The African Network for Animal Welfare’s vigorous projects are guided by the universally accepted five freedoms of animal welfare. The concept was first formulated in 1965 under the Brambell Report in response to the well-being of farm animals, how they were raised, transported and slaughtered. It stated that animals should have the freedom to stand up, lie down, turn around, groom themselves and stretch their limbs. They were expanded further by the Farm Animal Welfare Council in 1979 to the now known “Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare.” The freedoms presented a golden standard for the care and protection of animals, encompassing both the mental and physical well-being.
What are the five freedoms of animal welfare?
- Freedom from hunger and thirst
By ready access to fresh water and diet to maintain health and vigor - Freedom from discomfort
By providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area - Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease
By prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment - Freedom to Express Normal Behavior
By providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind - Freedom from Fear and Distress
By ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.
With more understanding of animal welfare and technological advances in animal care, the five freedoms of animal welfare were met with criticism. The freedoms were said to completely focus on the negative experiences of animal welfare, a goal that has been unachievable and forgoes the positive experiences. The need to reframe the freedoms of animal welfare led to the formation of their provisions derived from The Five Domains Model. These include:
- Good nutrition: involves the animal’s access to sufficient, balanced, varied, and clean food and water provided specifically to each animal and according to their age, breed, gender and health conditions.
- Good environment: enables comfort through appropriate temperature, substrate, space, weather and suitable noise levels
- Good health: provides actors that enable good health through vaccination, immediate response and treatment to injury, monitoring animals and good fitness levels
- Appropriate behavior: involves factors that provide varied, novel, and engaging environmental challenges through sensory inputs, exploration, foraging, bonding, playing and retreating
- Positive mental experiences: the mental state of the animal is as important as the physical state and should benefit from predominantly positive states, such as pleasure, comfort, or vitality.
ANAW embraces the five freedoms of animal welfare and their provisions, allowing us to fulfil our goal of promoting humane treatment for all animals and arousing interest amongst stakeholders on animal welfare issues, ensuring its adoption as part of the development agenda for governments across Africa.
Reference
David J. Mellor. Updating Animal Welfare Thinking: Moving beyond the “Five Freedoms” towards “A Life Worth Living”. In Animals 2016, 6(3), 21