Behavioral Welfare Research Articles

Self-control failures, as judged by themselves

AbstractThe existence of self-control failures is often used to legitimize public policy interventions. The argument is that reducing self-control failures can make people better off, as judged by themselves. However, there is only scarce evidence on the frequency and welfare costs of self-control failures. This paper presents a survey method that allows us to measure self-control failures in everyday life and to identify their welfare costs in terms of associations with experienced subjective well-being. We present novel survey evidence using this method and discuss its implications for behavioural welfare economics and behavioural public policy.

A field approach to observing changes in behavioural welfare indicators over 2 years in stabled horses

In stabled horses, several behaviours are considered to be important indicators of the state of welfare at the individual level: stereotypies, aggressive behaviours towards humans and the “withdrawn”, alert, sternal, lateral and observation postures. Until now, these behaviours have been extensively studied in relation to different horse management practices. However, little is known about their changes or consistency over time. This study aimed to investigate differences in the expression of these behaviours assessed on 44 stabled horses during an initial 3-month period and then again on the same individuals 2 years later. Out of the six behaviours studied, two showed significant differences between the 2 years with medium effect sizes: the levels of aggressiveness towards humans increased (Wilcoxon signed-rank test: V = 65, P = 0.005) and those of recumbent rest during the day decreased (V = 416, P < 0.001) over time. The results also suggested limited evidence of major changes over time in the expression of stereotypies, the “withdrawn”, alert and observation postures. However, the principal component analyses carried out on all the behaviours showed that alert and observation postures may slightly decrease over time for some individuals. Regarding stereotypies and the “withdrawn” posture, the results mainly suggested a change at the individual level in the expression of these behaviours over time. This study provided new insights into the dynamic nature of several behaviours when the horses' living conditions are not fundamentally altered and raised hypotheses about the state of welfare of stabled individuals over a 2-year period.

Preference of dogs towards feeding toys made of natural rubber, and their potential to improve canine behaviour: A study based on owners' observations

Improper feeding methods can be linked to canine behaviour problems, as the conventional bowl-feeding approach fail to mimic natural behaviour and is associated with obesity. Feeding toys can potentially contribute to the enhancement of dog behaviour by mimicking natural hunting behaviour and promoting increased canine activity. Para rubber is a natural rubber with high flexibility and is tolerant of animal teeth, making it safer for animals compared to plastic and silicone. This study had two main objectives: firstly, to examine dogs' preferences for the scent and colour added to a para rubber toy; and secondly, to explore the impact of using para rubber feeding toys on dog behaviours. The feeding toys were produced from natural rubber, with added scents and colours incorporated during their production. Subsequently, these toys were distributed to dog owners for evaluation. Owners completed the Thai version of the C-BARQ questionnaire, which evaluate canine behaviour both prior to and following a month of interaction with the toys. The findings indicated that dogs exhibited a preference for yellow toys over blue ones, as well as a preference for vanilla-scented toys compared to those with a beef scent. Following one month of consistent use of the para rubber toy, dogs tended to reduce various undesirable behaviours. Notably, excitation behaviour showed a nearly threefold decrease, and this reduction was statistically significant (p = 0.003). These outcomes emphasise the potential of natural rubber feeding toys in mitigating excitation-related behaviours, while also highlighting dogs' preference towards specific colours and scents. Consequently, there is a suggestion that enhancing toys with appealing scents or colours might foster greater interaction between dogs and their toys, potentially leading to a positive influence on their overall behavioural welfare.

Environmental enrichment improves behaviors rather than the growth and physiology of rock bream Oplegnathus fasciatus.

Environmental enrichment has the potential to improve the welfare and post-release survival of hatchery fish stocked for conservation purposes. However, the effectiveness of environmental enrichment is partly dependent on the fish species, life stage, and specific enrichment structure used. To enhance the effectiveness of environmental enrichment, it is crucial to focus on characteristic differences in enrichment structures, such as type and level. This study investigated how differences in enrichment type and level affected physiological and behavioral aspects of the welfare of pre-release juvenile rock bream Oplegnathus fasciatus by evaluating growth performance, basal and stressed cortisol levels, antioxidant enzyme activities, and exploratory behaviors regarding anxiety and flexibility. Fish were reared for 4 weeks in different enrichment treatments: barren, low-level cover structure, high-level cover structure, low-level interference structure (LI), and high-level interference structure (HI). The results revealed that fish reared with the LI treatment showed less anxiety and greater flexibility with respect to exploratory behaviors, without oxidative damage being detected. Despite exhibiting less anxiety as well, fish reared in the HI treatment had oxidative damage, indicated by lower superoxide dismutase activity, compared to those in the barren treatment. In addition, none of these enrichment structures enhanced growth performance or mitigate chronic and acute stress responses. Overall, the low-level interference structure may be more favorable in promoting the behavioral welfare of the fish. Application of this type and level of enrichment may increase the survival of the hatchery fish after release, which is critical to stocking success.

Impact of the Combination of Probiotics and Digital Poultry System on Behavior, Welfare Parameters, and Growth Performance in Broiler Chicken.

Recently, applied technology in the form of the combination of a probiotics and a digital poultry system, with the convergence of Information and Communications Technology and farm animals, has enabled a new strategy to overcome the livestock production crisis caused by climate change, while maintaining sustainable poultry farming in terms of care, feeding, and environmental management systems for poultry. The aim of this study was to investigate the biological mechanisms of animal behavioral welfare and production improvement using the combination of a probiotics and a digital poultry system in broiler chickens. A total of 400 one-day-old male broilers (ROSS 308) were randomly divided into four treatment groups, with five replicates each (20 birds/replicate pen) in a completely randomized design: control group with a conventional poultry system without probiotics (CON), conventional poultry system with 500 ppm of probiotics (CON500), digital poultry control system without probiotics (DPCS), and digital poultry system with 500 ppm of probiotics (DPS500). All experimental animals were reared for 35 days under the same standard environmental conditions. The experimental results indicated that the animal behavioral welfare, which includes drinking, eating, locomotion, grooming, and resting, in addition to foot pads, knee burns, plumage, and gait scores, as well as the growth performance of the broiler chickens, were improved by maintaining immune function and cecal microbiota balance via interaction between the combination of a probiotics and a digital poultry system. In conclusion, it was found that the combined system showed improved broiler growth performance and animal behavioral welfare. Thus, further studies of molecular biological mechanisms by the use of such a combined system to improve the nutritional composition and quality of chicken meats are recommended.

Permissible preference purification: on context-dependent choices and decisive welfare judgements in behavioural welfare economics

ABSTRACT Behavioural welfare economics has lately been challenged on account of its use of the satisfaction of true preferences as a normative criterion. The critique contests what is taken to be an implicit assumption in the literature, namely that true preferences are context-independent. This assumption is considered not only unjustified in the behavioural welfare economics literature but unjustifiable – true preferences are argued to be, at least sometimes, context-dependent. This article explores the implications of this ‘critique of the inner rational agent’. I argue that the critique does not support a wholesale shift away from the use of true preferences as an evaluative standard in normative economics; instead, the critique implies that behavioural welfare economists need to inquire into and establish the ‘source’ of particular context-dependent choices in individuals’ decision-making. The source determines the permissibility of correcting individuals’ context-dependent choices and can, in some situations, support decisive welfare judgements.

Behavioral Welfare Research for the Management of Sanctuary Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Chimp Haven is a sanctuary for chimpanzees retired from biomedical research, rescued from the pet trade, or re-homed after other organizations could no longer care for them. To provide optimal care for over 300 chimpanzees, Chimp Haven's animal care team includes experts in behavioral science, veterinary treatment, and husbandry practices. To aid these teams in making routine welfare management decisions, a system of behavioral metrics provides objective data to guide decisions and track outcomes. Chimp Haven has built and piloted seven behavioral metric protocols over the past 5 years to provide staff with an objective and comprehensive picture of the chimpanzees' behavioral welfare. The data from behavioral observations, staff surveys, and routine staff documentation are analyzed and processed through Google Forms, ZooMonitor, Microsoft Power Bi, Microsoft Excel, and R. Each metric assists staff in making data-based decisions regarding the management of captive chimpanzees related to abnormal behavior, hair loss, wounding, social relationships, positive reinforcement training and overall wellness. In this article, we explore examples of each metric and how they have been utilized to monitor and make decisions for both social groups of chimpanzees as well as individuals. These metrics can be collected and shared easily in an understandable format, which may provide an important framework for others to follow to enable the tracking of welfare for other sanctuaries, non-human primates, as well as other species.

Do you believe in Deep Down? On two conceptions of valuing

In this paper, we explicate an underappreciated distinction between two conceptions of valuing. According to the first conception, which we call the surface-account, valuing something is exclusively a matter of having certain behavioral, cognitive, and emotional dispositions. In contrast, the second conception, which we call the layer-account, posits that valuing is constituted by the presence of certain representational mental states underlying those dispositions. In the first part of the paper, we introduce the distinction in proper detail and show that the accounts have different implications regarding the valuings of agents. In the second part, we situate the accounts within the extant philosophical literature. First, we relate them to the recent debate between so-called dispositionalists and representationalists about the nature of beliefs and point out that this debate can help anticipate some of the main dialectical fault lines to be expected between surface- and layer-theorists. Second, we examine the contemporary meta-ethical debate on conceptualizing valuing, indicate that scholars have largely ignored the distinction introduced here, and outline that this oversight has substantial theoretical costs: as we show, key arguments within the meta-ethical debate require thorough re-evaluation in light of the proposed distinction. The third part of the paper illustrates the theoretical leverage of the distinction for practical research by exploring its implications for behavioral welfare economics.

Fairness for multi-self agents

Are fairness and efficiency compatible in behavioral welfare economics? Assuming multi-self agents, who may not be able to integrate their various objectives into complete and transitive rankings, we call an allocation unambiguously-fair if it fair according to every self of every agent. We show that efficiency is generically compatible with the unambiguous fair-share guarantee, and — in two agent economies — with unambiguous no-envy. But in some larger economies, no efficient allocation satisfies unambiguous no-envy or unambiguous egalitarian equivalence. These non-existence results persist if the agents integrate their objectives into complete but intransitive rankings. Even if unambiguously envy-free Pareto optima exist, they may not arise as market equilibria from equal endowments. Finally, we show that there are Pareto optima with the unambiguous fair-share guarantee that are envy-free for at least one complete and transitive aggregation of the agents' preferences, and others that are egalitarian-equivalent according to at least one such aggregation.

Evaluation of an automated response-independent schedule on the behavioral welfare of shelter dogs.

Response-independent schedules involve the delivery of an item independent of a response requirement. Often described in the applied behavior analytic literature as "noncontingent reinforcement," they have also frequently been used to reduce undesired or problematic behaviors. The current study examined the use of an automated response-independent food schedule on the behaviors and sound levels of shelter dogs. Several dogs were included in a 6-week reversal design, where a fixed-time 1 min schedule was compared with a baseline condition. Eleven behaviors were measured, as were two areas of each kennel and the overall and session sound intensity (dB) that occurred during the study. The results demonstrated that the fixed-time schedule increased overall activity while decreasing inactivity and led to a reduction in the overall sound intensity measured. Session and hour-to-hour sound-intensity data were less clear, suggesting a potential contextual conditioning effect as well as a need for adjusted methods to study shelter sound. The above are discussed in terms of their potential welfare benefits for shelter dogs as well as the translational approach that this and similar research could contribute to the application and functional understanding of response-independent schedules.

Identity, ethics and behavioural welfare economics

AbstractMultiple selves is a conventional assumption in behavioural welfare economics for modelling intrapersonal well-being. Yet an important question is which self has normative authority over others. In this paper, we advance an argument for what we call the ‘ontological approach’ to personal identity in behavioural welfare economics. According to this approach, ethical questions – such as which preference should be granted normative authority over another – can be informed by the ontological criterion of personal persistence, which aims at determining what it takes for an individual to persist from one time to another.

A neglected topos in behavioural normative economics: the opportunity and process aspect of freedom

AbstractRobert Sugden has advanced various critiques of behavioural welfare economics, offering the notion of opportunity as an alternative. We agree with much of Sugden's critique but argue that his approach would benefit from a broadening of the informational base beyond opportunities to include people's concern for decision processes. We follow Amartya Sen in arguing that the process through which choices are made (process freedom) is something individuals care about beyond the availability of choice options (opportunity freedom) as they value a sense of agency. We argue that individuals’ agentic capabilities are crucial for people's process freedom and hence for their sense of agency. In the final section of the paper, we sketch the institutional implications of our argument, i.e. what a joint consideration of opportunities and agentic capabilities means for behavioural public policy.

Effects of enclosure complexity and visitor presence on the welfare of Asiatic lions

In recent years, there has been much research into the individual effects of enclosure complexity and visitor presence on captive animal welfare. However, the inter-linkages between enclosure complexity and visitor presence and their combined influence on the welfare of large carnivores like Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica) remains poorly understood. We compared the welfare status of 41 Asiatic lions housed in three types of enclosure, viz., off-display (N = 17), zoo-safari (N = 4), and on-display (N = 2) at Sakkarbaug zoological park. We scored enclosures based on their species-appropriateness of their design and levels of exposure to visitors. To measure the welfare impacts, we recorded the behaviour patterns of captive Asiatic lions between March 2015-January 2016, spanning 30 observation days per animal. We recorded both positive and negative welfare markers for study subjects, viz., behaviour diversity, spread of participation index, along with measures of stereotypy, and the activity budget of the study subjects. Zoo-safari and off-display enclosures were more feature-rich and species-appropriate than the on-display enclosures. On-display enclosures had significantly higher levels of visitor presence as compared to zoo-safari enclosures, while the off-display enclosures had no visitors. Zoo-safari and off-display enclosures accorded captive Asiatic lions sufficient withdrawal areas, which was unavailable at the on-display enclosures. Subjects housed at off-display and zoo-safari enclosures had similar behaviour patterns and welfare indices (species-typical behaviour diversity, enclosure usage patterns, and aberrant repetitive behaviours). In contrast, the behavioural welfare indices differed significantly across visitor levels in the low-complexity on-display enclosures. Animals housed in high complexity enclosures with minimal (zoo-safari) or no visitor presence (off-display) display overall better levels of positive welfare markers(behaviour diversity and uniform enclosure usage) than animals housed in low complexity enclosures with high visitor presence. Therefore, Asiatic lions housed in poorly designed on-display enclosures do not have access to the complex, feature-rich, large enclosures available to their conspecifics housed in the off-display and zoo-safari enclosures. Our results indicate that enclosure complexity is the most important factor affecting most of the welfare markers recorded in this study, while visitor presence primarily affected enclosure usage. Our findings showcase the importance of enclosure complexity and novelty in preventing and offsetting the repercussions of captivity and visitor presence in Asiatic lions.

The Impacts of Colony Cages on the Welfare of Chickens Farmed for Meat.

There is growing interest in keeping meat chickens in modern colony cages (CCs) rather than conventional litter-floor barns. Suggested welfare improvements for chickens in such systems include reduced bodily lesions due to lower contact with flooring contaminated with faeces and urine, due to slatted flooring and automated faeces removal. This systematic review sought to determine the animal welfare impacts of CCs using slatted flooring, in comparison to litter-based non-cage systems. Overall, 23 relevant studies were retrieved. From one perspective, the extant research appeared mixed. Fifteen (65%) of these 23 studies identified some form of welfare concern about slatted floors, and thus CCs. Yet, when considering actual welfare indicators assessed, the tallies generated in favour of each housing system were similar. Crucially however, there were incomplete behavioural welfare measures in 100% of the empirical studies reviewed. Accordingly, significant welfare concerns exist about CCs, centring around behavioural deprivation. Given that over 70 billion chickens are farmed then slaughtered each year globally, widespread implementation of CCs would create a major animal welfare concern. Instead of implementing such CC systems, research and development is recommended into improving welfare outcomes of conventional litter barns using different forms of commercially feasible enrichment. As a minimum, a full behavioural analysis, as detailed in the Welfare Quality Assessment protocols, should form a mandatory part of any future studies aimed at assessing the welfare impacts of housing systems on farmed chickens.

Our dynamic being within: Smithian challenges to the new paternalism

ABSTRACT This essay uses concepts from Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments to develop ideas about choice and welfare. I use those ideas to offer several challenges to common approaches to behavioral welfare economics and new paternalist policy making. Drawing on Smith’s dialectical concept of practical reason, which he develops in expositing ideas about self-awareness and self-judgment, I first argue that inconsistency need not be viewed as pathological. Inconsistent choices might indicate legitimate context-dependencies as individuals reflect over disjointed perspectives and act accordingly. Understanding inconsistency as reasonable raises epistemic difficulties for identifying errant choices and designing corrective policies. Second, I draw on Smith’s theory of the impartial spectator to discuss dynamic aspects of welfare. Welfare is not simply a matter of preference satisfaction but involves a sense of progress and improvement towards better preferences. Smith’s account suggests that economists interested in welfare should focus on institutional arrangements that facilitate self-development.

Sloth bear’s fecal tale: A gross observation and interpretation of captive sloth bear’s feces to understand the health status

In the wild, Sloth bears possess a wide range of food habits for which fecal consistency and appearance couldn’t be incorporated. However, in captivity, there is a standardized diet formulation concerning their nutritional needs and behavioural welfare. Non-invasive monitoring of fecal samples is paramount to understanding overall health status, including gastrointestinal (GI) disorders, and worm burden etc. Although several studies on scat analysis of sloth bears are available, the gross appearance of feces correlated with health status is largely unexplored. Here we attempted to establish a standardized fecal consistency grading system following the phenotypic appearance of feces cohere with GI health. Our observations revealed the highest prevalence of soft semi-solid feces “always” with no shape and firm and semi-dry feces “often”. Comparisons were made with respect to the dietary factors, fecal consistency, health status, and incidence of any abnormality. The current study's findings build an empirical base to understand gastrointestinal health through gross observation of feces.

The use of behaviourally-active medication in companion animals part 3

Behaviour cases are common in general practice and veterinary nurses can play a vital role in their identification and management. Full behavioural assessment and implementation of a behaviour modification protocol remains essential, but increasingly animals may also be prescribed psychoactive medications. The third part of this article outlines some of the ways in which veterinary nurses can contribute to improving the behavioural welfare of the animals under their care. In addition to being behaviourally aware at all times when handling animals in the veterinary surgery, veterinary nurses can play an important role in identifying those cases that may benefit from additional behavioural support and, where appropriate, behaviourally-active medication. Knowing what to expect when animals are treated with these medications will also ensure that nurses can best support the owners of animals that are undergoing treatment.

Behavioral welfare economics and risk preferences: a Bayesian approach

We propose the use of Bayesian estimation of risk preferences of individuals for applications of behavioral welfare economics to evaluate observed choices that involve risk. Bayesian estimation provides more systematic control of the use of informative priors over inferences about risk preferences for each individual in a sample. We demonstrate that these methods make a difference to the rigorous normative evaluation of decisions in a case study of insurance purchases. We also show that hierarchical Bayesian methods can be used to infer welfare reliably and efficiently even with significantly reduced demands on the number of choices that each subject has to make. Finally, we illustrate the natural use of Bayesian methods in the adaptive evaluation of welfare.

The Importance of Evaluating Positive Welfare Characteristics and Temperament in Working Therapy Dogs.

To date, investigations of the welfare of therapy dogs have focused largely on examining physiological and behavioral measures that could indicate if the animal is experiencing stress or distress. However, this approach does not fully address the definition of welfare which is often described as existing on a continuum from negative (or stressful) to positive. With therapy dogs, it would be worth addressing if they experience positive emotional affect while working since the quality and efficacy of animal-assisted interventions for the human recipient is likely to be influenced by the animal's emotional state during the interaction. The purpose of this review is to articulate how objective measurements of the HPA axis and measurements of behavioral observations and standardized questions can be used to evaluate positive welfare in therapy dogs. A potentially relevant indicator of positive welfare is the peripheral concentration of the neurohormone oxytocin, which has been found to increase in systemic circulation within a variety of species during positive social and affiliative contexts, including during human-dog interaction. Oxytocin is also a negative-feedback regulator of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis, which culminates with the production of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol is widely used as a physiological indicator to assess negative welfare states in animals, including therapy dogs. Observable behavior during interactions with humans that may convey enjoyment could provide indicators of positive welfare in dogs such as engagement in play, or human-directed affiliative behaviors including leaning against, nudging, or licking the patient. However, in assessing positive welfare, it is also critical to consider that all animal behavioral displays and physiological responses are dependent on the dog's individual (and breed) temperament. Temperament directly drives how the animal copes and responds to its current physical and social environment, including during stressful situations such as when therapy dogs interact with unfamiliar humans in novel healthcare settings. Coupled with both positive and negative physiological and behavioral welfare indicators, questionnaire data can provide further context to, and enhance interpretations of, therapy dog welfare assessment results. Overall, to date, no studies have measured all of these factors to assess therapy dog welfare.

What preferences for behavioral welfare economics?

ABSTRACT Behavioral welfare economics (BWE) assigns different roles to preferences than either non-behavioral forms of welfare economics or theories outside of the domain of welfare economics. In particular, BWE differs from other forms of welfare economics in its attempt to distinguish welfare-relevant from welfare-irrelevant subjective attitudes based on some notion of deliberation error. Based on recent arguments for the purpose-dependence of the interpretation of preferences, I argue that a functionalist-dispositional understanding of preference is not sufficient for BWE. Instead, I distinguish two levels of functional analysis – algebraic and algorithmic – and argued that it is the algorithmic level, capturing the relevant mental processes and representations producing the observed behavior, that is required for BWE.