Caring for livestock and research animals

Caring for livestock

What is the moral way to care for animals that are being used in the service of humanity?

Farm animal 'freedoms'

The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) has laid down five 'freedoms' to which farm animals should be entitled:

• Freedom from hunger and thirst by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour
• Freedom from discomfort by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area
• Freedom from pain, injury and disease by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment
• Freedom to express normal behaviour by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal 's own kind
• Freedom from fear and distress by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering

UK official codes of practice

Official codes of practice in the UK say that all farmed animals have basic needs that must be satisfied to ensure the animals' welfare. These are:

• comfort and shelter;
• readily accessible fresh water and a diet to maintain the animals in full health and vigour;
• freedom of movement;
• the company of other animals, particularly of like kind;
• the opportunity to exercise most normal patterns of behaviour;
• light during the hours of daylight, and lighting readily available to enable the animals to be inspected at any time;
• flooring which neither harms the animals, nor causes undue strain;
• the prevention, or rapid diagnosis and treatment of vice, injury, parasitic infestation and disease;
• the avoidance of unnecessary mutilation;
• emergency arrangements to cover outbreaks of fire, the breakdown of essential mechanical services and the disruption of supplies.

Caring for experimental animals

Many countries have rules designed to ensure the humane care of animals used for scientific purposes.

Australian code of practice

The Australian code, which covers all live non-human vertebrates, is a good example of an attempt to minimise the suffering of animals used in research.

Some selected key elements of the code are as follows (layout amended from the original):

• Scientific and teaching activities using animals may be performed only when they are essential to:
  • obtain and establish significant information relevant to the understanding of humans or animals, or
  • the maintenance and improvement of human or animal health and welfare, or
  • the improvement of animal management or production, or
  • the achievement of educational objectives
• Studies using animals may be performed only after a decision has been made that they are justified, weighing the scientific or educational value of the study against the potential effects on the welfare of the animals
• People who use animals for scientific purposes have an obligation to
  • treat them with respect and
  • consider their welfare as an essential factor when planning and conducting studies
• Investigators and teachers have direct and ultimate responsibility for all matters relating to the welfare of the animals they use
• Techniques which replace or complement the use of animals in scientific and teaching activities must be sought and used wherever possible
• Studies must be scientifically and statistically valid, and must use only the minimum number of animals necessary
• The principle of reducing the number of animals used in scientific and teaching activities should not be implemented at the expense of the greater suffering of individual animals
• Scientific and teaching activities involving the use of animals must not be repeated unnecessarily
• Wildlife should be taken from natural habitats only if animals bred in captivity are not available or are unsuitable for the specific scientific purpose
• Studies must be designed to avoid pain or distress to animals
  • If this is not possible, pain or distress must be minimised
• Pain and distress cannot be evaluated easily in animals and therefore investigators and teachers must assume that animals experience pain in a manner similar to humans. Decisions regarding the animal's welfare must be based on this assumption unless there is evidence to the contrary
• An animal which develops signs of pain or distress of a kind and degree not predicted in the proposal must have the pain or distress alleviated promptly
  • If severe pain cannot be alleviated promptly, the animal must be killed humanely forthwith
  • Alleviation of such pain or distress must take precedence over finishing a study
• Scientific and teaching activities which may cause pain or distress of a kind and degree for which anaesthesia would normally be used in medical or veterinary practice must be carried out using anaesthesia appropriate to the species and the procedure
• When it is not possible to use anaesthetics or analgesics, such as in certain toxicological or animal production studies or in animal models of disease, the end-point of the experiment must be as early as possible to avoid or minimise pain or distress to the animals
• Investigators must avoid using death as an experimental end-point whenever possible.
• Scientific and teaching activities involving the use of animals must be as brief as possible
• Animals must be transported, housed, fed, watered, handled and used under conditions which are appropriate to the care of the species
• The welfare of the animals must be a primary consideration in the provision of care which should be based on the behavioural and biological needs of the species

Welfare of experimental animals in the UK

The UK has very strict rules about research on animals.

Any experiment or procedure carried out on any living vertebrate or octopus which may cause them "pain, suffering, distress or lasting harm" must be licensed.

A licence is usually only given where all these conditions are satisfied:

• the research cannot be done without animals
• the likely costs of the research are weighted against the potential benefits in a cost-benefit assessment, and the benefits are deemed to be greater
• the minimum number of animals will be used
• researchers and technicians are trained and experienced in animal testing
• the research premises have facilities for animal care