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

2017 ◽  
Vol 180 (9) ◽  
pp. 225-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Magnani ◽  
N. Ferri ◽  
A. Dalmau ◽  
S. Messori
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Companion Animals ◽  
Educational Strategies ◽  
Veterinary Students ◽  
Professional Interest ◽  
Animal Welfare Science ◽  
Level Of Knowledge ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
University Training ◽  
High Degree

Animal welfare (AW) is a growing concern worldwide and veterinary students are expected to demonstrate a high degree of professional interest in the welfare of animals. However, previous studies have highlighted gaps in the teaching of AW teaching in different countries, possibly impairing veterinary competency in the area. This survey aimed to assess the opinions of Italian veterinary students towards AW, as well as their knowledge on the issue. Questions were divided into different sections, investigating the definition of, and information on, AW, knowledge about AW legislation, and the level of tolerance towards AW in regard to the use of animals for different purposes. Results showed that behaviour was the most frequently used word to define AW. Italian students considered their own level of knowledge on AW as good, relying on their university training, websites and television. They requested more AW legislation, but when questioned on specifics of the current legislation, there was a general lack of knowledge. Although poultry, pigs and rabbits were considered the species experiencing the worst management conditions, the species that raised the most AW concerns were companion animals and cattle. Results from this investigation may allow the development of tailored actions aimed at appropriately implementing educational strategies, at national and international levels, to improve the role of future veterinarians as leaders in AW.

scholarly journals Familiarity and Interest in Working with Livestock Decreases the Odds of Having Positive Attitudes towards Non-Human Animals and Their Welfare among Veterinary Students in Italy

Animals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Mariti ◽  
Federica Pirrone ◽  
Mariangela Albertini ◽  
Angelo Gazzano ◽  
Silvana Diverio
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Animal Rights ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
Companion Animals ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Veterinary Students ◽  
Normal Behaviour ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Species Type ◽  
Potential Impact

We investigated the attitudes of veterinary students towards animals and their welfare in Italy. Regression analyses revealed predictors that are significant in differentiating students’ scoring tendency based on their gender, familiarity, and intention to work with a specific animal species, type of diet, and membership in an animal rights association. Female students, who were mostly familiar with pets and aspired to work with species other than livestock, following an animal-free diet and being a member of an animal rights association, had a significantly greater odds of having a high Animal Attitude Scale score (AAS), i.e., very positive attitude towards animals, versus a less positive attitude. Conversely, the familiarity with livestock and preference for working with livestock significantly increased the odds of a low AAS. Overall, students considered all of the Brambell Report’s Five Freedoms important for animal welfare protection. However, students scored higher for companion animals than for livestock, particularly regarding the freedom to express normal behaviour and the absence of fear and distress. This study suggests that veterinary students place less importance on the psychological aspects of welfare for livestock, and there is a tendency for students who are mostly familiar, or aspire to work, with livestock to have a less positive attitude towards non-human animals and their welfare. These findings should be considered within the veterinary educational curriculum due to their potential impact on animal welfare.

scholarly journals Redefining human-animal relationships: an evaluation of methods to allow their empirical measurement in zoos

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 247-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
F Patel ◽  
K Whitehouse-Tedd ◽  
SJ Ward
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Content Quality ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Voluntary Approach ◽  
Literature Searches ◽  
Animal Welfare Science ◽  
Welfare Implications ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Potential Methods ◽  
Definition Of

Scientific studies of human-animal interactions (HAIs) and how these develop into human-animal relationships (HARs) now represent some of the most significant contributions to animal welfare science. However, due to the current definition of HAR, studies have only been able to measure HAIs and infer its impact on HARs and animal welfare. Here, we redefine HARs as a series of repeated HAIs between two individuals known to each other, the nature of which is influenced by their historical HAIs and where consideration to the content, quality and the pattern of the interactions is also vital. With a new definition, it is now feasible to empirically measure HARs, however, first, it is important to evaluate current methods utilised in animal industries to allow standardisation across HAR research in zoos. Here, we review the current methods that have been used to assess HAIs in animals and determine their overall suitability for measuring HARs and their use in a zoo environment. Literature searches were conducted using the search terms 'human-animal' AND 'interaction', 'human-animal' AND 'relationship', 'human-animal' AND 'bond'. Subsequently, 'zoo', 'companion', 'agriculture', 'laboratory' and 'wild' were added to each combination yielding five potential methods to evaluate. These methods were assessed according to a panel of indicators including reliability, robustness, practical application and feasibility for use in a zoo environment. Results indicated that the methods utilising 'latency', 'qualitative behaviour assessment' and the 'voluntary approach test' were potentially viable to assess HARs in a zoo environment and could subsequently contribute to the assessment of welfare implications of these HARs for the animals involved. These methods now require empirical testing and comparisons within a zoo environment.

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

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomislav Mikuš ◽  
Mario Ostović ◽  
Ivana Sabolek ◽  
Kristina Matković ◽  
Željko Pavičić ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Veterinary Medicine ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Companion Animals ◽  
First Year ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Veterinary Students ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Study Programme ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Before And After

This survey was the first one investigating opinions of veterinary students in Croatia towards companion animals and their welfare, with special reference to dogs and cats as the most popular companion animals in the European Union. The study included students of all six years of the integrated undergraduate and graduate veterinary medicine study programme in Croatia. First-year students were surveyed twice, before and after having attended the course on animal welfare. Student opinions were assessed on the basis of their mean responses to five-point Likert scale questions and frequency of responses to Yes/No/I do not know questions and ratio scale questions. Study results revealed students to have strongly positive opinions towards companion animals and their welfare. The majority of student statements did not differ significantly between the first and sixth study years or before and after having attended the animal welfare course in the first study year, mostly yielding a straight, non-fluctuating line. Students were not sure whether welfare of companion dogs and cats was compromised. Study results pointed to reliable and reasonable opinions of veterinary medicine students in Croatia towards companion animals and their welfare, as well as to the welfare issues these species may be facing nowadays.

Death by Decapitation: A Case Study of the Scientific Definition of Animal Welfare

1997 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence G. Carbone
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Historical Case Study ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Laboratory Rodents ◽  
The Social ◽  
Animal Welfare Science ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Animal Care

AbstractAssessments of animal experience and consciousness are embedded in all issues of animal welfare policy, and the field of animal welfare science has been developed to make these evaluations. In light of modern studies of the social construction of scientific knowledge, it is surprising how little attention has been paid to date on how crucial evaluations about animals are made. In this paper, I begin to fill that gap by presenting a historical case study of the attempt to define the pain and distress of one common practice in animal research-the use of the tabletop guillotine to decapitate laboratory rodents. I describe the negotiations involved in reaching consensus on the meaning of the available data and caution animal care and use committees that they should always work with the realization that our scientific knowledge of what animals experience is partial and provisional knowledge at best.

scholarly journals Computational animal welfare: towards cognitive architecture models of animal sentience, emotion and wellbeing

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (12) ◽  
pp. 201886
Author(s):  
Sergey Budaev ◽  
Tore S. Kristiansen ◽  
Jarl Giske ◽  
Sigrunn Eliassen
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Formal Framework ◽  
Internal States ◽  
Animal Welfare Science ◽  
Definition Of

To understand animal wellbeing, we need to consider subjective phenomena and sentience. This is challenging, since these properties are private and cannot be observed directly. Certain motivations, emotions and related internal states can be inferred in animals through experiments that involve choice, learning, generalization and decision-making. Yet, even though there is significant progress in elucidating the neurobiology of human consciousness, animal consciousness is still a mystery. We propose that computational animal welfare science emerges at the intersection of animal behaviour, welfare and computational cognition. By using ideas from cognitive science, we develop a functional and generic definition of subjective phenomena as any process or state of the organism that exists from the first-person perspective and cannot be isolated from the animal subject. We then outline a general cognitive architecture to model simple forms of subjective processes and sentience. This includes evolutionary adaptation which contains top-down attention modulation, predictive processing and subjective simulation by re-entrant (recursive) computations. Thereafter, we show how this approach uses major characteristics of the subjective experience: elementary self-awareness, global workspace and qualia with unity and continuity. This provides a formal framework for process-based modelling of animal needs, subjective states, sentience and wellbeing.

scholarly journals Recalibrating Veterinary Medicine through Animal Welfare Science and Ethics for the 2020s

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 654
Author(s):  
Andreia De Paula Vieira ◽  
Raymond Anthony
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Traditional Role ◽  
Veterinary Students ◽  
Holistic View ◽  
Veterinary Ethics ◽  
Veterinary Profession ◽  
Animal Welfare Science ◽  
Monitoring Technologies

What should leading discourses and innovation regarding animal welfare look like for the veterinary profession in the 2020s? This essay considers four main challenges into which veterinarians are increasingly being drawn, as they respond to increasing public expectation for them to be scientific and moral authorities in animal welfare in addition to their traditional role as trusted health experts. They include: (1) to go beyond traditional conceptions of health by adopting a holistic view that also considers animal welfare, not only disease treatment; (2) to reimagine their professional duties when it comes to disease prevention at the intersection of animal-human-ecosystem health; (3) to develop core competencies/proficiency in animal welfare science and ethics in order to navigate discourses concerning competing priorities and socio-political ideologies and to provide professional leadership in animal welfare; (4) to provide feedback on novel networked devices, monitoring technologies and automated animal welfare solutions and their impact on animals’ welfare. To competently navigate the intricacies of the socio-political and connected world as trusted authorities and conduits for innovation in and through animal welfare, veterinarians and veterinary students are encouraged to: (a) develop core competencies in veterinary ethics, animal welfare science and deliberative capacities that are well-informed by current multidisciplinary frameworks, such as One Health; (b) engage interested parties in more effective collaboration and ethical decision-making in order to address animal welfare related concerns within their immediate sphere of influence (e.g., in a given community); and (c) participate in the process of engineering and technological design that incorporates animals’ welfare data (such as their preferences) for real-time animal monitoring through adding animal scientific and values-aware evidence in information technology systems. In order to tackle these challenges, four pillars are suggested to help guide veterinarians and the veterinary profession. They are: Collaboration, Critical Engagement, Centeredness on Research, and Continuous Self-Critique.

Attitudes of Australian and Turkish Students of Veterinary Medicine toward Nonhuman Animals and Their Careers

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 580-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serdar Izmirli ◽  
Ali Yigit ◽  
Clive Julian Christie Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Veterinary Medicine ◽  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Career Aspirations ◽  
Companion Animals ◽  
Nonhuman Animal ◽  
Veterinary Students ◽  
Program Satisfaction ◽  
Attitudes Toward Animals ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Predominately Female

We examined attitudes toward nonhuman animal welfare and rights and career aspirations in Australian and Turkish veterinary students. A representative university was selected in each country, with 190 first- and third-year students sampled in each. Survey questions addressed attitudes toward nonhuman animal welfare/rights, and intended career. Australian and Turkish students were predominately female and male, respectively, but attitudes were similar between sexes. Australian students rated keeping companion animals and hormonal desexing more acceptable, and food and rest deprivation, pain during slaughter, and using animals in experiments less acceptable than Turkish students. Keeping companion animals related strongly with students’ moral values, their decision to study veterinary medicine, and program satisfaction. More Australian than Turkish students wanted to enter clinical practice. Thus veterinary students of these two culturally contrasting countries demonstrated both differences and universalities, such as companion animal keeping, which influenced their attitudes toward animals and career aspirations.

The Science of Animal Welfare

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Stamp Dawkins
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Animal Consciousness ◽  
Natural Behaviour ◽  
Animal Welfare Science ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
As Stress ◽  
The Relationship

This book is intended as a guide for anyone who is interested in animals and how their welfare can be assessed scientifically. It addresses the question of why, despite growing public interest in how animals are treated, it has proved so difficult to arrive at an agreed definition of what ‘animal welfare’ is and it then provides an answer. A definition of animal welfare as ‘health and animals having what they want’ can be easily understood by scientists and non-scientists alike, expresses in simple words what underlies many existing definitions and shows what evidence we need to collect to improve animal welfare in practice. Above all, it puts an animal’s own point of view at the heart of the assessment of its welfare. The book shows how ‘health and what animals want’ also helps us to make sense of the long and often confusing list of welfare measurements that are now in use, such as ‘stress’ and ‘feel-good hormones’, expressive sounds and gestures, natural behaviour, cognitive bias and stereotypies. Animal sentience (conscious feelings of pleasure and suffering) are discussed in the context of our current knowledge of human and animal consciousness. Finally, the book highlights some key ideas in the relationship between animal welfare science and animal ethics and shows how closely the well-being of humans and that of animals are linked together.

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