Animal Welfare Science Update Issue 61 – July 2018
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
ANIMAL WELFARE SCIENCE UPDATE ISSUE 61 – JULY 2018 The aim of the animal welfare science update is to keep you informed of developments in animal welfare science relating to the work of the RSPCA. The update provides summaries of the most relevant scientific papers and reports received by the RSPCA Australia office in the past quarter. Email [email protected] to subscribe. ANIMALS USED FOR SPORT, ENTERTAINMENT, RECREATION AND WORK Working horse welfare is better when horse owners are empathetic and perceptive to equine pain Working equids provide vital support and transport The higher the score, the poorer the welfare status for over 600 million people in poor or marginalised of the horse. The results of the empathy scales, the communities. The welfare of working equids is pain perception results, and the welfare status of the typically poor, and this has been attributed to the horse were then correlated to determine whether limited knowledge and resources available to working relationships existed between these factors. horse owners. However, recent research found no relationship between working horse welfare and Contrary to previous research, the majority (84%) of the social vulnerability of their owners, with other working horses assessed had adequate welfare and factors possibly involved. These include the degree of responded in a friendly manner to the owner and the empathy that horse owners experience, which may observer. The main health problem found was hoof motivate them to act altruistically, and their ability to abnormalities, which is likely due to owners performing perceive pain in their horse. This study investigated farriery without formal training. Skin lesions were the relationship between horse owner empathy, their also common, due to poor fitting equipment (e.g. ability to perceive equine pain, and the welfare status harnesses). Most of the horse owners had high levels of their horse. of empathy toward humans and animals, and a high perception of equine pain. A high degree of empathy A total of 100 working horse owners in Chile were and equine pain perception was correlated with better interviewed to determine their degree of human- horse welfare, and empathy toward animals explained human empathy and human-animal empathy. 60% of the variation in horse welfare score. Promoting Equine pain perception was assessed by providing the development of empathy in working horse owners the participants with photos of horses suffering from may improve working horse welfare. different conditions, and asking them to rate the intensity of pain that the horse in each photo was Luna D, Vásquez RA, Yáñez JM et al (2018) The relationship between working horse welfare state and their owners’ experiencing. The welfare status of the participant’s empathy level and perception of equine pain. Animal Welfare horse was then assessed using behavioural and 27:115-123. physical measures to produce a welfare index score. 2 RSPCA AUSTRALIA SCIENCE UPDATE – ISSUE 61 – JULY 2018 SCIENCE UPDATE Who wants whipping and who would walk away if whipping horses was banned? Recent research has shown that whipping horses of people who supported whip use and would cease during races does not improve their speed or gambling if whip use was banned in terms of their placement at the finishing line, and in fact may be age, gender, household income level, and frequency of detrimental to their performance. This raises the attending horse races. question of whether whipping during horse races should continue. Whip use has been cited as a means Horse racing enthusiasts who supported the use of of improving jockey safety by aiding steering, but whips were significantly more likely to be male. The jockey behaviour during races does not support this more frequently that respondents attended races stance, and the continued support of whip use by the or gambled on them, the more likely they were to racing industry is contentious. A recent survey of public support whip use. People with the lowest household attitudes toward whip use found that the majority of income were the most likely to state that they would respondents (87%), but not all, would continue to stop attending races or gambling on them if whip use watch horse racing if whip use was banned. This study was banned. The authors suggest that this view may examined the characteristics of those respondents be related to the belief that a horse that has not been that supported the use of whips and who would stop whipped may not race at its highest capacity, and gambling if whipping was banned. thus the race may not be ‘fair’ in terms of gambling outcomes. Racing organisations may find the results Data were extracted from the previous survey of public of this study useful when considering the merits of attitudes toward whip use in Australia. This survey continuing whip use in horse racing. comprised 1533 respondents, of whom 384 supported whip use with 107 stating that they would cease McGreevy PD, Griffiths MD, Ascione FR et al (2018) Flogging tired horses: Who wants whipping and who would walk watching or betting on horse races if whip use were away if whipping horses were withheld? PLOS One 13: banned. Demographic data that had been collected e0192843. concurrently was then used to characterise this subset Using the Five Domains model to assess the impacts of common interventions on horse welfare Horses are exposed to a wide range of anthropogenic severity of the intervention on horse welfare using interventions for a variety of reasons, such as training a scale of 1-10. During the four-day workshop the procedures, medical procedures, and concentrated panellists discussed each intervention in detail, and diets. The impact of these interventions on horse used an adapted version of the Five Domains model welfare can be assessed using a suite of behavioural to again rate the impact of each intervention on horse and physiological measures, however these are time welfare. The pre- and post-workshop scores allocated consuming and costly to apply. There is also no single to each intervention were compiled and compared. measure of horse welfare available. One option for assessing horse welfare is to make use of expert The most severe impacts within each of the 14 opinion. This study examined how a panel of specialist categories were identified. For example, housing equine experts could apply their knowledge to assess horses in isolation or using restrictive equipment horse welfare using the Five Domains model. such as anti-cribbing collars or excessively tightened nosebands were considered to have substantial A panel of 16 equine-related professionals was impacts on horse welfare. Generally, the nutritional convened in Australia for a four-day workshop interventions were considered to have less impact on to discuss and rate horse welfare in a variety of welfare than the behavioural restrictions. Topics were situations. The expertise of the panel included a also identified that require further research before range of backgrounds such as equitation science, assessment could be made. It was concluded that veterinary science, and equestrian coaching. Prior to general horse welfare could be assessed using the Five the workshop, each panellist was asked to submit a Domains model. comprehensive list of all interventions that they knew of that were applied to horses. The resulting list of McGreevy P, Berger J, de Brauwere N et al (2018) Using the Five Domains model to assess the adverse impacts of 116 interventions was grouped into 14 categories, husbandry, veterinary and equitation interventions on horse such as weaning, diet, housing, training, veterinary welfare. Animals 8,41. interventions etc, and each panellist ranked the 3 Reducing whip use in harness racing was not associated with a decrease in horse speed In harness racing in Australia, whips are traditionally Despite concerns that tightening the whip regulations used in training and racing to improve performance might reduce performance, none of the analyses and maintain control of the horse. Whip use in horse revealed any significant reduction in either fast or racing is a contentious topic due to the potential to medium winning times following the tightening of cause pain, and in 2010 Harness Racing Australia whip use regulations. In fact, the winning times of made amendments to its whip rules so that horses harness race horses were more likely to be fast (<1.55 were struck with less force. This was imposed by mins) following introduction of these regulations. requiring drivers to hold a rein in each hand at This result may be partly due to the improvements all times, allowing the drivers to make a flicking that were made to some of the racing tracks during motion with the whip but not a striking motion. This the 9-year record period, however the authors argue amendment was later removed for drivers during the that if this is the case then changes to whip rules are last 200m of a race, and reimposed again in 2016. This insubstantial in comparison to the benefits that can be study examined whether reducing the severity of whip achieved by improving track surfaces. Previous research use caused horses to run slower in harness races. has shown that whipping horses has no impact on their speed, and the results of the current study The winning times of 133,338 harness races from question the need for the whip as a performance aid 2007 – 2016 were supplied by Harness Racing in harness racing. Australia. These winning times were classified as either slow (>2.00 mins), medium (1.55 – 2.00 mins) or Wilson B, Jones B, McGreevy P (2018) Longitudinal trends fast (<1.55 mins), and winning speed was compared in the frequency of medium and fast race winning times before and after the introduction of the more stringent in Australian harness racing: Relationships with rules moderating whip use.