Littlewood Katherine E, Beausoleil Ngaio J
Animal Welfare Science and Bioethics Centre, Tāwharau Ora-School of Veterinary Science, Massey University, Private Bag 11-222, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Dec 8;11(12):3504. doi: 10.3390/ani11123504.
Veterinarians are animal health experts. More recently, they have been conferred a leading role as experts in animal welfare. This expectation of veterinarians as welfare experts appears to stem from their training in veterinary medicine as well as professional contributions to welfare-relevant policy and law. Veterinarians are ideally situated to act as animal welfare experts by virtue of their core work with animals and potential influence over owners, their roles in policy development, compliance, and monitoring, and as educators of future veterinarians. However, since its inception as a discipline over 70 years ago, animal welfare science has moved beyond a two-dimensional focus on nutrition and health (biological functioning) towards an understanding that the mental experiences of animals are the focus of welfare consideration. The Five Domains Model is a structured and systematic framework for more holistically considering conditions that contribute to the animal's internal state and its perception of its external situation, and the resultant mental experiences. The Model can be used to better align veterinary animal welfare expertise with contemporary understanding of animal welfare science and improve welfare literacy within the veterinary profession. Improved understanding of animal welfare science is likely to lead to increased confidence, competence, and empowerment to act as experts in their daily lives.
兽医是动物健康专家。最近，他们还被赋予了动物福利专家的主导角色。对兽医作为福利专家的这种期望似乎源于他们在兽医学方面的培训以及对与福利相关的政策和法律的专业贡献。凭借与动物的核心工作以及对动物主人的潜在影响、他们在政策制定、合规和监测中的作用以及作为未来兽医的教育者，兽医处于理想的位置来充当动物福利专家。然而，自70多年前作为一门学科创立以来，动物福利科学已经从对营养和健康（生物功能）的二维关注，转向理解动物的心理体验是福利考量的重点。五域模型是一个结构化、系统化的框架，用于更全面地考虑有助于动物内部状态及其对外部情况的感知以及由此产生的心理体验的条件。该模型可用于使兽医的动物福利专业知识更好地与当代动物福利科学理解相一致，并提高兽医行业内的福利素养。对动物福利科学的更好理解可能会导致兽医在日常生活中作为专家的信心、能力和权力的增强。
