Animal welfare: at the interface between science and society.

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior and welfare science
• Ethology
• Applied animal science

Background:

• Traditional animal welfare assessments often focus on excluding negative states.
• This approach overlooks the evolutionary optimization of animal interaction and adaptation to environments.
• A more dynamic view of welfare is needed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a dynamic concept of animal welfare.
• To explore the implications of this concept for practical welfare assessments.
• To highlight the role of societal values in interpreting and managing animal welfare.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of animal welfare.
• Discussion of the limitations of purely objective biological measurements.
• Examination of the influence of context, culture, and societal values.

Main Results:

• Animal welfare is best understood as the adaptive value of an individual's interaction with its environment.
• Objective biological measures alone are insufficient for comprehensive welfare assessment.
• Welfare status interpretation and management are heavily influenced by societal and cultural values.

Conclusions:

• A dynamic welfare concept necessitates considering the animal's adaptive capacity.
• Practical welfare assessments must integrate objective data with contextual and societal considerations.
• The moral acceptability of animal welfare status is intrinsically linked to societal moral understanding.