One welfare: a call to develop a broader framework of thought and action

Abstract

Views: Commentary 309 H welfare, social welfare, and animal welfare have traditionally been seen as distinct disciplines. Human welfare deals with the mental state of individuals, social welfare deals with the balance of welfare across societies and generations, and animal welfare deals with the physical and mental well-being of the animal species we use for pleasure, labor, or food. We pose that the separation between human, social, and animal welfare is an artificial compartmentalization. These disciplines rely on the same set of scientific measures and heavily depend on each other in an ecological context. Their study, therefore, requires a broader, interdisciplinary approach. We believe this would allow development of a new, evolving discipline that can address mounting welfare challenges and opportunities through an unparalleled framework for action and also create an exciting path for veterinary medicine, specifically in advancing human society. The one health movement acknowledges the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health and the necessity for an interdisciplinary approach in these fields. Other scientific fields, such as environmental science and conservation ecology, have also embraced a broad interdisciplinary approach to define and solve the problems confronting their fields, and we believe that the field of animal welfare could benefit from a similar approach inspired by these movements. We propose, therefore, embracing the concept of connecting human welfare and social welfare to the diverse body of what is now considered animal welfare. In short, we propose embracing the concept of one welfare. Welfare is a nascent, exciting field that asks us to confront the most contentious and important questions of ethics, science, production, health, economics, and politics. We should no longer seek to make welfare decisions in isolated disciplines or to work on unconnected pieces of the puzzle. Rather, we should make decisions in an interdisciplinary frame with a focus on action and a mission of balancing and promoting human and animal welfare in connected ecosystems and societies. Animal and human welfare are intrinsically interconnected, and animal welfare specialists have long noted situations in which animal welfare is clearly tied to human welfare. In addition, known and supposed tradeoffs in human and animal welfare create contentious problems. For exOne welfare: a call to develop a broader framework of thought and action