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Asking the Animals What They Feel: Preference Testing and Motivation

Asking the Animals What They Feel: Preference Testing and Motivation. Ian J.H. Duncan Professor Emeritus Emeritus Chair in Animal Welfare University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Dolittle. Dr. Dolittle Central character in series of books by Hugh Lofting Could speak to animals

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Asking the Animals What They Feel: Preference Testing and Motivation

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  1. Asking the Animals What They Feel: Preference Testing and Motivation Ian J.H. Duncan Professor Emeritus Emeritus Chair in Animal Welfare University of Guelph Guelph, Ontario, Canada

  2. Dr. Dolittle

  3. Dr. Dolittle Central character in series of books by Hugh Lofting Could speak to animals Very popular Even a Hollywood Film (Eddie Murphy) But remember, Dr. Dolittle was a fictional character!

  4. Communicating with Animals Since ancient times, lots of examples of human beings TELLING animals what to do: controlling horses/oxen for work controlling elephants for work controlling horses for riding controlling dogs for herding etc., etc.

  5. Communicating with Animals

  6. Communicating with Animals • … and in recent years, reports of: • horse whisperers (Monty Roberts) • dog whisperers (Cesar Milan) • …communicating with animals in an (almost) magical way.

  7. For an outstanding example of someone controlling an animal in an (almost) magical way I would recommend that you watch Stacy Westfall riding a horse bareback and bridleless: www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-7v8Ck1crg

  8. Communicating with Animals But what about a scientific approach to understanding animal communication?

  9. Understanding Animal Communication Karl von Frisch (1886-1982)

  10. Karl von Frisch (1886-1982) An Austrian scientist who, in the summer studied communication in bees: In the winter he studied communication in fish – alarm pheromones.

  11. Understanding Animal Communication Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)

  12. Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) An Austrian scientist who worked mainly in Germany. Communication in birds (ducks, geese, jackdaws), imprinting, courtship behaviour.

  13. Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) • Highly recommend two little books by Lorenz: • King Solomon’s Ring • Man Meets Dog

  14. Understanding Animal Communication Niko Tinbergen (1907-1988)

  15. Niko Tinbergen (1907-1988) A Dutch scientist who worked mainly in England. Communication in many species (gulls and sticklebacks). The power of ‘supernormal stimuli’.

  16. Understanding Animal Communication Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen were all superb naturalists who gave the field of animal communication a solid scientific foundation. In 1973 they were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

  17. Communicating with Animals • Talking with animals (fictional) • Telling animals what to do • Understanding animal communication

  18. Communicating with Animals • Talking with animals (fictional) • Telling animals what to do • Understanding animal communication • But what about “Asking the Animals”?

  19. Animal Welfare • Growing public concern about the welfare of animals used by humankind: • Intensive animal agriculture • Biomedical research • Sport and Entertainment • Zoos and Wildlife parks • Companion animals

  20. Animal Welfare • Many different approaches to assessing welfare. Take measurements of: • Stress • Health • Fitness • Brain function • None of these has been completely successful.

  21. Animal Welfare Define animal welfare

  22. Animal Welfare Give an example of an animal with poor welfare

  23. Animal Welfare An animal that is: Deprived Neglected Lonely Hungry Thirsty Sick Injured Frightened Frustrated Bored

  24. Animal Welfare Give an example of an animal with good welfare

  25. Animal Welfare An animal that is: None of the above? Healthy? Fit? Contented? Happy?

  26. Animal Welfare The examples that you identified as reducing welfare are: States of Suffering And the examples you identified as increasing welfare are: States of Pleasure

  27. Animal Welfare Now some agreement in the scientific community that animal welfare is about: the absence of states of suffering and (probably) the presence of states of pleasure

  28. Animal Welfare But there is a problem. These states are SUBJECTIVE STATES only known to the person or animal experiencing them. Only I know how I feel when…… I have toothache and feel pain I see a spider and feel frightened I miss the bus and feel frustrated

  29. Animal Welfare Subjective states are not open to direct scientific investigation. However, I can learn a lot about your subjective states by asking you about them. Might it be possible to learn about animals’ subjective states by asking them?

  30. Animal Welfare A simple way of ‘asking an animal’ is to give it a choice of two things and see which it prefers: PREFERENCE TEST

  31. Hens in battery cages >90% of all eggs come from cages

  32. Animal Welfare Wire netting floor Wire grid floor

  33. Animal Welfare The problem with preference tests….

  34. Animal Welfare We also have to ask: “How important is the choice to the animal?”

  35. Animal Welfare We must make sure that the choice we are giving is not trivial (tea or coffee). We must also make sure that the choice is not “The lesser of two evils” (being shot or being hung).

  36. Frustration Many hens in battery cages are frustrated in the 1-1½ hours before they lay an egg.

  37. Frustration of Nesting • 1-1½ hours before laying an egg, a hen starts to look for a nest site • Most hens (>80% of white-egg-layers) do not regard the cage as a suitable nest site • Show symptoms of severe frustration • Delay laying of the egg • Modern hen lays 320 eggs in year, so this is happening 7 days out of 8

  38. Frustration of Nesting • Hens in cages show behaviour known to indicate frustration :- • Stereotyped back-and-forward pacing • Increased aggression • Displacement preening • AND…..

  39. Frustration of Nesting They will run down a runway very quickly to reach a nest site, and…

  40. Frustration of Nesting …they will work very hard to reach a nest site.

  41. Frustration of Nesting A hen will work as hard to get to a nest as it will to get to food when it has been deprived of food for 28-30 hours. NESTING BEHAVIOUR IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO HENS

  42. Frustration of roosting Hens prefer to perch off the ground at night and when resting = “roosting”

  43. Frustration of roosting This is the normal resting posture of hens

  44. Frustration of roosting Using the same techniques that I developed for nesting, a Swedish team has shown that roosting behaviour is also very important to hens. Hens will work hard to perch off the ground at night-time and when resting during the day. ROOSTING BEHAVIOUR IS VERY IMPORTANT TO HENS

  45. Some Other Hen Preferences • Preferences tests have shown that hens prefer: • To be in a small group rather than a large group. • To be with hens they know rather than with strangers. • To have more space than they normally have in a battery cage.

  46. Fear Animals can be “asked” how frightening a situation is by seeing how hard they will work to avoid it. One type of avoidance is “shuttle avoidance”.

  47. This hen is in a shuttle-box.

  48. It has been frightened by inflating a balloon, and has escaped into the other half of the box.

  49. HENS LEARNING TO AVOID X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X = successful avoidance Hens N=15 5 10 15 20 25 30 Trial No

  50. DURATION OF ALARM-CALLING (± S.E., N=8) 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 Minutes 1 2 3 4 5 6 Successive trials with avoidance

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