Animal welfare is an increasing issue of public concern and debate. As a result, many countries are reconsidering the way animal welfare is embedded in the legislation and rules for housing and care of animals. This requires general agreement of what animal welfare is. Unfortunately, the current science of animal welfare is less scientific than what has been claimed. In our view, it is overly g...

Renewed interest in veterinary ethology has been stimulated by increasing sensitivity in modern societies with regard to the use of animals, and a concurrent shift in emphasis in the veterinary profession, including veterinary education. Veterinary ethology appears to form the common ground where animal welfare activists and veterinarians can meet. Ethological parameters seem to be adequate whe...

Four of the papers (by Donald Broom, Lennart Nordenfelt, Kirsten Schmidt and Christine Leeb) in this issue of Acta Biotheoretica stem from a symposium on the theme ,,Concepts of animal welfare—interdisciplinary perspectives’’ that was held on 8–9 October 2009 in Bad Neuenahr (Germany), organised by the Europäische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaftlich-technischer Entwicklungen Ba...

The Detroit Zoological Society's (DZS) Center for Zoo Animal Welfare (CZAW) was created to advance the science and policy of the welfare of exotic nonhuman animals in captivity. This important part of the DZS mission is achieved through assessments of, and research on, the welfare of animals in zoos; by recognizing extraordinary achievement in the advancement of animal welfare; by widely sharin...

The selection and field application of animal-based welfare measures for pigs, sheep, dairy cows and broilers was the first step towards the future development of welfare improvement schemes for Serbia - a country that is applying for EU accession. The aim of this pilot study was to: (1) test the feasibility of a protocol for monitoring farm animal welfare in Serbia, (2) ascertain preliminary d...

The animal welfare debate has been developing in the UK since the 18 century and for much of that time the emphasis has been on the use of legislation to protect animals. More recently in farm animals there has been a focus on using market-led approaches to improve animal welfare. In this paper we argue that there is a strong case for examining more closely supply-side solutions to improving an...

Citizens in many European countries urge that the welfare of farm animals should be improved. Policy-makers propose that this could, at least to some extent, be achieved through increased consumption of animal products produced under labeling schemes guaranteeing higher standards of animal welfare. Yet considerable uncertainties exist about the ability of the market to promote animal welfare. S...

We analysed the reports of government-appointed inspectors from 192 zoos between 2005-2008 to provide the first review of how animal welfare was assessed in British zoos since the enactment of the Zoo Licensing Act 1981. We examined the effects of whether or not a veterinarian was included in the inspection team, type of inspection, licence status of the zoo and membership of a zoo association ...