Importance of Animal Welfare
Name: Kaoma Bechaz | Student Number: 358549 | Subject: Human-Animal Interactions | Subject No. DASC20014 | Topic: 3 | Word Count: 1563 |
With reference to a species of animal kept for research purposes, explore why good animal welfare is important. Your answer should consider both the animal itself and the implications of good or bad welfare on the research being carried out. You might like to think about the effect that welfare has on the animal’s response to certain research treatments for example.
The use of mice is a common practice in research and for this reason along with the fact that concern for animal welfare in research settings by the public has escalated over recent years, it is important that optimal welfare conditions are maintained in a way that alterations in physiology and behaviour, as a result of poor welfare conditions, does not skew any experimental results.
Animal welfare refers to how an animal can cope with the conditions in which it lives (Grandin 2010). An animal is considered to be in good welfare if it is; healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behaviour and isn’t suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear and distress. If an animal is in a state of good welfare, it is prevented from acquiring disease, receives veterinary treatment, has appropriate shelter and nutrition, it is handled in a humane manner and it’s life is ended in a humane way.
Today, the principles of the 3 R’s (Reduction, Refinement and Replacement) are accepted to be the main guide for using laboratory animals (Hubrecht et al., 2010). The 3 R’s endorse that efforts should be taken to replace the use of live animals by non-animal alternatives, to reduce the number of animals used in experiments to the minimum that is required to obtain meaningful results and to refine procedures so that the degree of suffering is minimised.
State and federal levels of government regulate the use of animals in research and set codes
With reference to a species of animal kept for research purposes, explore why good animal welfare is important. Your answer should consider both the animal itself and the implications of good or bad welfare on the research being carried out. You might like to think about the effect that welfare has on the animal’s response to certain research treatments for example.
The use of mice is a common practice in research and for this reason along with the fact that concern for animal welfare in research settings by the public has escalated over recent years, it is important that optimal welfare conditions are maintained in a way that alterations in physiology and behaviour, as a result of poor welfare conditions, does not skew any experimental results.
Animal welfare refers to how an animal can cope with the conditions in which it lives (Grandin 2010). An animal is considered to be in good welfare if it is; healthy, comfortable, well nourished, safe, able to express innate behaviour and isn’t suffering from unpleasant states such as pain, fear and distress. If an animal is in a state of good welfare, it is prevented from acquiring disease, receives veterinary treatment, has appropriate shelter and nutrition, it is handled in a humane manner and it’s life is ended in a humane way.
Today, the principles of the 3 R’s (Reduction, Refinement and Replacement) are accepted to be the main guide for using laboratory animals (Hubrecht et al., 2010). The 3 R’s endorse that efforts should be taken to replace the use of live animals by non-animal alternatives, to reduce the number of animals used in experiments to the minimum that is required to obtain meaningful results and to refine procedures so that the degree of suffering is minimised.
State and federal levels of government regulate the use of animals in research and set codes