It is widely recommended to group-house male laboratory mice because they are 'social animals', but male mice do not naturally share territories and aggression can be a serious welfare problem. Even without aggression, not all animals within a group will be in a state of positive welfare. Rather, many male mice may be negatively affected by the stress of repeated social defeat and subordination...

 Farmers will have to increase production levels to provide food for a growing population, while meeting the current and future welfare and environmental targets and legislation.  There has been a steady decline in the number of farms, farmers and livestock in the UK, with an increase in the average farm size.  Proposed UK super farms are smaller in scale compared to some of the world’s larg...

A study compared the behavior of rats kept under standard conditions with the behavior of those from enriched, semi-enriched, and single-housed conditions to determine whether standard conditions have detrimental effects on nonhuman animal welfare. The subjects were 35 female Hooded Norway rats. Using an emergence box, open field, and Hebb-Williams maze, the study measured the subjects' behavio...

There are scientists who believe that science is value-free and that social and ethical issues are not their concern. The birth of Dolly, the cloned lamb, greatly increased public and scientific awareness of ethical issues raised by molecular biology as they intersect with human experience. There are many other issues involving animal production systems, including animal welfare, rural communit...

The World Veterinary Association, as the global representative of the veterinary profession, recognises the global influences on animal welfare and the changing role of the veterinarian in response to the changing attitudes of the human population. While urban populations are now dictating animal welfare standards, many practices still have a cultural and even religious basis. Veterinarians rec...

The link between behaviour of a stockperson towards animals and the animals' behavioural response to humans is an important indicator of animal welfare. However, the economical importance of the human-animal relationship has only recently been acknowledged. The potential to improve animal productivity by improving these human-animal interactions is a positive step towards improving the welfare ...

Introduction That humans exploit animals, often in cruel ways, is not open to doubt. Reponsibility for exploitation and cruelty lies unambiguously on the human side of any human-animal divide. For this reason, relations between humans and animals might be described as profoundly asymmetrical (Schiktanz 2004: 2). Asymmetry emerges whenever animals are confined for human purposes, for instance in...

The development of knowledge necessary for the improvement of the health and well-being of humans as well as other animals requires in vivo experimentation with a wide variety of animal species. Whenever U.S. Government agencies develop requirements for testing, research, or training procedures involving the use of vertebrate animals, the following principles shall be considered; and whenever t...

The ways in which humans can support good welfare for animals their care is an ongoing subject of debate: some place emphasis on the animals’ physical health; others, ability to live “natural lives”; and others affective states or psychological wellbeing. Recently, there has been increase interest how animal’s exercise control over its environment could impact welfare. In this article, we take ...