Pejman Niloofar, Kallas Zein, Dalmau Antoni, Velarde Antonio
Institute for Research in Sustainability Science and Technology (IS-UPC), Polytechnic University of Catalonia, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
Centre for Agro-food Economy and Development, CREDA-UPC-IRTA, 08860 Castelldefels, Spain.
Animals (Basel). 2019 Apr 25;9(4):195. doi: 10.3390/ani9040195.
Increasingly, intensive livestock production systems have increased societal concern regarding the current animal welfare standards. We investigated whether individuals in their roles as consumers and citizens believe that the current European regulations regarding animal welfare should be more restrictive. Factors affecting this decision were assessed by analyzing respondents' understanding of animal welfare-related issues, their subjective and objective knowledge levels, the credibility they assign to different information sources, their perceptions toward the current restrictiveness of animal welfare standards, and their socioeconomic characteristics. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire distributed in eight European Union (EU) countries (Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Italy, and Sweden) with 3860 total responses. The results showed that consumers are more reluctant to adopt more restrictive regulations than respondents in the role of citizens. Respondents from northern European countries (Poland and Sweden) are more likely to support regulations that are more restrictive than the current minimum requirements than respondents from southern countries (Spain and Italy). Women were found to be more concerned with the welfare of pigs and laying hens-lending credibility to the Internet as an information source-and were more likely to support more restrictive animal welfare legislation.
集约化畜牧生产系统日益引发了社会对当前动物福利标准的关注。我们调查了作为消费者和公民的个人是否认为当前欧洲有关动物福利的法规应更加严格。通过分析受访者对动物福利相关问题的理解、他们的主观和客观知识水平、他们赋予不同信息来源的可信度、他们对当前动物福利标准严格程度的看法以及他们的社会经济特征，评估了影响这一决定的因素。使用在八个欧盟国家（西班牙、英国、波兰、希腊、立陶宛、罗马尼亚、意大利和瑞典）分发的半结构化问卷收集数据，共收到3860份回复。结果表明，与作为公民的受访者相比，消费者更不愿意采用更严格的法规。来自北欧国家（波兰和瑞典）的受访者比来自南方国家（西班牙和意大利）的受访者更有可能支持比当前最低要求更严格的法规。研究发现，女性更关注猪和蛋鸡的福利——这使互联网作为信息来源具有可信度——并且更有可能支持更严格的动物福利立法。
