New trends in farm animal welfare: science values and practice

The principles and practice that underpin our responsibility to promote farm animal welfare depend on a proper understanding of the factors that affect welfare and contribute to a sense of well-being or suffering in sentient animals. Animal welfare science is multidisciplinary, requiring input from ethology, psychology, physiology and veterinary science. The values that determine human attitudes and actions can be addressed by application of an 'ethical matrix' Practical implementation of realistic strategies for improving animal welfare consistent with efficient, economic production of safe food from healthy animals requires first an increase in public awareness of the nature of animal sentience and the responsibilities that this entails. This can drive improvements partly through legislation to encourage and enforce improvements to farm animal welfare. However the most promising route is via the market: increased consumer demand for 'added value' foods, where animal welfare is an essential and proven area of added value.