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Recent welfare reforms in the United States shifted the emphasis from income maintenance to preparation for employment. Many families receiving welfare benefits have members with disabilities, which can complicate the process of t...
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Recent welfare reforms in the United States shifted the emphasis from income maintenance to preparation for employment. Many families receiving welfare benefits have members with disabilities, which can complicate the process of transition into the workforce. Rehabilitation professionals have a unique set of skills, expertise and experiences which could enhance work transition outcomes for welfare recipients. This purpose of this article is to (a) familiarize rehabilitation professionals with welfare reform changes in the United States, (b) summarize the experiences of families affected by those changes who participated in a recent study, and (c) present a service delivery model to enhance parental power and flexibility based on rehabilitation principles.
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We propose an abstract method of systematically assigning a "rational" ranking to non-rationalizable choice data. Our main idea is that any method of ascribing welfare to an individual as a function of choice is subjective, and de...
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We propose an abstract method of systematically assigning a "rational" ranking to non-rationalizable choice data. Our main idea is that any method of ascribing welfare to an individual as a function of choice is subjective, and depends on the economist undertaking the analysis. We provide a simple example of the type of exercise we propose. Namely, we define an individual welfare functional as a mapping from stochastic choice functions into weak orders. A stochastic choice function (or choice distribution) gives the empirical frequency of choices for any possible opportunity set (framing factors may also be incorporated into the model). We require that for any two alternatives x and y, if our individual welfare functional recommends x over y given two distinct choice distributions, then it also recommends x over y for any mixture of the two choice distributions. Together with some mild technical requirements, such an individual welfare functional must weight every opportunity set and assign a utility to each alternative x which is the sum across all opportunity sets of the weighted probability of x being chosen from the set. It therefore requires us to have a "prior view" about how important or representative a choice of x at a given situation is.
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Captive polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are well-documented as being prone to behavioural disorders and, as a result, their welfare is the cause of increasing concern. There is therefore a need for an evidence-based approach to the ...
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Captive polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are well-documented as being prone to behavioural disorders and, as a result, their welfare is the cause of increasing concern. There is therefore a need for an evidence-based approach to the assessment of the welfare of this species and identification of valid welfare indicators is the first step towards achieving this. To this end, a critical evaluation of peer-reviewed literature was undertaken. Searches of Web of Science and Scopus took place in May 2020 for publications relevant to the welfare of captive polar bears which met inclusion criteria. Further, validity of extracted indicators was assessed via investigation o f evidence of content, construct and criterion validity along with strength of evidence at publication-level. Database searches and snowballing unearthed 46 publications included for review. Identified indicators were sorted into nine behavioural, four physiological (based on physiological or biological sampling) and five physical (based on visual inspection) categories. Among behavioural indicators, the strongest evidence of validity was found for abnormal behaviour. For the physiological indicators, validity was only established for faecal glucocorticoid metabolite concentration. Content validity was assumed for all physical indicators. Generalisability and strength of evidence was generally compromised by low sample sizes and experimental limitations, and only a small number of papers investigated welfare indicators directly, resulting in a paucity of validated indicators. Potential welfare indicators that warrant further validation are highlighted. Overall, this review provides an overview of current valid and promising welfare indicators along with identified gaps in knowledge, relevant for the provision of a methodology for assessing and monitoring welfare of captive polar bears.
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'Extra-welfarism' has received some attention in health economics, yet there is little consensus on what distinguishes it from more conventional 'welfarist economies'. In this paper, we seek to identify the characteristics of each...
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'Extra-welfarism' has received some attention in health economics, yet there is little consensus on what distinguishes it from more conventional 'welfarist economies'. In this paper, we seek to identify the characteristics of each in order to make a syste
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Abstract The global ornamental fish trade is a multibillion‐dollar industry, with legal trade estimated to be worth between $15 and 20 billion per annum. Although there is existing legislation concerning the improvement of fish w...
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Abstract The global ornamental fish trade is a multibillion‐dollar industry, with legal trade estimated to be worth between $15 and 20 billion per annum. Although there is existing legislation concerning the improvement of fish welfare in aquaculture and research, there is little legislation surrounding the welfare of pet fish. The different phases of the ornamental fish trade, including curation, transportation, time spent at wholesalers/retailers and time spent in domestic/public aquaria, represent different welfare concerns. Within the animal welfare field there is increasing interest in improving welfare through the creation of operational welfare indicators (OWIs), where individual indicators are aggregated to assess animal welfare. OWIs can be morphological, behavioural, physiological, metabolic or abiotic in nature, with behaviour often considered as the foremost non‐invasive method of elucidating welfare in fish. Currently, while OWIs exist for food fish species, there are no OWIs for use within the ornamental fish trade. This review looks briefly at the stressors experienced by fish within the ornamental trade, and then used a systematic approach (keywords behavio* AND fish* AND welfare) to identify relevant publications investigating existing behavioural measures of welfare used for ornamental fish species. Finally, this review considers the potential development of OWIs for the ornamental trade.
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Due to social criticism of livestock farming, the “Initiative Animal Welfare” was founded in Germany to improve the conditions in which pigs are kept. At the same time, farmers were obliged to monitor animal welfare parameters w...
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Due to social criticism of livestock farming, the “Initiative Animal Welfare” was founded in Germany to improve the conditions in which pigs are kept. At the same time, farmers were obliged to monitor animal welfare parameters which could be recorded directly on the animal, e.g., in the form of tail and ear lesions. Furthermore, there are resource-related animal welfare parameters, e.g., the water flow rate of the drinking troughs, which are to be measured. The aim of this study was to apply animal welfare parameters on farms and compare farms participating in the “Initiative Animal Welfare” with those not participating. The collected data was used to calculate the risk indicated by an animal welfare parameter deviating from the optimum. In addition, an overall score for the farms was calculated from the different animal welfare parameters recorded. It was found that the animal welfare farms did not perform better in terms of both the overall score and the risk of not finding a parameter in the optimum range. One reason for this may be that the farms worked at a very high level in both types of husbandry and thus the improvement in husbandry conditions in the farms with better animal welfare conditions was not measurable.
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The performance of natural behavior is commonly used as a criterion in the determination of animal welfare. This is still true, despite many authors having demonstrated that it is not a necessary component of welfare - some natura...
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The performance of natural behavior is commonly used as a criterion in the determination of animal welfare. This is still true, despite many authors having demonstrated that it is not a necessary component of welfare - some natural behaviors may decrease welfare, while some unnatural behaviors increase it. Here I analyze why this idea persists, and what effects it may have. I argue that the disagreement underlying this debate on natural behavior is not one about which conditions affect welfare, but a deeper conceptual disagreement about what the state of welfare actually consists of. Those advocating natural behavior typically take a "teleological" view of welfare, in which naturalness is fundamental to welfare, while opponents to the criterion usually take a "subjective" welfare concept, in which welfare consists of the subjective experience of life by the animal. I argue that as natural functioning is neither necessary nor sufficient for understanding welfare, we should move away from the natural behavior criterion to an alternative such as behavioral preferences or enjoyment. This will have effects in the way we understand and measure welfare, and particularly in how we provide for the welfare of animals in a captive setting.
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Currently assessment and management of animal welfare are based on the supposition that welfare status is something experienced identically by each individual animal when exposed to the same conditions. However, many authors argue...
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Currently assessment and management of animal welfare are based on the supposition that welfare status is something experienced identically by each individual animal when exposed to the same conditions. However, many authors argue that individual welfare cannot be seen as an 'objective' state, but is based on the animal's own self-perception; such perception might vary significantly between individuals which appear to be exposed to exactly the same challenges. We argue that this has two implications: (1) actual perceived welfare status of individuals in a population may vary over a wide range even under identical environmental conditions; (2) animals that appear to an external observer to be in better or poorer welfare condition may all in fact perceive their own individual status as the same. This would imply that optimum welfare of a social group might be achieved in situations where individual group members differ markedly in apparent welfare status and perceive their own welfare as being optimal under differing circumstances. Welfare phenotypes may also vary along a continuum between self-regarding and other-regarding behaviour; a variety of situations exist where (social) individuals appear to invest in the welfare of other individuals instead of maximising their own welfare; in such a case it is necessary to re-evaluate individual welfare within the context of a social group and recognise that there may be consequences for the welfare of individuals, of decisions made at the group level or by other group members.
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Racehorse welfare is gaining increasing public attention, however scientific evidence in this area is lacking. In order to develop a better understanding of racehorse welfare, it must be measured and monitored. This is the first s...
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Racehorse welfare is gaining increasing public attention, however scientific evidence in this area is lacking. In order to develop a better understanding of racehorse welfare, it must be measured and monitored. This is the first study to assess racehorse welfare using scientific objective methods across a training season. The aim of this study was threefold, firstly to investigate welfare measures which could be used in the first welfare assessment protocol for racehorses. Secondly, to understand the effect that a racing and training season had on individual racehorses and thirdly to identify risk factors for both good and poor welfare. Thirteen racehorse training yards were visited at the beginning and the peak of the racing season in England. Behavioural observations along with individual environmental and animal-based welfare measures were carried out on 353 horses in 13 training yards selected for variability. In our sample the horses were generally in good physical health: 94% of horses recorded as an ideal body condition score, no horses had signs of hoof neglect and 77.7% had no nasal discharge. The overall prevalence of external Mouth Corner Lesions was 12.9 % and was significantly higher for Flat racing than Jump racing horses. The majority of horses (67.5%) showed positive horse human interactions. When stabled 54.1% horses had physical social contact and nasal discharge was not associated with increased physical contact. The training season significantly affected Human Reactivity Tests, Horse Grimace Scale scores and time spent resting and feeding. A total of 14.5% of horses displayed stereotypic behaviour on at least two occasions. Horses with windows in their stables spent more time surveying their surroundings. Overall, in this population of racehorses, horses spent around a third of their daytime feeding (33.7%) followed by time spent standing resting (22.6%). The welfare assessment protocol used in this study is suitable for use in industry to collect welfare data on racehorses.
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Market-based promotion of animal welfare has become increasingly important in the EU. Retailers in several countries have implemented graded animal welfare labels for a variety of animal-based products. In this paper, we use label...
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Market-based promotion of animal welfare has become increasingly important in the EU. Retailers in several countries have implemented graded animal welfare labels for a variety of animal-based products. In this paper, we use labels for pork as a case study and investigate which aspects of animal welfare are promoted by pig welfare labels; we further discuss to what extent labels address the major welfare problems observed in European pig production. Consumers generally focus on aspects of animal welfare related to naturalness, such as outdoor access, straw, and duration of suckling period. Animal welfare labels often address these aspects in addition to other welfare aspects that are of interest to the consumer, such as space, mutilations, confinement, and access to roughage. Major welfare problems such as piglet mortality and weaner diarrhoea are not directly addressed by pig welfare labels. As pig welfare labels often require intact tails, it will also be relevant to address the risk of tail biting and tail lesions. Pig welfare labels, in general, do not use animal-based measures; rather, they are resource-based measures, while animal-based measures are more directly related to animal welfare. Animal-based measures are more difficult and expensive to use in a certification system than resource-based ones. In addition, animal-based measures may be more difficult to communicate to consumers. However, inclusion of animal-based measures would improve reproducibility of labels across production systems and provide documentation on actual levels of major animal welfare problems.
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