- "Animal welfare is the well-being of non-human animals."
Investigates humane treatment of animals and how it relates to their behavior and overall well-being.
Behavioral Ecology: This field of study interprets animal behavior in the context of an evolutionary framework to understand how animals adapt to their environment.
Animal Cognition: This area studies how animals process information, perceive the world, and learn from experience.
Animal Psychology: It studies the psychological processes of animals, such as problem-solving, motivation, and memory.
Animal Welfare Science: This field is concerned with the ethical treatment of animals in captivity and human-animal interactions to ensure animal welfare.
Animal Communication: This area studies how animals communicate through sounds, body language, and chemicals.
Animal Ethics: It explores the ethical responsibilities of humans towards animals and the moral implications of using animals for food, research, and entertainment.
Animal Law and Policy: This area of study examines laws and regulations related to animals, including animal protection laws and the legal frameworks governing animal use in various domains.
Animal Husbandry: This field of study focuses on the management of animals for production and conservation purposes.
Animal Diseases and Health: This field of study deals with the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of animal diseases and their impact on animal welfare.
Wildlife Conservation: This field is concerned with the preservation of wild animals and their habitats to ensure biodiversity and ecosystem stability.
Zoo Biology: This area of study focuses on the management, care, and welfare of animals in zoos and other captive settings.
Animal Assisted Therapy: This field uses animals as a therapeutic tool to improve human health and well-being.
Animal Behaviour Management: This field focuses on managing animal behaviour in a captive environment, making sure that animals are comfortable and stress-free.
Ethnobiology: This area of study focuses on the relationship between humans and animals, including the cultural significance of animals and their conservation.
Animal Welfare Assessment: This field focuses on evaluating the welfare of animals in different contexts, including agriculture, animal research, and animal rescues.
Physical welfare: It involves ensuring the animals have access to food, water, shelter and are free from pain, injury, and disease.
Emotional welfare: It is about creating an optimal environment for the animals where they can exhibit natural behaviours and not feel stressed or anxious.
Behavioural welfare: It is about studying and understanding animal behaviour and providing an environment that allows them to express natural behaviours.
Social welfare: It deals with ensuring that animals have appropriate social interactions and are not isolated or kept in solitary confinement.
Environmental welfare: It involves creating an environment that is stimulating and beneficial for the animals and allows them to carry out their natural behaviours.
Cognitive welfare: It is about assessing and improving the cognitive abilities of animals and providing them with appropriate mental stimulation.
Genetic welfare: It is about ensuring that the breeding of animals doesn't lead to genetic disorders and that the animals have good health and overall wellbeing.
Nutritional welfare: It deals with ensuring that the animals receive nutrition that meets their dietary needs and prevents any malnutrition or deficiencies.
Transport welfare: It involves ensuring that animals are transported in a humane and stress-free manner, and their welfare is not compromised during transportation.
Slaughter welfare: It deals with ensuring that animals are killed humanely during the slaughtering process, without causing any pain or distress.
- "Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics."
- "Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevity, disease, immunosuppression, behavior, physiology, and reproduction."
- "Respect for animal welfare is often based on the belief that nonhuman animals are sentient and that consideration should be given to their well-being or suffering."
- "These concerns can include how animals are slaughtered for food, how they are used in scientific research, how they are kept (as pets, in zoos, farms, circuses, etc.), and how human activities affect the welfare and survival of wild species."
- "There are two forms of criticism of the concept of animal welfare, coming from diametrically opposite positions."
- "One view... holds that humans have no duties of any kind to animals." "The other view is based on the animal rights position that animals should not be regarded as property and any use of animals by humans is unacceptable."
- "Some animal rights proponents argue that the perception of better animal welfare facilitates continued and increased exploitation of animals."
- "Some authorities therefore treat animal welfare and animal rights as two opposing positions."
- "The predominant view of modern neuroscientists, notwithstanding philosophical problems with the definition of consciousness even in humans, is that consciousness exists in nonhuman animals."
- "However, some still maintain that consciousness is a philosophical question that may never be scientifically resolved."
- "In this study conducted in rhesus monkeys, the researchers built experiments predicting completely opposite behavioral outcomes to consciously vs. non-consciously perceived stimuli."
- "Strikingly, the monkeys' behaviors displayed these exact opposite signatures, just like aware and unaware humans tested in the study."