All/General

Assessing and enhancing the welfare of animals with equivocal and reliable cues

The actions of human caretakers strongly influence animals living under human care. Here, we consider how intentional and unintentional signals provided by caretakers can inform our assessment of animals' well-being as well as help to support it. Our aim is...

Year Published: 2019Topics: Animal Training, Human-Animal Interaction, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Watters, J. V., Krebs, B. L. 2019. Assessing and enhancing the welfare of animals with equivocal and reliable cues. Animals 9(9), 680.

The 3Rs and humane experimental technique: Implementing change

In 1959, the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) Scholars Russell & Burch published the Principles of Humane Experimental Technique in which they laid out the principles of the Three Rs. However, the Three Rs owed much to others. It...

Year Published: 2019Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Hubrecht, R. C., Carter, E. 2019. The 3Rs and humane experimental technique: Implementing change. Animals 9(10), 754.

What is so positive about positive animal welfare?—A critical review of the literature

It is claimed that positive animal welfare (PAW) developed over the last decade in reaction to animal welfare focusing too much on avoiding negatives. However, it remains unclear what PAW adds to the animal welfare literature and to what extent...

Year Published: 2019Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Lawrence, A. B., Vigors, B., Sandøe, P. 2019. What is so positive about positive animal welfare?—A critical review of the literature. Animals 9(10), 783.

Zoo animal welfare: The human dimension

Standards and policies intended to safeguard nonhuman animal welfare, whether in zoos, farms, or laboratories, have tended to emphasize features of the physical environment. However, research has now made it clear that very different welfare outcomes are commonly seen in...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Human-Animal InteractionAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Cole, J., Fraser, D. 2018. Zoo animal welfare: The human dimension. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science 21(S1), 49-58.

Be kind to others: Prosocial behaviours and their implications for animal welfare

Social interactions are central to the health and psychological well-being of domestic animals. Until now, research has overwhelmingly focused on negative social behaviours such as aggression or the lack of social interactions such as social separation and isolation. This contradicts...

Year Published: 2019Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Rault, J.-L. 2019. Be kind to others: Prosocial behaviours and their implications for animal welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 210, 113-123.

Inoculation stress hypothesis of environmental enrichment

One hallmark of psychiatric conditions is the vast continuum of individual differences in susceptibility vs. resilience resulting from the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. The environmental enrichment paradigm is an animal model that is useful for studying a range...

Year Published: 2015Topics: Environmental EnrichmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Crofton, E. J., Zhang, Y., Green, T. A. 2015. Inoculation stress hypothesis of environmental enrichment. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 49, 19-31.

Preventing adverse events at research facilities

In this article, adverse events are defined as events that lead to significant injury or illness, unrelieved pain or distress, or the death of an animal, excluding those caused by IACUC-approved research procedures. The ability to identify possible adverse events...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Regulations & Ethical ReviewAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Koch V. W. 2018. Preventing adverse events at research facilities. JAALAS 57(6), 660–669.

Demographics regarding belief in non-human animal sentience and emotional empathy with animals: A pilot study among attendees of an animal welfare symposium

Attitudes to animals are linked to beliefs about their ability to experience pain and suffering, their cognition, and their sentience. Education and awareness-raising play a pivotal role in increasing society's consideration of non-human animal welfare. The current pilot study explores...

Year Published: 2018Topics: Human-Animal InteractionAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Cornish, A., Wilson, B., Raubenheimer, D. et al. 2018. Demographics regarding belief in non-human animal sentience and emotional empathy with animals: A pilot study among attendees of an animal welfare symposium. Animals 8(10), 174.

Is boredom an animal welfare concern?

Boredom, while often casually attributed to non-human animals by both laypeople and scientists, has received little empirical study in this context. It is sometimes dismissed by others as anthropomorphic or a trivial concern in comparison to other welfare problems faced...

Year Published: 2019Topics: Emotion, Pain, & Sentience, Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Meagher, R. K. 2019. Is boredom an animal welfare concern? Animal Welfare 28(1), 21-32.

Can biomarkers of biological age be used to assess cumulative lifetime experience?

Objective methods for assessing the cumulative lifetime experience of non-human animals would be valuable. We develop the hypothesis that biological age is a common currency that integrates the overall quality of an animal's lifetime experience across a range of types...

Year Published: 2019Topics: Welfare AssessmentAnimal Type: All/General

Citation: Bateson, M., Poirier, C. 2019. Can biomarkers of biological age be used to assess cumulative lifetime experience? Animal Welfare 28(1), 41-56.