Gove marches on with animal welfare reforms

AbstractThis chapter examines the evolution of British farm animal welfare politics during the last two decades of Harrison’s campaigning. In 1979, the RSPCA boycotted the Thatcher government’s new Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC). The short-lived protest triggered a membership revolt and moderation of RSPCA policies. It also coincided with a weakening of agricultural corporatism in Westminster. FAWC was granted relative independence from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food and explicitly acknowledged an updated version of the five freedoms. Ensuing British welfare reforms were also driven by the increasing involvement of European bodies in animal welfare. Now in her 60s, Ruth Harrison joined FAWC as a welfare member. Her increasing public recognition as a senior welfare campaigner enabled her to proactively push for reforms, expand her fundraising activities, and sponsor additional welfare research. By the late 1990s, most of her welfare positions had become part of mainstream politics.

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The Effects of Exposure to Information about Animal Welfare Reforms on Animal Farming Opposition: A Randomized Experiment

10.31234/osf.io/p6hbk ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jamie Harris ◽

Ali Ladak ◽

Maya B Mathur

Keyword(s):

Animal Welfare ◽

Current Practice ◽

Social Attitudes ◽

Exploratory Analysis ◽

Randomized Experiment ◽

Farming Practices ◽

Control Groups ◽

Factory Farming ◽

Animal Farming ◽

Welfare Reforms

There is limited research on the effects of animal welfare reforms, such as transitions from caged to cage-free eggs, on attitudes toward animal farming. This preregistered, randomized experiment (N = 1520) found that participants provided with information about current animal farming practices had somewhat higher animal farming opposition (AFO) than participants provided with information about an unrelated topic (d = 0.17). However, participants provided with information about animal welfare reforms did not report significantly different AFO from either the current-farming (d = -0.07) or control groups (d = 0.10). Although these latter effects on AFO were small and nonsignificant, they appeared to be mediated by changes in perceived social attitudes towards farmed animals and optimism about further reforms to factory farming. Exploratory analysis found no evidence that hierarchical meat eating justification or beliefs about how well-treated farmed animals currently are mediated the effect. Further research is needed to better understand why providing information about animal welfare reforms did not substantially increase AFO overall, whereas providing information about current practice did somewhat increase AFO.

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Animal Rights Theory, Animal Welfarism and the ‘New Welfarist’ Amalgamation: A Critical Perspective

Southern African Public Law ◽

10.25159/2522-6800/3587 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 406-433

Author(s):

Jan-Harm De Villiers

Keyword(s):

Animal Welfare ◽

Animal Rights ◽

Critical Perspective ◽

Short Term ◽

Critical Engagement ◽

Welfare Reforms ◽

Welfare Theory

Adherents of the ‘new welfarist’ approach advocate welfare reforms as essential short-term steps en route to the ultimate ideal of animal rights. A critical engagement with the ideological underpinnings of animal welfare theory and animal rights theory illustrates the contrasting moral spaces that the animal occupies in these theories and that the ‘new welfarist’ approach is philosophically unsound in assuming that these approaches are ideologically compatible. Karin van Marle’s ‘jurisprudence of slowness’ and Jacques Derrida’s exposition of the sacrificial logic underlying Western culture’s exclusion of animals from the ‘thou shalt not kill’ proscription provides a framework within which to illustrate and engage with the ideological purlieu that separates these theories.

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On visions and promises — ethical aspects of in vitro meat

Emerging Topics in Life Sciences ◽

10.1042/etls20190108 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (6) ◽

pp. 753-758

Author(s):

Silvia Woll

Keyword(s):

Animal Welfare ◽

Environmental Issues ◽

Meat Production ◽

Ethical Aspects ◽

Existing Problems ◽

In Vitro Meat ◽

Production And Consumption ◽

Production Conditions

Innovators of in vitro meat (IVM) are convinced that this approach is the solution for problems related to current meat production and consumption, especially regarding animal welfare and environmental issues. However, the production conditions have yet to be fully clarified and there is still a lack of ethical discourses and critical debates on IVM. In consequence, discussion about the ethical justifiability and desirability of IVM remains hypothetical and we have to question those promises. This paper addresses the complex ethical aspects associated with IVM and the questions of whether, and under what conditions, the production of IVM represents an ethically justifiable solution for existing problems, especially in view of animal welfare, the environment, and society. There are particular hopes regarding the benefits that IVM could bring to animal welfare and the environment, but there are also strong doubts about their ethical benefits.

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