Course Summary
Animal welfare is a matter of great public concern, and laws are in place to protect the welfare of animals under human care. Despite this attention, the definition of animal welfare, how it is assessed, and the application to inform policy making is fluid. Scientifically, animal welfare is a multidimensional concept comprising health, behaviour, and feelings. Therefore, there is no single outcome measure by which animal welfare can be assessed, but outcomes addressing any of these three components (health, behaviour, wellbeing) may serve to characterize states of animal welfare. Animal welfare scientists have developed a plethora of diagnostic measures and test procedures; some are highly specific for specific aspects of animal welfare (e.g the Grimace Scales to assess pain in animals), others more generally assess the animals' "quality of life" (e.g. the Welfare Quality assessment protocols). Whereas some are based on extensive test procedures under controlled (laboratory) conditions (e.g. tests of cognitive biases), others are amenable to on-site assessments (e.g. lameness scores). The present course seeks to provide an overview of the basic concepts that underpin animal welfare, review some of the newer and more refined measures of animal welfare (with a special focus on long-term/cumulative measures) including the use of smart technology, discuss the reliability and utility of welfare measures for policy making, and put the concept of animal welfare into perspective with the goals of sustainable development.
