Cornish Amelia, Wilson Bethany, Raubenheimer David, McGreevy Paul
Sydney School of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Animals (Basel). 2018 Oct 4;8(10):174. doi: 10.3390/ani8100174.
Attitudes to animals are linked to beliefs about their ability to experience pain and suffering, their cognition, and their sentience. Education and awareness-raising play a pivotal role in increasing society's consideration of non-human animal welfare. The current pilot study explores the attitudes towards animal welfare among a unique population of people who attended an animal welfare symposium at the University of Sydney. It involved administration of a validated questionnaire that assessed attitudes to animals; specifically exploring participants' ( = 41) beliefs about the sentience of animals and their emotional empathy with animals. The resultant data revealed significant associations between participants' beliefs in animal sentience and their demographic variables (age, sex and occupation). Female attendees showed stronger beliefs in sentience than male attendees did. Concerning sentience in cows, pigs and cats, older attendees showed stronger beliefs than younger people in sentience relating to hunger and pain. Also, with regard to questions about sentience in dogs, older attendees showed stronger beliefs than younger people in pain-related sentience in dogs. When exploring emotional empathy with animals, the participants' statements could be assigned to three clusters characterised by the internal emotional lives of animals and the treatment of animals by humans (Cluster 1), human interactions with animals (Cluster 2) and the keeping of companion and zoo animals (Cluster 3). To the authors' knowledge, this pilot study is the first of its kind to investigate the attitudes towards animal welfare of an important group of people who work, study or have a special interest within the animal care and welfare domain.
对动物的态度与对它们感受疼痛和痛苦的能力、认知能力以及感知能力的信念相关。教育和提高意识在增强社会对非人类动物福利的关注方面发挥着关键作用。当前的试点研究探讨了参加悉尼大学动物福利研讨会的一群独特人群对动物福利的态度。该研究包括发放一份经过验证的问卷，以评估对动物的态度；具体探究参与者（n = 41）对动物感知能力的信念以及他们对动物的情感同理心。所得数据显示，参与者对动物感知能力的信念与其人口统计学变量（年龄、性别和职业）之间存在显著关联。女性参与者比对动物感知能力的信念比男性参与者更强。关于牛、猪和猫的感知能力，年长的参与者比对饥饿和疼痛的感知能力的信念比年轻人更强。此外，关于狗的感知能力问题，年长的参与者比对狗的疼痛相关感知能力的信念比年轻人更强。在探究对动物的情感同理心时，参与者的陈述可分为三类，其特点分别是动物的内心情绪生活和人类对动物的对待方式（第一类）、人类与动物的互动（第二类）以及伴侣动物和动物园动物的饲养（第三类）。据作者所知，这项试点研究是同类研究中首次调查在动物护理和福利领域工作、学习或有特殊兴趣的重要人群对动物福利的态度。
