What Is Animal Welfare?
Animal welfare is the viewpoint that animals, especially those under human care, should not suffer unnecessarily, including where the animals are used for food, work, companionship, or research. This position usually focuses on the morality of human action (or inaction), as opposed to making deeper political or philosophical claims about the status of animals, as is the case for an animal rights viewpoint. For this reason animal welfare organizations may use the word humane in their title or position statements.
The History of Animal Welfare
Systematic concern for the well-being of other animals probably first arose as a system of thought in the Indus Valley Civilization as the religious belief that ancestors return in animal form, and that animals must therefore be treated with the respect due to a human. This belief is exemplified in the existing religion, Jainism, and in varieties of other Dharmic religions. Other religions, especially those with roots in the Abrahamic religion, treat animals as the property of their owners, codifying rules for their care and slaughter intended to limit the distress, pain and fear animals experience under human control.
In practice, from the outset in 1822, when British MP Richard Martin shepherded a bill through Parliament offering protection from cruelty to cattle, horses and sheep (earning himself the nickname Humanity Dick), the welfare approach has had human morality, and humane behaviour, at its central concern. Martin was among the founders of the world's first animal welfare organization, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or SPCA, in 1824. In 1840, Queen Victoria gave the society her blessing, and it became the RSPCA. The society used members' donations to employ a growing network of inspectors, whose job was to identify abusers, gather evidence, and report them to the authorities.
The first similiar group in the United States, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (referred to as the ASPCA), was founded by Henry Bergh in the state of New York on April 10, 1866. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing the abuse of animals.
The ASPCA works primarily with companion animal issues, such as pet care, equine or horse cruelty issues, and animal cruelty and neglect. Their programs and services include: a national poison control hotline for pet owners and animal health professionals; a shelter outreach program to promote best practices within locally-owned shelters, a corporate partner program to promote animal-friendly products and services, and a special anti-cruelty initiative to teach humane education and humane law enforcement practices across the United States. In New York State, the ASPCA's Humane Law Enforcement division has powers to investigate cruelty and enforce laws. The Humane Law Enforcement division has been featured on the television program Animal Precinct.
Additionally, the ASPCA provides relief services for the domestic animal victims of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, where the National Outreach department collected donations to provide supplies; coordinated volunteer efforts; deployed rescue teams to recover abandoned pets; provided temporary shelter to displaced animals; and reunited pets with their owners.
Welfare Principles
In 1967 the UK government set up the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, which became the Farm Animal Welfare Council in 1979. Since then the Five Freedoms of animal welfare have been elaborated. Here they are:
- Freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition
- Freedom from discomfort due to environment
- Freedom from fear and distress
- Freedom from pain, injury and disease
- Freedom to express normal behavior for the species