Born Free Foundation, 3 Grove House, Foundry Lane, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 5PL, UK.
School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1UG, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2012 Sep 28;2(4):507-28. doi: 10.3390/ani2040507.
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 on the inspectors' assessments of animal welfare standards in five areas that approximate to the Five Freedoms. At least 11% of full licence inspections did not comply with the legal requirement for two inspectors. The inspectors' reports were unclear as to how animal welfare was assessed, whether all animals or only a sub-sample had been inspected, and were based predominantly on welfare inputs rather than outcomes. Of 9,024 animal welfare assessments across the 192 zoos, 7,511 (83%) were graded as meeting the standards, 782 (9%) as substandard and the rest were not graded. Of the 192 zoos, 47 (24%) were assessed as meeting all the animal welfare standards. Membership of a zoo association was not associated with a higher overall assessment of animal welfare standards, and specialist collections such as Farm Parks and Other Bird collections performed least well. We recommend a number of changes to the inspection process that should lead to greater clarity in the assessment of animal welfare in British zoos.
我们分析了 2005-2008 年间政府任命的检查员的报告，首次审查了自 1981 年《动物园许可法》颁布以来英国动物园的动物福利评估情况。我们研究了兽医是否纳入检查小组、检查类型、动物园许可证状况以及动物园协会成员资格对检查员在五个接近“五大自由”的领域评估动物福利标准的影响。至少有 11%的全面许可证检查不符合要求两名检查员的法律规定。检查员的报告不清楚动物福利是如何评估的，是否检查了所有动物或仅检查了部分动物，并且主要基于福利投入而不是结果。在 192 家动物园的 9024 项动物福利评估中，有 7511 项（83%）被评为符合标准，782 项（9%）被评为低于标准，其余未评级。在 192 家动物园中，有 47 家（24%）被评为符合所有动物福利标准。动物园协会的成员资格与动物福利标准的整体评估之间没有关联，而农场公园和其他鸟类收藏等专业收藏的表现最差。我们建议对检查过程进行一些更改，以提高英国动物园动物福利评估的清晰度。
