An Sci- Animal Welfare Lecture

An Sci = Equine Science

Right, so today we had a guest lecuter who works for the provincal government training SPCA officers about Animal Welfare.  (Her words not mine. You'll be able to tell when it's mine =P)

Welfare Definition: UK Farm Animal Welfare Council: "The welfare of an animal includes it's physical and mental state and we consider that good animal welfare implies both fitness and a sense of wellbeing."

-HSUS: "Humane Society of the United States" - has more lawyers than any other type of employee (Ie. scientists) (we don't have a group like this, so we learned about yours America)

(I'll have to stick the graphs in when I get my laptop back and can scan and post them, now your stuck with descriptions)
The Social Licence to Operate

Flexible                                                                                                                    Rigid
Responisve                                                                                                             Sureaucratic
Lower Cost                                                                                                             Higher Cost
=Social Licence                                                                                                      = Social Control
                                                                      ^
                                                           Tipping Point
                                                      single triggering event
                                                      cummulative impact
High Trust                                                                                                               Low Trust
Autonomy                                                                                                               Prohibtion

ie. What happened to BP after the rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico

Animal Welfare =/= Animal Rights

The 5 Freedoms
1. Freedom from Hunger & Thirst
2.                  from discomfort
3.                  from Pain, Injury & Disease
4.                  from Fear & Distress
5.                  to preform Natural Behaviours

ALF (Animal Libertion Front)= terrorist organization in both Canada and USA. (It's basically a front for people to commit crimes in the name of saving animals...which is why they kill them? ELF is the same)

Four "I"'s of Animal Suffering
1.Ignorance: not knowing what to do
2.Inexperience: knowing what to do but not knowing how to do it
3.Incompetence: inabililty to do it
4.Incosideration: knowing what/how to do something and just not caring to do it

Wesland Hallmark (is that the name, not sure what she said exactly)= cattle slaughter in California. They didn't know it but hired and HSUS person who took a cell phone video of other staff using a fork lift to lift/push cattle around. Caused largest meat recall in the world.

Welfare is fluid and dynamic
What was acceptable yesterday may not be today
Quality is more expensive than quantity

"No one cares how much you know, until they see how much you care."

Under Canadas Criminal Code horses are legally considered livestock. Filed under cattle. If your horses stolen they will prositcute it as theft of cattle.

Dr. Terry Whiting 3 kinds of Equine:
Equus pecunia: an economic unit
Equus caballus: what we normally think of when we think of horses. Capable of suffering and pain.
Equus americanus: an icon that doesn't exist in the real world. ie) Spirit, Black Beauty, the Black Stallion

Alberta DOES raise horse for meat.
"horses and other equines play a vital role in the collective experince of the United States and deserves protection and compassion' and 'unlike cows, pigs, and many other animals horses and other equines are not raised for the purpose of being slaugtered for human consumption' House Bill H.R. 503
So it's okay to feed them to tigers and lions but not people?

(When I can scan the graphs i'll put up the bit about compare and contrast welfare) but appearntly horse feed lots are not like cattle feed lots (in alberta because the lecture has been to all of them and they are well looked after)

Slaughter.
2 slaughter houses in Alberta.
About 140k horses per year (including those shipped from America)
White washed industry- "processing"=slaughter
Canadian domestic market, theres butchers in this city that sell it (mostly to European ethnic groups living here).
Needs CFIA approval to ship to the EU.
Also requires and Equine Identification Document

Unwanted Horses:
-Loss of disposal method (US)
-Economic Downturn
-Overbreeding (supply and demand)

What do you do with a 1200lb animal with no monetary value?
-auction? -->no/reduced market
-give away? -->flooded/lack of homes
-euthanize? --> finacial/emotional burden
-turn loose? --> no cost/emotional burden (weren't two guys just arrested in the US a couple months ago because this is considered abandoment which is illegal?)
-home made euthanaisa (most disturbing of them all)-->injecting battery acid, shooting (most people assume between the eyes, but that's only the nasal cavity. Only increases suffering)