Pearce Hillary, Neill Clinton L, Royal Kenneth, Pairis-Garcia Monique
London SW19 1BW, UK.
Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Anim Welf. 2023 Jan 30;32:e11. doi: 10.1017/awf.2022.3. eCollection 2023.
Consumer concern about farmed animal welfare is growing but does not always translate into real-world purchasing behaviour of welfare-friendly animal products for human consumption. Possible reasons for this include unfamiliarity with farming practices and economic sensitivity. In contrast, the number and role of pets in the United States have grown measurably, and spending on pets is strong. The pet food market has many opportunity niches as pet owners navigate strong marketing trends and nutrition philosophies. We hypothesised that pet owners in the US would be willing to pay a premium for pet food containing welfare-friendly animal ingredients. Eight hundred and thirty-eight pet owners completed an online survey asking questions that measured their knowledge of and interest in farm animal welfare, and their willingness-to-pay for pet food labelled as farm animal welfare-friendly. Respondents overall displayed relatively low knowledge about farm animal welfare, but poor self-assessment of their own knowledge. They displayed interest in farm animal welfare and an overall positive mean willingness-to-pay (WTP) for welfare-friendly pet food. Younger respondents, women and cat owners displayed a higher WTP than older respondents, men and dog owners. Income level was not correlated to WTP. Creating pet food products that contain animal ingredients produced using welfare-friendly practices may enhance farm animal welfare via two primary avenues: by providing a sustainable and value-added outlet for the by-products of welfare-friendly human food products, and by providing an educational opportunity about farm animal production via pet food packaging and other advertising.
消费者对养殖动物福利的关注日益增加，但这并不总是转化为购买有利于动物福利的人类消费动物产品的实际行为。造成这种情况的可能原因包括对养殖方式不熟悉以及经济敏感性。相比之下，美国宠物的数量和作用显著增加，宠物消费强劲。随着宠物主人顺应强大的营销趋势和营养理念，宠物食品市场有许多机会细分领域。我们假设美国的宠物主人愿意为含有有利于动物福利成分的宠物食品支付溢价。838名宠物主人完成了一项在线调查，调查问题衡量了他们对农场动物福利的了解和兴趣，以及他们为标有农场动物福利友好型的宠物食品支付的意愿。总体而言，受访者对农场动物福利的了解相对较少，但对自己知识的自我评估较差。他们对农场动物福利表现出兴趣，并且对有利于动物福利的宠物食品总体上有积极的平均支付意愿（WTP）。年轻受访者、女性和猫主人的支付意愿高于年长受访者、男性和狗主人。收入水平与支付意愿无关。生产含有采用有利于动物福利方式生产的动物成分的宠物食品，可能通过两条主要途径提高农场动物福利：为有利于动物福利的人类食品副产品提供可持续的增值销售渠道，以及通过宠物食品包装和其他广告提供有关农场动物生产的教育机会。
