WBI Studies Repository (WellBeing International)
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Modernizing Medical Research to Benefit People and Animals
Get PDFIn the context of widespread public and political concern around the use of animals in research, we sought to examine the scientific, ethical, and economic arguments around the replacement of animals with New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) and to situate this within a regulatory context. We also analyzed the extent to which animal replacement aligns with British public and policymakers’ priorities and explored global progress towards this outcome. The global context is especially relevant given the international nature of regulatory guidance on the safety testing of new medicines. We used a range of evidence to analyze this area, including scientific papers; expert economic analysis; public opinion polls and the Hansard of the UK Parliament. We found evidence indicating that replacing animals with NAMs would benefit animal welfare, public health and the economy. The majority of the British public is in favor of efforts to replace animals and focusing on this area would help to support the British Government’s current policy priorities. We believe that this evidence underlines the need for strong action from policymakers to accelerate the transition from animal experiments to NAMs. The specific measure we suggest is to introduce a new ministerial to coordinate and accelerate the replacement of animals with NAMs
Pet Dog Supply and Demand in the United States
Get PDFTo the surprise of many animal advocates, discussions are taking place this year on whether there may be too few dogs to support demand in the US. The campaign that began in the 1970s to reduce dog over-supply has been very successful. In 1973, approximately 7 million dogs were euthanized in shelters when the pet dog population was around35 million. In 2021, 300,000 dogs were euthanized in animal shelters, but the pet dog population had grown to somewhere between 65 and 90 million, depending on which survey is consulted. Although 300,000 is still too many dogs, it represents more than a 95% reduction in the euthanasia of shelter dogs
Doughnut Economics - Incorporating Animal Welfare
Get PDFDoughnut Economics is a ground-breaking system developed to change an outdated development paradigm based on endless economic growth, as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), replacing this by a new paradigm that is fit for the 21st century context and challenges, and which meets the needs of all people within the means of the living planet.
Doughnut Economics provides an excellent model for charting our post-COVID-19 economics future. We have only one cause for concern. Among its 21 planetary boundaries and societal objectives there is currently no room for animal well-being. COVID-19 has taught us that ignoring how we treat animals is dangerous (as well as unethical). Accordingly, we make the case for the addition of animal welfare/animal issues to Doughnut Economics, as set out in our paper
The UN-iversalization of Animal Welfare Law
Get PDFAdvancing the protection of animal beings is becoming a universal mission in this early twenty-first century. A few years ago, animal welfare was knocking at the door of the United Nations (UN). Today, it is entering this door. Animal lawyers and protectionists are working to support the full inclusion of animal welfare concerns into the agenda of the UN and its organizations, and to create a new UN-iversal regime. The protection of animal beings, long a missing piece of the international law puzzle, seems likely soon to take its place as a UN objective, alongside protection of human beings and the environment.
In this paper, the evolution of animal welfare law from the national level to the UN level is traced (2). The evidence that the subject is of growing interest and concern at the UN is briefly reviewed (3) until showing that animal welfare is becoming a new UN objective (4). Overall, the case is made that animal welfare law is UN-iversalizing
What You Didn’t Know About Having a Pandemic Pet
Get PDFSurveys show that most pet owners are convinced that living with companion animals improves their mental health and psychological well-being. However, many research reports have found that the mental health of pet owners is not measurably better than that of people without a pet. The isolation and stress associated with COVID lockdowns afforded investigators an opportunity to test this pet effect paradox. Contrary to conventional wisdom, a large majority of studies found pets have little or no impact on human mental health during pandemics
No need for certainty in animal sentience
Get PDFThis commentary supports Crump et al.’s (2022) point that where risks to welfare are severe, strong evidence of sentience is sufficient to warrant protecting welfare. Crump et al.’s eight criteria for sentience are also useful. Flexible decision-making (5) and flexible behaviour (6) are consistent with Ng (1995). The concession that the “no-need-for-sentience” proposition is unnecessary also strengthens the importance of the target article’s conclusions
Pain sentience criteria and their grading
Get PDFOn the basis of the target article by Crump and colleagues, we suggest a more parsimonious scheme for evaluating the evidence for sentience. Since some of the criteria used by Crump et al. are not independent and some are uninformative we exclude some criteria and amalgamate others. We propose that evidence of flexible learning and prioritization, in conjunction with relevant data on brain organization, is sufficient for assigning pain-sentience to an animal and we suggest a scoring scheme based on four criteria
Strong inferences about pain in invertebrates require stronger evidence
Get PDFEvidence for sentience in animals distantly related to humans is often sought in observations of behavioral and neural responses to noxious stimuli that would be painful in humans. Most proposed criteria for painful sentience in “lower” animals such as decapod crustaceans have no necessary links to the affective (“suffering”) component of pain. The best evidence for painful affect in animals is learned aversion to stimuli associated with noxious experience, and conditioned preference for contexts associated with relief from aversive consequences of noxious experience, as expressed in voluntary behavior. Such evidence is currently lacking for any invertebrate except octopus
The reality and prevalence of animal sentience
Get PDFRowan et al use findings from neurobiology, clinical neurology, and general biology to argue for the extensive presence of sentience in animals, but they are wisely cautious concerning when in the phylogenetic scale that emergence occurred
Saving Tigers in America: Part 3
No full textThe last of the series on captive tigers in America reports on the closure of three problem facilities and argues that the captive tiger situation is beginning to improve