Animal welfare: ways to fulfil the social concern for farm animal protection
Veissier, I.; Boissy, A.
34emes Journees de la Recherche Porcine, sous l' egide de l' Association Franccaise de Zootechnie, Paris, France, 5-7 fevrier 2002: 233-238
2002
Accession: 003645214
Welfare considerations apply now to farm animals and this is a real social concern for animal production beside concerns for quality of products or environment. In order to improve the living conditions of farm animals, rules are set up in Europe. Nevertheless, animal welfare refers to emotional feelings of individual animals, and is a complex and multidimensional concept. In order to offer a real welfare to farm animals, such rules have to be based on objective arguments. This paper proposes a dynamic definition of animal welfare that is a synthesis of actual definitions based on the notions of harmony between the individual and its environment, of effective adaptation and of suffering.