Pickering Persephone, Hockenhull Jo
Animal Welfare and Behaviour Group, Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Langford, Bristol BS40 5DU, UK.
Animals (Basel). 2019 Dec 20;10(1):21. doi: 10.3390/ani10010021.
Information on the management of animals within domestic environments is freely available to animal owners and caregivers either online, or in paper form by request. However, awareness is growing within the animal welfare sector that simply providing written guidelines or educational material is not enough to affect a positive change in owners in relation to animal welfare. In the quest to improve equine welfare, understanding the way that owners and other stakeholders seek information and their communication preferences is key to effective dissemination of up to date equine welfare information and research findings. Three UK equine stakeholder groups-horse owners, livery yard owners, and equine veterinarians-were surveyed online to find out where they sought equine information. Their awareness of equine welfare Codes of Practice, how they respond when they are asked to give advice to horse owners and their communication preferences were included within the survey. All three stakeholder groups tended to seek information from people rather than from organisations, or digital and printed resources. Veterinarians were the most used information source across all three stakeholder groups This highlighted the importance of ensuring that equine veterinarians have access to up to date, evidence-based equine welfare information. While the majority of participants were aware of the equine welfare Code of Practice, fewer had actually read it, this was true particularly amongst horse owners. The primary reasons for this were the features of the Code as well as the issuing organisation. The stakeholders expressed a preference for information to be communicated in a neutral or positive way rather than focusing on negative aspects. Our findings suggest that industry professionals, particularly veterinarians, have an important role to play in knowledge transfer and the dissemination of research findings to horse owners. The efficacy of equine welfare communication could be improved if the information delivery preferences of equine stakeholders are were taken into consideration.
关于家庭环境中动物管理的信息，动物主人和照料者可以通过网络免费获取，也可应要求获取纸质版信息。然而，动物福利领域越来越意识到，仅仅提供书面指南或教育材料不足以促使主人在动物福利方面产生积极改变。在寻求改善马福利的过程中，了解主人和其他利益相关者获取信息的方式及其沟通偏好，是有效传播最新马福利信息和研究成果的关键。对英国三个马相关利益群体——马主、马场主和马兽医——进行了在线调查，以了解他们获取马信息的途径。调查内容包括他们对马福利实践准则的认知、当被要求给马主提供建议时的反应以及他们的沟通偏好。所有这三个利益群体都倾向于从人那里获取信息，而非从组织、数字资源或印刷资源获取。在所有三个利益群体中，兽医是被使用最多的信息来源。这凸显了确保马兽医能够获取最新的、基于证据的马福利信息的重要性。虽然大多数参与者知晓马福利实践准则，但实际读过的人较少，马主尤其如此。主要原因在于该准则的特点以及发布机构。利益相关者表示倾向于以中立或积极的方式传达信息，而非关注负面方面。我们的研究结果表明，行业专业人士，尤其是兽医，在知识转移以及向马主传播研究成果方面发挥着重要作用。如果考虑到马相关利益者的信息传递偏好，马福利沟通的效果可能会得到改善。
