THEY are destined for the chop – and, eventually, to land on our plates – which probably means farm animals don’t have that much to feel too pleased about.
However, new research is set to probe what really makes for a happy life down on the farm.
For while the public perception tends to be that a contented farm animal is one that is allowed to roam freely and exhibit natural behaviours, livestock farmers are generally thought to put greater emphasis on ensuring their animals remain in good health.
Now researchers from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) Animal Behaviour and Welfare team are launching a survey among farmers in the hope of establishing how farm animals can lead positive lives before the inevitable trip to the slaughterhouse.
The results could help form future approaches to how farm animals are cared for and lead to fresh understanding of the balance to be struck between a happy life and the need to ensure livestock is healthy, safe and produces quality food.
Dr Belinda Vigors, a social scientist at SRUC, said: “We hope the findings will help us gain a better understanding of the value placed on different aspects of farm animal welfare and how potential trade-offs between animal health and natural behaviours are viewed by key stakeholders.”
The rise in veganism and pressure from animal welfare campaigners along with greater knowledge of animals’ emotional experiences has already prompted some Scottish dairy farmers to install ‘feel good’ features aimed at improving the wellbeing of their herds.
They include robotic milking equipment which allows the cows to choose when to come indoors or stay outside, and even rubber mattresses and water beds for them to rest on.
In some cases, farmers have reported adopted a more ‘softly softly’ approach to handling cows, such as taking a calm and gentle approach when handling animals in order to avoid stress.
Some dairy farms have also installed automatic grooming brushes which are said to be so popular that the animals have been seen forming a queue to use them.
The new SRUC research will ask farmers to give their views on how important they view animals’ positive experiences, health and overall well-being.
It is the second stage of a survey which has already asked 800 members of the public for their thoughts. It’s understood to show they are more likely to want farm animals to be able to exhibit their natural behaviour without high levels of human intervention.
However, that idyllic vision of life on the farm life may be at odds with the realities of modern food production, posing issues for the industry when it comes to establishing welfare policies which meet public expectations.
Alistair Lawrence of SRUC’s Animal Behaviour and Welfare Team, said: “Quite of lot of social science on animal welfare does tend to indicate that animals living natural lives and being able to behave normally are quite an important feature of what people want from farm animal welfare.
“From the farmers’ perspective, the health of the animals is more important.
“We have been working on concept of positive animal welfare which places emphasis on animals having positive ‘happy’ experiences and not just negative ‘painful’ experiences.
“However, there’s been so much focus on animals being stressed, in fear or anxious and we don’t have as much idea about how to study animals in pleasant emotional states. Indeed, you could even have a debate about whether or not they can even have pleasurable experiences.
“It’s possible to argue that globally – although certainly not in Scotland – that farm animals experience too much pain and not enough pleasure.”
Researchers at the college have already established a significant overlap between the views of Scottish farmers and scientists on the potential benefits of positive animal welfare.
An earlier study showed farmers largely shared scientists’ views on how playing and forming social bonds had positive outcomes for livestock. They also appeared to largely agree that stress and health issues had a negative impact on animals.
However, the researchers – who interviewed livestock farmers from the dairy, beef, sheep, pig and poultry sectors across Scotland – also found farmers felt those positive welfare opportunities were only relevant once an animal’s needs were taken care of.
Mr Lawrence added: “Most people have certain views about how animals should be reared, and the idea that animals are sentient feeds into our moral debates.
“Farmers are under enormous pressure across the board and are arguably in a very unfair situation because it’s us that is demanding food from them.
“Rather than focus on farmers we should all consider our own choices and behaviour.
“The fact we have cheap food leads to waste and general devaluing of what this was in the first place - an animal."
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