Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS), The King's Buildings, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2021 Mar 3;16(3):e0247788. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0247788. eCollection 2021.
The importance given to minimising health issues and promoting natural behaviours is a polarising issue within farm animal welfare. It is predominantly thought that members of the public prioritise animals being able to behave naturally over other aspects of farm animal welfare, such as addressing health issues. However, public perspectives may be more multi-dimensional than is generally thought, with the importance given to these different elements of welfare dependent on the situation and state of the animals in question. To examine this, a factorial survey using vignettes, which experimentally manipulated the different levels of health (high health vs. low health) and natural behaviour provision (high behaviour vs. low behaviour), was completed by a sample (n = 810) representative of the UK population (on age, gender, ethnicity). Contrary to the predominant view, this study found animal health had the greatest effect on participants' judgements, explaining more of the variance in their assessments of animal welfare than any other factor. However, findings also indicated that participants considered animal welfare to be most positive when both health issues are minimised and natural behaviours are promoted. Attitudes to natural behaviours also varied more between participants, with females, individuals who do not (regularly) eat meat and those with a greater belief in animal mind giving greater priority to natural behaviours. In the context of public and private welfare standards seeking to meet public expectations, this study provides important insights into how public perspectives of animal welfare are more nuanced than previously thought, influenced by the context of the animal, the aspect of welfare in question and personal characteristics.
在农场动物福利中，尽量减少健康问题和促进自然行为的重要性是一个两极分化的问题。人们普遍认为，公众更倾向于动物能够自然地行为，而不是关注其他方面的农场动物福利，例如解决健康问题。然而，公众的观点可能比人们通常认为的更加多维，这些不同福利要素的重要性取决于所涉及动物的情况和状态。为了研究这一点，本研究采用了情境模拟法（factorial survey using vignettes），通过实验操纵不同的健康水平（高健康与低健康）和自然行为提供水平（高行为与低行为），对具有代表性的英国人口样本（n=810）进行了调查。与主流观点相反，本研究发现动物健康对参与者的判断有最大的影响，比任何其他因素都能更好地解释他们对动物福利评估的差异。然而，研究结果还表明，当健康问题得到最小化且自然行为得到促进时，参与者认为动物福利最为积极。参与者对自然行为的态度也存在更多差异，女性、不（经常）吃肉的人以及更相信动物有思维的人更倾向于自然行为。在公共和私人福利标准试图满足公众期望的背景下，本研究为理解公众对动物福利的观点比以往想象的更为复杂提供了重要的见解，这些观点受到动物的背景、所涉及的福利方面以及个人特征的影响。
