Appropriate husbandry
Appropriate husbandry describes forms of animal husbandry in which the originally natural living conditions of the animals are remembered and certain innate behavior patterns of the animals are taken into account. Some species-specific needs of the animals are taken into account to a greater extent than with factory farming .
History of the term
The genesis of the concept of animal welfare is related to the concept of animal welfare, which was introduced into German animal protection law in 1972 . The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forests developed the term at the time to legitimize minimum legal requirements for agricultural animal husbandry. In the legal context, the term developed a normative character. The behavioral biology and veterinary medicine are questioned whether a form of entertainment in terms of species-specific animal husbandry animal welfare compliant. Judgments of species-appropriate / species-appropriate animal husbandry do not refer to approaches of applied ethics and the promotion of a product with the term "species-appropriate" should therefore not be confused with a profound ethical judgment.
Domesticated animals
Due to their domestication, many domestic and farm animals are no longer able to look after themselves or reproduce in their natural environment, since they were specially bred to meet economic or other human requirements. Nevertheless, animals have retained many natural behaviors, such as their urge to move, the hunting instinct or the need to hide, and should be able to live these out in a species-appropriate manner. There are indications that an increase in the welfare of the animals also results in advantages for the keeper and the consumer, as the quality of the animal products increases. It is generally assumed that animals kept in a species-appropriate manner are livelier, healthier, less susceptible to stress and more peaceful in dealing with one another.
Situation in laboratory animals
The keeping of animals for animal experiments was also regulated in the EU by Directive 86/609 / EEC and in Germany by a law. The German regulation recommends appropriate accommodation and surroundings, minimum requirements for freedom of movement as well as food and care. A socially, sensory and psychologically stimulating environment is part of the sensible keeping of laboratory animals. In the case of the frequently used rats , this means, for example, that group housing is preferable and that nest building material is provided to them in the cage. A species-appropriate keeping of the laboratory animals is mostly not given due to the experiment. There are no regulations for this either. These are husbandry recommendations drawn up by animal welfare and published by the EU.
Situation with laying hens
Directive 1999/74 / EC (implemented in national law in 2012) prescribes three housing systems in the member states of the European Union:
- designed cages with an area of at least 750 cm² per animal;
- non-designed cages with an area of at least 550 cm² per animal (prohibited since January 1, 2012);
- Cage-free systems with laying nests (at least one nest for every 7 hens) and suitable perches (stocking density max. 9 laying hens per m²).
In general, laying nests, perches with a space of 15 cm per hen, litter for pecking and scratching must be available in every position. Hens must have unrestricted access to feed troughs, and each hen must have at least 12 cm of feeding space in the cage.
economic aspects
Animal welfare is mainly used in organic agriculture and is certified in conventional animal husbandry by some animal welfare labels.
Despite higher prices, farmers who keep livestock in a species-appropriate manner sometimes achieve lower profits than farmers who keep animals conventionally. On the one hand, this is due to the mentality and habits of many consumers , who are often unwilling to pay more for products that are appropriate to their species, or who are unable to do so for economic reasons. On the other hand, species-appropriate husbandry is more expensive due to the increased demands such as space requirements and naturally grown forage as well as lower efficiency, for example when fattening animals, since the animals are allowed to move around excessively and thus gain weight and fat tissue more slowly . Collecting eggs and milking the cows is also more time-consuming and laborious, as the degree of automation is lower for less restricted animals . According to an analysis by the Thünen Institute of Business Administration , the 403 ecological test farms used for the analysis achieved an average profit plus personnel costs per worker of € 32,709 in the 2013/14 financial year. Compared to the previous year, this corresponds to an increase of 6%. “Without the eco bonus, all other things being equal, the profit would have been € 25,422. [...] Comparable conventional companies achieved an average profit plus personnel expenses per AK of € 36,255 in FY 2013/14. Their income increased significantly by + 10% compared to the previous year. ” According to this, the average income of the eco-test farms would be, as in the previous year, below the income of the conventional comparison farms.
Criteria for animal welfare
There is no protected definition of the term "species-appropriate husbandry" and therefore no uniform collection of properties. Frequently mentioned criteria are:
- Sufficient space for each animal, which also offers retreat options and extensive exercise
- separate areas for eating, defecating and lying down
- a stable climate that is optimally adapted to the species and a range of feed that the animal would also find in its natural environment, which corresponds to its specific nutritional physiology
- Additional employment and care options such as massage devices that can be triggered and used independently by the animals in order to substitute for options that are no longer available, for example scraping trees in the wild
- a size of the group of animals kept corresponding to the social behavior of the animals
Furthermore, when animals are killed, their dignity should not be reduced and they should be respected as living beings. Clarifying whether and under what circumstances killing with dignity is even possible is part of animal ethics and, for example, part of the Luxembourg animal protection law.
According to the Swiss Animal Welfare Act, animal-friendly stable facilities are intended to prevent damage and illnesses caused by husbandry and promote the well-being of the animals. That is why mass-produced Swiss barn equipment and housing systems require official approval.
criticism
Opponents of any kind of livestock husbandry say that keeping animals cannot be "species-appropriate" because "species-appropriate" is only life in freedom. The vocabulary of animal owners glossed over the living situation of the animals kept. The attitude is under the sign of the use by humans. The aim of keeping animals is not the ostensible well-being of the animals, but exploitation for entertainment and products (food, clothing).
In the USA horses can be transported for up to 28 hours, in Canada for up to 36 hours without water, food or rest.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Philipp von Gall: Animal protection as agricultural policy - how the German animal protection law paved the way for industrial animal husbandry . transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2016, ISBN 978-3-8376-3399-3 .
- ↑ Lexicon of the human-animal relationship. Transcript Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-8376-2232-4 .
- ↑ Organic milk and organic meat are healthier
- ^ Animal husbandry: In the pig system. on: sueddeutsche.de , October 6, 2013.
- ↑ Federal Law Gazette 2007 Part II No. 37
- ↑ tierschutzakademie.de ( Memento from October 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ BVerfG: Decision. October 12, 2010 - 2 BvF 1/07 = BVerfGE 127, 293-335; Laying hen rules unconstitutional. Press release of the BVerfG of December 2nd, 2012. Accessed on February 26th, 2012.
- ↑ Protection of laying hens. on: eur-lex.europa.eu
- ↑ Jürn Sanders: Analysis of the economic situation of organic farms in the 2013/14 financial year. (PDF; 87 KiB) Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute - Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forests and Fisheries, February 27, 2015, p. 8 , accessed on August 20, 2018 ( project website ).
- ↑ Animal welfare, animal welfare and animal welfare !?
- ^ Positions on animal ethics
- ↑ Luxembourg - The dignity of an animal is inviolable
- ↑ Livestock husbandry Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office
- ↑ Liberation doesn't stop with humans (PDF; 3.2 MB)
- ↑ The real horse meat scandal. on: 20min.ch