Applied Animal Behavior and Animal Welfare

Abstract

In modern science, however, applied animal behavior is a remarkably new field. Animal machines created such a strong public reaction that the British government set up a technical committee to investigate the welfare of farm animals. Animal behavior has been applied in efforts to reduce harm to animals caused by human actions. One of the major applications of animal behavior is the design of better environments for captive, farmed, and laboratory animals, partly for the practical goal of making the environments function better, and partly to improve the welfare of the animals that live in them. The animals' welfare is presumably improved because they show little fear of people and a less pronounced physiological stress response to handling. Many concerns about animal welfare are primarily concerns about the affective states of animals—their “emotions,” “feelings,” and other pleasant or unpleasant experiences. Abnormal animal behavior has provided a strong stimulus to understand affective states of animals.