Animal welfare refers to the physiological and psychological health of an animal – effectively, this is how the individual animal is coping, both mentally and physically with their circumstances. Many scientists and animal management professionals now subscribe to the ‘feelings’ approach, whereby welfare is a reflection of an animal’s mental/psychological health and what they are ‘feeling’. ‘The Five Domains’ model (Mellor and Beausoleil, 2015) highlights four ‘physical/function domains’ and promotes that all physical conditions will have an impact on the animals’ ‘mental domain’. It is this ‘Mental domain’ that gives rise to the animals’ animal welfare status. An animal’s welfare state will be in constant flux along an animal welfare spectrum. Recent years have seen the rise in emphasis of promoting positive mental states; not just mitigation of the negative states. The Five Domains model has been adopted by the ‘Caring for Wildlife: WAZA Animal Welfare Strategy’, which, as Members of WAZA, is the strategy which has been adopted by EAZA.
For an animal’s welfare needs to be met, a multi-disciplined, scientifically evidence-based approach is required through, for example, the provision of effective veterinary care, meeting nutritional requirements, providing individuals with the opportunity to perform their species-specific behavioural repertoire and promoting positive emotional states. Both ‘environment-based’ and ‘animal-based’ measures should be included when assessing welfare, with particularly emphasis on the ‘animal-based’ measures as this likely to be a more representative reflection on how the animal is coping and feeling. Animal-based measures can include behavioural measures, body condition and hormonal measures. Consequently, the importance of understanding animals’ natural histories, behavioural needs, physical adaptations, biochemistry and physiology, nutritional requirements, evolutionary drives and psychology cannot be underestimated when it comes to promoting positive animal welfare.
Animal welfare science has progressed dramatically in recent years and the methods by which we evaluate welfare are continually evolving. As new research is released and ideas shared our understanding of species-specific, and individual, needs and wants develops. Through conducting this research and applying the knowledge gained, animal welfare best-practice continues to progress.
For more information, please contact the EAZA Animal Welfare Coordinator sally.binding@eaza.net.
References
EAZA is committed to promoting the positive welfare of animals, not only in our member institutions but also through supporting zoos and aquaria which are currently working towards reaching EAZA’s accreditation standards. EAZA encourages and supports adoption of a proactive approach, to both undertaking and applying animal welfare scientific research. We adopt a multi-faceted, multi-disciplined approach to promotion of animal welfare best-practice via the delivery of animal welfare training and knowledge sharing platforms:
The EAZA Accreditation system which ensures that EAZA Accredited Members reach EAZA’s Standards of Accommodation and Care of Animals in Zoos and Aquaria, alongside EAZA’s Guidelines, such as the EAZA Guidelines on the use of animals in public demonstrations have now been incorporated into the EAZA Standards on the Accommodation and Care of Animals in Zoos and Aquariums. Those institutions who do not reach EAZA’s accreditation standards have the opportunity to join our Candidate for Membership programme. Candidates for Membership are supported by EAZA and the EAZA Technical Assistance Committee via the mentorship programme and production of EAZA’s Technical Assistance Manual: 'The Modern Zoo: foundations for Management and Development’, to aid them in raising their standards.
The ability to assess animal welfare within our zoo and aquarium collections is very valuable tool. Periodic assessment will not only provide understanding of the current state of welfare for the animals in our care, but it will also allow for monitoring in welfare changes and identify areas for welfare improvement. The EAZA Animal Welfare Assessments Library is a collection of previously established animal welfare assessments/auditing tools that have been kindly shared from researchers and animal management institutions. For more information and access to the public Library, please click here
This project is focused on establishing information sharing frameworks and channels between welfare specialists, welfare research and representatives from EAZA Taxon Advisory Groups. This project aims to ensure scientific developments in welfare best practice are being efficiently shared and utilised in all taxon.
EAZA Welfare Webinars are free and open to all, to support animal management professionals across the wider animal management community. However, places are limited and EAZA Members are given priority 'early-bird' registration approval. Joining the webinars are a fantastic opportunity to gain professional development from experts in the animal welfare field, which you can apply within your own work to promote evidence-based positive animal welfare.
Please see below registration links, save-the dates, and recordings of previous webinars. Register for our next webinar now!
with Dr Sally Sherwen from Zoos Victoria 17 March 2021 10:00 - 11:00 (CET) Register here
Exciting new research and developments are underway that demonstrates the interconnectedness between staff wellbeing and positive workplace culture, animal welfare standards and conservation outcomes. Historically, many have considered these areas as conflicting priorities that need to compete for resourcing within and between organisations. But science is now demonstrating the extent of overlap across these focus areas and potential for significant advancements if we re-imagine how we approach our zoo-based work programs. In this talk, I’ll use case study examples of what we’ve learned from better integrating programs of work across various disciplines and departments in an effort to expand reach and impact of our work.
How to take your welfare program to the next level: the C-Well dolphin assessment as an example of a species-specific tool, and AnimalCare Software's cloud-based welfare platform
with Dr Isabella Clegg from Animal Welfare Expertise
Zoos and aquaria have made significant progress in developing their understanding and measurement of animal welfare over the last decade. Many institutions are therefore looking to further advance their welfare programs to be able to take more detailed welfare data, and more efficiently. This presentation lays out the next steps for such organisations, including identifying “high-risk” species and prioritising them by conducting detailed, species-specific welfare assessments on these animals to improve their welfare and increase transparency for the public. The C-Well Assessment for dolphins will be described as an example of such a tool, and the latest updates and findings will be discussed. Another important element of zoo welfare programs is the use of technology to aid welfare data collection, and AnimalCare Software’s recently released welfare templates will be showcased here as a powerful platform for efficiently gathering data and most importantly, it allows instant analysis of huge datasets so that results can be used to make real time improvements.
The ability to assess animal welfare within our zoo and aquarium collections is very valuable tool. Periodic assessment will not only provide understanding of the current state of welfare for the animals in our care, but it will also allow for monitoring in welfare changes and identify areas for welfare improvement.
The EAZA Animal Welfare Assessments Library is a collection of previously established animal welfare assessments/ auditing tools that have been kindly shared from researchers and animal management institutions. The established assessments all take slightly different approaches to welfare monitoring and therefore this gives the opportunity to align your organisations needs with the appropriate pre-established assessments. A decision-making tool has been provided for the full library by the EAZA Animal Welfare Working Group in order to support members in selecting the most appropriate assessment for their needs.
The full library is now available on the Animal Welfare Working Group SharePoint page for EAZA member access. The library will continue to grow with more institutions offering their assessments and more translations of the current assessments being submitted.
A number of institutions have offered to share their welfare assessment tools publicly, please see below for the welfare assessment library for public use.
EAZA Animal Welfare Assessments Library:
EAZA would like to thank the following people for sharing their time and expertise with translations. If you can help with further translations, please contact sally.binding@eaza.net