What exactly do we mean when we talk about animal welfare?
No one definition
Unfortunately, there’s no one definition of what constitutes animal welfare. Defining animal welfare faces many challenges, including the diversity of animal species and their needs, the variety of contexts in which animals find themselves, the many different disciplines involved in the study and evaluation of animal welfare, and the influence of religion and culture on attitudes towards animals.
General concept
Generally, an animal’s welfare is defined as an individual animal’s physical, mental, and behavioral wellbeing and their ability to adapt to changes in the environment. Physical wellbeing includes considerations such as the availability of food and water, the suitability of housing, and any wounds or illness. Mental wellbeing considers the animal’s levels of fear, stress, mental stimulation, etc. And behavioral wellbeing factors in whether the animal can engage in normal behaviors–such as grazing in horses or climbing in many primate species.
There is no absolute
Animal welfare is measured on a gradient from poor to good…and, at any one time, an animal’s welfare state will fall somewhere along this line.
Extrapolating to a population
Even though animal welfare is technically measured on an individual animal basis, we can still use this information to assess the overall wellbeing of a larger group of animals.
A lack of poor welfare isn’t enough
Just because an animal lacks poor welfare in one aspect, that doesn’t automatically mean the animal is experiencing good welfare overall. Welfare doesn’t depend on one criteria alone. An animal can be well-fed and kept in a nice enclosure, but if they’re not receiving appropriate mental stimulation or being granted the opportunity to perform natural behaviors, their overall welfare may be lacking. The goal is to provide a life worth living–one that is not only free from poor welfare, but offers positive experiences as well.
