Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine Turkish consumer attitudes towards animal welfare in terms of cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions, using a bespoke Animal Welfare Attitude Scale (AWAS). An overall consumer attitude was also determined. The Delphi technique was used to establish an item pool to develop a questionnaire for the construction of the AWAS. This questionnaire was later used for data collection. A total of 2295 consumers were surveyed in 14 cities, in the 7 regions of Turkey. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), reliability analysis, Ward's hierarchical clustering method and One-way ANOVA were used to validate the questionnaire, and to analyze data. Results of the EFA allowed for allocation of 42 items collected under 3 dimensions (cognitive, affective and behavioral), that explained 72% of the total variance of the model. This factor structure was subsequently confirmed by a CFA performed on a different sample of 425 consumers. The Cronbach's Alpha coefficient for AWAS was calculated at 0.829. These results confirmed that the developed AWAS had a valid and reliable scale. The questionnaire showed that consumers' attitudes towards animal welfare were more negative at the behavioral dimension, than either at the cognitive or affective dimensions. Consumers in Turkey were ultimately divided into three groups according to their overall attitudes towards animal welfare as impassive, moderate or sensitive. One-third of Turkish consumers placed in the sensitive group, thus emphasizing a potential niche for animal-friendly food marketing in Turkey.
Highlights
Intensive livestock production systems have implemented new and efficient methods to increase productivity while reducing costs, by practices such as lowering feed production expenses, increasing housing density, reducing grazing, the use of performance-enhancing feed additives, and mass farm animal transport and slaughter.[1]
For statistical validity, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed to establish which items belonged to each dimension
A negative correlation was found for the 2nd item (A2) in the affective dimension
Summary
Intensive livestock production systems have implemented new and efficient methods to increase productivity while reducing costs, by practices such as lowering feed production expenses, increasing housing density, reducing grazing, the use of performance-enhancing feed additives, and mass farm animal transport and slaughter.[1]. Queiroz et al.[13] reported that a significant number of consumers do not have enough knowledge of animal welfare issues but believe that natural breeding methods will lead to improvement in product quality
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