MAW 001 SOLVED ASSIGNMENT 2021

 

ASSIGNMENT - 1

Course Code: MAW -001         

                                                                                                      Maximum Marks: 100

Answer all the questions. Each question carries 20 marks

1.     Differentiate between animal welfare and animal sentience. Discuss why should we be concerned about animal welfare?

        

     ANSWER -  Animal welfare: -

The OIE (the animal equivalent of the World Health Organisation) describes animal welfare as: ‘the physical and mental state of an animal with the conditions in which it lives and dies’. Animal welfare is a compound and multi-faceted subject, involving scientific, ethical, economic, traditional, social, religious and political extents It is applicable to live animals and exists on a continuum from very poor to very good instead of being an absolute value. Animal welfare is also understood to be a continuum, rather than an absolute value Here we will deliberate what animal welfare is, and how we can address welfare problems, particularly fixing on the scientific and ethical extents. animal welfare is concerned with how the animal views its own life and practices, how it manages with the environment in which it finds itself and how its class of life is affected. This means that animal welfare concerns are usually directed towards animals believed to be emotional, and so are capable of the cognizant experience of the environment. Animal welfare is the assets of the animal. Hence, the welfare state of an animal can vary from very good to very poor, and all situations in between (very good - good - poor - very poor).

    Animal Sentience: -

Animal Sentience is the ability to feel, recognize, or experience subjectively. In the context of animal welfare, sentience indicates the ability to experience desire and pain. Animals may not recognize everything as we humans do, but have the same requirements for food and water, accommodation, companionship, freedom of movement and anticipation of pain. Here we will deliberate what animal welfare is, and how we can address welfare problems, particularly fixing on the scientific and ethical extents. animal welfare is concerned with how the animal views its own life and practices, how it manages with the environment in which it finds itself and how its class of life is affected. This means that animal welfare concerns are usually directed towards animals believed to be emotional, and so are capable of the cognizant experience of the environment. Animal welfare is the assets of the animal It is usually accepted that humans are sentient but over time there has been a shift in recognizing that other animals are also capable of experiencing diverse emotions. Understanding and recognising animal sentience is essential to help classify the needs of animals and to evaluate their welfare in different environments. For example, animals farmed for food under exhaustive or free-range systems, animals in zoos and circuses or companion animals. This results in greater attention of the mental welfare of animals, an area which is now getting more attention.

 

2.Describe the global variations in animal welfare between continents and countries.

 

ANSWER -Other European nations also passed a regulation, and then in 1976 the Board of Europe (which characterizes nearly every country in Europe) produced the ‘Convention for the Protection of Animals kept for Farming Purposes’. Both systematic works on welfare and regulation continued to increase and today Europe has more laws defending and encouraging welfare than any other part of the world.

Concern for animal welfare is also strong in North America (particularly Canada) and Australasia, apparently because emigration from Europe led to traditional connections. But this is not to say that there are few difficulties for animal welfare in these regions. In the USA there is welfare rule both nationally and in specific states, but most laws do not cover farm animals, and livestock are commonly kept more intensively there than in most other nations.

In South Asia, India has some of the ideal laws and Legal provisions to defend animals. As per the Indian Constitution (Article 51A), it is the important duty of every resident to have kindness for all living individuals. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act is an Act of the Assembly of India passed in 1960 to prevent the infliction of excessive pain or suffering on animals and to modify the laws relating to the prevention of cruelty to animals.

Action on animal welfare, such as scientific study and regulation, in Asia, Africa and South America has so far usually been less. This is partly for social and spiritual reasons and partly for financial motives.

 

Variation between Countries

There is also dissimilarity in animal welfare and activities about it between different nations within regions.

Europe: Awareness in animal welfare fluctuates between European nations. Concern has historically been stronger in the north of Europe, predominantly the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Scandinavia, and weaker in the south reasons are complex. Numerous factors associated with this dissimilarity, including temperature (hotter in the south, which disturbs how animals are kept) and religion (Catholicism is mutual in the south, Protestantism in the north, with many effects on attitudes).

Asia: Asia includes many nations, very diverse, and not surprisingly there is also a discrepancy in attention to animal welfare, and also, prominently, to the morals of killing animals.In Japan, e.g., many families have their own rice paddies, but few rear animals such as ducks that they would have to kill. Moderately a lot of difference is allied with the religions major in different nations.

In India, cattle are retained for milk but are hardly killed, either for meat or for euthanasia. So in India, there are Gaushalas, institutions that look after unfertile, sick or old cattle. Welfare in Gaushalas is occasionally good, sometimes poor.

When animals are killed, the procedures used also vary between nations, with effects on welfare, and this is also affected by culture and belief. As the main example, we have already noted that for food to be established as Halal, animals are usually not stunned before killing, and this is more common in some nations than others.

3.Explain briefly the main frameworks currently used to determine animal welfare requirements.

ANSWER -Selection of an appropriate welfare assessment framework will ensure that all aspects of animal welfare, both positive and negative, are included in an assessment protocol or scheme. A number of frameworks have been developed and are in use for different types of animals. We have previously discussed these in earlier units, so this section will recap and highlight the important points. The Five Freedoms clearly defines the five areas we need to consider in assessing welfare, emphasising that we need to ensure that animals do not experience hunger, thirst, discomfort, pain, injury, disease, fear or distress and that they can display normal behaviour. However, this does not easily direct us to the types of measures that we should be making in order to do this. Many of these emotions, such as fear or distress, might be elicited by many different challenges and determining their presence or absence can be quite demanding. For this reason, when this is used in practice, other methods have been proposed to define animal welfare more explicitly to allow its assessment.

The Five Domains model has been used to assess risks to welfare for animals used in research and teaching, and more recently also applied in other contexts. The initial aim of this model was to categorise the negative aspects of the physical environment of the animal, and from there to infer the mental state, and thus the welfare status of the animal. The physical components of animal welfare that could be directly measured or assessed included:

·       Nutrition - whether the animal was deprived of food or water, or fed a diet that was not adequately balanced (resulting in malnutrition)

·       Environmental challenge – whether the animal was subject to high or low temperatures for example, or some other issue in its environment

·       Health – whether the animal was injured or diseased, or had some other functional impairment

·       Behaviour – whether the animal was restricted in its ability to perform some behaviours or interactions with other animals of its species.

 Although this initially focused only on negative aspects of animal welfare, more recently this has been expanded to consider opportunities in the physical components to allow for positive mental states as well. This then becomes more comprehensive in its assessment of animal welfare.

4.What do you understand by the term ‘animal welfare assessment’? Describe the resource based animal welfare assessment measures with advantages and limitations.

ANSWER -Animal welfare assessment can provide evidence of the welfare state of an animal, group of animals or a management system, either on a single day and time, or repeatedly over time. Why might we want to have this information? As we have discussed previously, and will continue to consider in later Units, we have a moral or ethical duty to ensure that animals in our care are properly looked after. Animal welfare assessment is a way of investigating whether animals are being properly cared for, and providing evidence for the current welfare state of the animals. Animal welfare assessment also provides a means of checking progress in improving animal welfare, for example as a result of changing management. Animal welfare assessment may also be carried out by the owner or keeper of the animals. This may be on a more ad hoc basis than a formal assessment, but may occur much more frequently than an official inspection. This can be considered as part of the normal care and husbandry of animals, in checking that the animals appear to be coping well and are not in need of additional or specialist treatment. However, there is a risk that the system can become ‘normalised’ in that the keeper fails to notice poor welfare if this occurs all the time, so does not appear to be an issue. It may also be that the focus is on the basic needs of animals, the provision of food, water and veterinary care, and the other aspects of animal welfare are ignored or forgotten. Having a systematic process of assessment against a standardised scheme can ensure that welfare state is continually assessed in the same way.

1)The care of some animals, such as animals in farms and zoos or those used in research or education, may be covered by regulations or legislation at different levels:

a) National standards

b) Regional standards

c) International standards

      2) Failure to meet standards can lead to sanctions such as an inability to export products to    particular countries or regions.

 3) In order to ensure compliance with these regulations there needs to a system of checking that animal welfare has met particular standards in a way that is fair and impartial, and considers the same measures or characteristics, regardless of where the animal lives.

4) Using a defined scheme of welfare assessment can allow this monitoring in a way that allows different facilities to be considered in the same way.

5) Particular animal welfare standards may be applied by a retailer (for food animals) or some other accreditation or certification body.

6) Often membership of these bodies will be voluntary, for example a zoo may choose to become a member of the World Association of Zoos and Aquaria (WAZA). However, for food animals it may be important for a farmer to be accredited, or a member of a group or scheme, to allow access to a particular market.

7) Some schemes also can charge a premium price for their products so membership can have significant financial advantages. In becoming a member, preferred supplier or being accredited there is a need to abide by the guidelines, rules or regulations of the scheme or body

5. What is deontology ethical theory? How is the deontological ethical view different from consequentialism?

ANSWER -Consequentialism and Deontological theories are two of the main theories in ethics. However, consequentialism focuses on judging the moral worth of the results of the actions and deontological ethics focuses on judging the actions themselves. 

Consequentialism focuses on the consequences or results of an action. One of the most well known forms of consequentialism is utilitarianism which was first proposed by Jeremy Bentham and his mentee J.S. Mill. This is about comparing the utility of the consequences of an action. J.S. Mill proposes this as "the greatest happiness for the greatest number"  as the guiding principle within utilitarianism. Some have argued that this is flawed as it does not allow for one to be able to follow certain moral rules and it concentrates too much on the ends rather than the means. Deontological ethics focuses on how actions follow certain moral rules. So, the action is judged rather than the consequences of the action. The biggest proponent of deontological ethics was Immanuel Kant who said that moral rules should be adhered to if universalising the opposite would make an impossible world. So, "Do not steal" is a rule because if everyone stole as a rule, there would be no concept of private property. Some have argued that deontological ethics is flawed as it is too absolutist - it says that some actions are always good or always bad without any judgement of the context of the action. Deontology is a normative ethical theory that focuses on the rightness or wrongness of actions themselves, instead of focusing its consequences or any other considerations. We sometimes describe this theory as duty-, rule-, or obligation-based. In fact, the name ‘deontological’ originated from the Greek word deon, which refers to duty. Thus, this theory simply requires people to follow rules and do their duty. In short, deontology is a non-consequential theory since the goodness or badness of an action in this theory does not depend on its consequences.Deontology is associated with philosopher Immanuel Kant, who believed that ethical actions follow universal moral laws. Universal moral laws here refers to rules such as don’t kill, don’t lie, don’t steal. According to this theory, people have to do the right action, even if it brings bad results. For example, imagine you have received a gift from a friend, but you hate this gift. Your friend wants to know whether you like the gift. You believe that lying is a bad action, no matter the results; therefore, you would tell that you hate it even if you are hurting your friend. Here, you are demonstrating a deontological position as you are disregarding the possible consequences of your actions when determining what is right and what is wrong.

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