Advances in animal welfare in New Zealand

Authors: Stafford KJ, Mellor DJ, Gregory NG
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 50, Issue 3 Supplement, pp 17-21, Jun 2002
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Cattle, General, Livestock, Possum, Production animal, Ruminant, Sheep, Wildlife
Subject Terms: Anaesthesia/analgesia/sedation, Animal remedies/veterinary medicines, Animal welfare, Biosecurity, Husbandry/husbandry procedures, Animal handling, Legal/regulation, Pest/pesticides, Reproduction, Reproduction - male, Slaughter, Surgery, Toxicology, Transport
Article class: Review Article

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Abstract: The term `animal welfare` became popular in the 1970s after Ruth Harrison`s book entitled “Animal Machines” (1964), which described intensive poultry and livestock farming. This book stimulated the government of the United Kingdom to establish the Brambell Committee, whose report (1965) established the concept of the “five freedoms” and encouraged scientific research into animal welfare. The veterinary profession has always considered itself to be a defender of animal welfare but has tended to specialise in the area of health and productivity with little emphasis on the psychological wellbeing of animals (Gumbrell 1983). In New Zealand, the two early proponents of animal welfare were Dr Ron Kilgour, an applied ethologist at Ruakura Animal Research Centre (Kilgour 1971, 1985), and Professor David Blackmore (Blackmore and Petersen 1981) of the then Veterinary Science Faculty at Massey University. Kilgour investigated many aspects of livestock behaviour (Kilgour and Dalton 1984), while Blackmore was an early proponent of effective stunning of animals before exsanguination and much of his research centred on the welfare of animals prior to slaughter. The establishment of the Animal Behaviour and Welfare Research Centre at Ruakura in 1991, a professorial chair in Animal Welfare Science at Massey University in 1994, and the Animal Welfare Science and Bioethics Centre at Massey University in 1998 demonstrate the concern about animal welfare amongst livestock producers, marketers and academics in New Zealand.

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