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Why is There no Simple Way of Measuring Animal Welfare?
Abstract
Abstract Although the physiological and behavioural changes that can indicate poor welfare are generally agreed upon, using these measures in practice sometimes yields results that are hard to interpret. For example, different types of measure may suggest quite different things about an animal's welfare. Such contradictions are often due to the differing properties of the variables being measured. How each variable responds to a stressor can be affected by several factors - the type of unpleasant stimulus to which the animal is exposed; when and for how long exposure occurs; the animal's psychological state, eg does it feel that it is in control?; and the time at which the measurement is made, relative to the stressor. Typical responses also often differ between species and between individuals, and may even change in a single individual over time. Furthermore, some responses used to assess welfare lack specificity: they can be elicited by neutral or even pleasant events as well as by aversive ones. Appreciating these factors is vital when designing experiments, when choosing what to measure along with each welfare variable, and when interpreting results. Even after taking these factors into consideration, interpreting a result can still be difficult. One approach then is to consider the effects on welfare of the changes measured, eg if there is immunosuppression, does the animal succumb to disease? Another is to use the animal's behaviour to indicate its preference for, or aversion to, particular environments. Ultimately, however, interpreting welfare measures involves subjective judgements which will be influenced by the nature of our concern for the animal under consideration. By raising these problems, we hope that this review will highlight and clarify the apparent contradictions that sometimes emerge in scientific studies of animal welfare, and help researchers improve the designs of their experiments for the benefit of the animals concerned.
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“Animals of different ages may react differently to the same scenario or resource allocation (110).”
From Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia (2024) · cites this paper as [110]
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“A number of factors are known to influence stress responses and cause pronounced Ž .individual variation in stress measurements for a review see Mason and Mendl, 1993 .”
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“However, we, along with other authors, (e.g. Bateson, 1991; Mason & Mendl, 1993; Nicol, Caplen, Edgar, & Browne, 2009; Sneddon, 2004, 2009, 2011, 2013; Weary et al., 2006; Elwood, 2012; Flecknell et al., 2011) are advocating not that these individual isolated indices should be taken as evidence of…”
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“Nevertheless, interpreting observations and experimental results remains difficult (Mason and Mendl, 1993), and it seems reasonable that welfare should be assessed in terms of what individual species have evolved to be able to cope with (Barnard and Hurst, 1996).”
Background
Metadata
- Authors
- Mason, G., & Mendi, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Mason, G
- ORCID
- Mason, G
- Venue
- Animal Welfare
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 1993-11
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 301-319
- ISSN
- 0962-7286 (ISSN-L)
- 2054-1538
- OpenAlex
- W2620308027
- Cited by
- 391
- References
- 74
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 6
- FWCI
- 11.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Animal Welfare (publishedVersion)
- WBI Studies Repository (submittedVersion)
- The Atrium (University of Guelph) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Animal Science and Zoology › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Veterinary Pharmacology and Anesthesia
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal testing and alternatives
- Keywords
- animal welfare assessment, stress response, individual differences in stress response, immunosuppression
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