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Three Rs Introduction
Animal Welfare
The term "animal welfare" is widely used to refer to an animal's quality of life. Ethical
concerns regarding animal welfare can be grouped into three main types:
- Basic health and functioning - animals should be well fed and housed,
free from injury and disease, and relatively free from the adverse consequences of stress.
- Affective states of animals - animals should be relatively free from
negative states, including pain, fear, discomfort and distress, and capable of
experiencing normal pleasures and comforts.
- Ability to perform important types of natural behaviour - animals should be
able to carry out normal patterns of behaviour, including normal affiliation with other animals
and those behaviours that they are highly motivated to undertake, in an environment that is
well suited to the species.
Another approach to understanding and evaluating animal welfare is to use the Five Freedoms of
the UK Farm Animal Welfare Council. These freedoms were originally defined to give guidance to
farmers on the goals of husbandry; however, the freedoms are also applicable to animals used in
science.
The Five Freedoms are:
- 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).
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To more accurately describe negative animal welfare states, the following
definitions of distress, discomfort and pain are used by the CCAC:
- Distress is a state
associated with invasive procedures conducted on an animal, or with restrictive or other
conditions which significantly compromise the welfare of an animal; it may or may not
be associated with pain, and is present when the animal must devote substantial effort
or resources to the adaptive response to challenges emanating from the environmental
situation.
- Discomfort is viewed as a
mild form of distress.
- Pain is an unpleasant
sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential
damage or described in terms of such damage.
The CCAC uses the term "distress" rather than "suffering", (often expressed as "pain
and suffering") in relation to animal experiences. This is because for some animals
(the lower vertebrates) that capacity may not be present in the way that humans
perceive it.
There is some disagreement in the scientific literature regarding the capacity of
fish to experience pain. However, it is established that fish respond to noxious stimuli
with changes in behaviour and or physiology, and the same noxious stimulus would be
painful to humans. Therefore, the CCAC requires that fish used in research, teaching
and testing be treated with the respect accorded to other vertebrate species.
For more information on animal welfare, the following resources may be useful:
CCAC resources
Online resources
Other publications
- Dawkins M. (2006)
A user’s guide to animal welfare science. TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution 21:77-82.
- Duncan I & Fraser D. (1997)
Understanding animal welfare. In: Animal Welfare.
(eds. M.C. Appleby & B.O. Hughes), p. 19-31. Wallingford, UK: CAB International
- Fraser D. (2008) Understanding Animal Welfare: The Science in its Cultural Context. 324pp. UK: Wiley-Blackwell
- Fraser D., Weary D., Pajor E. & Milligan, B. (1997) A scientific conception of animal
welfare that reflects ethical concerns. Animal Welfare 6:187-205.
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