains the memorable simplicity of the original paradigm and is linked to it, but avoids the acknowledged complications that arise by using the term “freedoms”. Also, it accommodates current scientific understanding of animal welfare, is easily understood and provides guidance on beneficial objectives for animal welfare management. It is an evocative and engaging paradigm anticipated to be of particular interest to non-specialist members of the lay public who are concerned about animal welfare.AbstractAlthough the Five Freedoms paradigm has been very influential in shaping animal welfare thinking for the last two decades, it has two key disadvantages. First, the focus on “freedom” from a range of negative experiences and states has been misunderstood in a number of quarters to mean that complete freedom from these experiences and states is possible, when in fact the best that can be achieved is for them to be minimised. Second, the major focus of the Freedoms on negative experiences and states is now seen to be a disadvantage in view of current understanding that animal welfare management should also include the promotion of positive experiences and states. The challenge therefore was to formulate a paradigm that overcame these two main problems and yet was straightforward enough to be accessible to non-specialists, including members of the lay public who are interested in animal welfare. This was achieved by highlighting the Five Provisions, originally aligned with the Five Freedoms, but now updated to direct welfare management towards activities that both minimise negative experiences or states and promote positive experiences or states as specified by particular Animal Welfare Aims assigned to each Provision. Aspects of the four welfare principles from the European Welfare Quality assessment system (WQ®) and elements of all domains of the Five Domains Model for animal welfare assessment have been incorporated into the new Five Provisions/Welfare Aims paradigm. Thus, the paradigm is easily understood and provides clear guidance on beneficial objectives for animal welfare management. It is anticipated that the paradigm will have application to many species found in a wide range of circumstances.

Assessing Affective State in Laboratory Rodents to Promote Animal Welfare—What Is the Progress in Applied Refinement Research?

“…In addition, low stress hormone levels, as such, can hardly indicate a positive effect or a high level of well-being [5]. Even though these kinds of parameters played an important role in assessing the negative impact of conditions and procedures and have been essential in the refinement of animal experimentation, they are not necessarily useful for the assessment of positive welfare [5] and are, therefore, of little help in promoting positive affective states in laboratory animals.…”

“…The concept of animal welfare has evolved rapidly over the last 60 years [1][2][3][4][5][6] and comprises provisions and freedoms that can be summarized as: (1) provision of food and water to maintain health and vigor, (2) freedom from discomfort by providing appropriate living conditions, (3) freedom from pain, injury, and disease including appropriate health care, (4) freedom from fear and distress by avoiding conditions eliciting mental suffering, and (5) provision of social and physical environment to perform important species typical behaviors. Notably, it has been acknowledged that above merely avoiding unfavorable conditions, animal welfare also comprises activities eliciting affective states related to a good living [3,7,8].…”

Positive Welfare for Fishes: Rationale and Areas for Future Study

“…Fish research has been no exception to this pattern. However, there is now a growing recognition among animal welfare scientists that pursuing the goal of relieving suffering does not lead to a lack of suffering [4,8], thus indicating that even neutral animal welfare necessarily involves positive welfare.…”

Physiological indicators of animal welfare

“…aligned with the "Five Freedoms", incorporating aspects of four welfare principles of the European Welfare Quality assessment system (WQ ® ) and the Five Domain Model for animal welfare assessment, and proposed a new paradigm that assign a particular 'Animal Welfare Aims' to each provision directing the welfare management towards activities that can minimize negative states and promote positive experiences. The aims emphasize the subjective experience of the animal and intend to motivate the responsible for animal care concern about the minimization of negative subjective experiences and the promotion of positive ones (Mellor, 2016b). This new proposed paradigm avoids the complications of the term 'freedom', accommodates de scientific understanding of welfare and provides a guidance for welfare management, and is proposed by the authors as an substitute for 'Five Freedoms' paradigm.…”

“…Because welfare is a subjective experience, animals should have a minimum of sentience to be of welfare concern. Therefore, these animals should have brains or neural structures that are able to support conscious perceptions and behavioral responses to sensory inputs (Mellor, 2016B). According to Volpato et al (2007), to evaluate the sentience of an animal it is important consider three approaches: brain machinery, sensibility to noxious stimulus and pain, and behavioral changes in response to noxious stimulation.…”