What Is Animal Welfare?

Abstract

AbstractThe two main reasons it has been so difficult to arrive at an agreed definition of animal welfare are the ‘complexity problem’ (so many different measures of welfare now available) and the ‘consciousness problem’ (conscious experience is itself so difficult to define). There is, however, a relatively simple definition of welfare that provides a solution to both of these problems. Defining animal welfare as ‘health and animals having what they want’ can be easily understood by scientists and non-scientists alike, expresses in simple words what many existing definitions are trying to say anyway and provides the ‘valence’ needed to validate the long list of welfare measures we now have available. Above all, it shows what evidence we need to collect to improve animal welfare in practice.