Over The Horizon

Public Concerns for Animal Welfare

Price, quality and safety in food have always been issues of concern, but this is extending into environmental, biotechnology and animal welfare issues according to visiting British animal welfare expert Sir Colin Spedding. Whether farmers like it or not, he says, public concern is going to have a part to play in future activities.

In particular, he suggests farmers will need to question traditional practices for intensive methods of feeding and housing, animal mutilation including castration, tailing and beak trimming, use of drugs, slaughter and transport, and gene transfer and hormone injections.

Sir Colin is advocating a moderate approach to animal welfare, with farmers leading proactively, rather than reacting defensively. He has found retailers move faster and are more powerful than governments in responding to consumer demand for improvements in animal welfare. Change in the UK is being led by the large supermarket chains, which are adopting labels promoting their meat as fulfilling animal welfare guidelines. While these guidelines aren't specified, Sir Colin believes it is enough for the public to trust and understand suppliers are doing the right thing.

"Don't bury your head in the sand over public concerns with animal welfare issues. Look critically at some of the traditional practices on farm, and take steps to move in the direction demanded by the consumer. If you're genuinely showing concern for your animals, and are known to be constantly seeking improvements to the present system, the public will continue to trust you, and will focus their attention elsewhere."

Battery hens provide a good example of changes being led by public concerns.

"Public perception is that it is unacceptable for hens to spend their lives in a small cage, even though birds in this system may be well fed, have clean dry housing and are generally healthy. Free range systems have welfare issues such as pecking and cannibalism, so the solution may be for livestock producers to come up with a system where hens have bigger cages and more freedom to move."

Genetic modification is also a hot issue, and the public are very wary of change going too far. This is something that scientists and farmers should be discussing with the public.