CONSIDERING ANIMALS Moral Convictions Concerning Animals

CONSIDERING ANIMALS Moral Convictions Concerning Animals

CONSIDERING ANIMALS Moral convictions concerning animals and judgement on the culling of healthy animals in animal disease epidemics Nina Eva Cohen Thesis committee Thesis supervisor Prof.dr. E.N. Stassen Professor of Animals and Society Wageningen University Thesis co-supervisors Prof.dr. F.W.A. Brom Professor of Ethics of Technology Assessment Utrecht University Prof.dr. J.A. Stegeman Professor of Farm Animal Welfare Utrecht University Other members Prof.dr.ir. R.B.M. Huirne Wageningen University Prof.dr. Tj. de Cock Buning VU University, Amsterdam Dr. J.A.A. Swart University of Groningen Prof.dr. J. de Tavernier University of Leuven, Belgium This research was conducted under the auspices of the Graduate School of Wageningen Institute of Animal Sciences (WIAS) CONSIDERING ANIMALS Moral convictions concerning animals and judgement on the culling of healthy animals in animal disease epidemics Nina Eva Cohen Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor at Wageningen University by the authority of the Rector Magnificus Prof. dr. M.J. Kropff in the presence of the Thesis Committee appointed by the Academic Board to be defended in public on Wednesday 17 November 2010 at 4 p.m. in the Aula Nina Eva Cohen Considering animals. Moral convictions concerning animals and judgement on the culling of healthy animals in animal disease epidemics. Met het oog op dieren. Morele overtuigingen over dieren en oordeelsvorming over het ruimen van gezonde dieren in dierziekte epidemieën. Thesis Wageningen University, Wageningen, the Netherlands 2010 With references and summaries in English and Dutch ISBN 978-90-8585-795-2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter one Introduction 1 Chapter two Social-ethical issues concerning the control 13 strategy of animal diseases in the European Union. A survey. Chapter three Keeping backyard animals in The Netherlands. An 35 animal practice described by the nature of the practice and its human-animal relationship. Chapter four Fundamental moral attitudes to animals and their 53 role in judgement. An empirical model to describe fundamental moral attitudes to animals and their role in judgement on the culling of healthy animals during an animal disease epidemic. Chapter five Diversity of convictions about animals in Dutch 77 society, and judgement on the culling of healthy animals in animal disease epidemics. A survey. Chapter six Moral convictions concerning animals and the culling 105 of healthy animals in animal disease epidemics. An empirical survey among farmers and veterinarians. Chapter seven Beyond the prevention of harm: animal disease 133 policy as a moral question. Chapter eight General discussion 149 Chapter nine Samenvatting 177 Summary 180 Training and Supervision Plan 186 Curriculum vitae & Publications 187 Dankwoord 189 Appendix: questionnaire 191 Colophon 194 Introduction 1 2 Introduction Introduction Prevention and control of contagious diseases, such as classical swine fever, foot and mouth disease and highly pathogenic avian influenza, is included into the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the European Union. In the context of liberal trade policy, agreements concerning free traffic had become imperative for international trade in animals and animal products. In 1992 this resulted in an enforcement of stringent regulations for a number of animal diseases. In 1992 the European Union adopted a non-vaccination policy for a number of infectious animal diseases. This entailed no longer vaccinating animals against these diseases. In case of an outbreak, the control strategy was a standstill (movement restrictions) and breeding restrictions, followed by a stamping-out of the epidemic, which is the culling of all infected and healthy but susceptible animals within a radius of 1 to 3 km from the source(s) of the infection. This policy was considered to have two advantages over preventive vaccination. First, a non-vaccination policy was believed to stimulate free market trade of animal and animal products between countries who adopted this policy. Second, calculations indicated that the costs of preventive vaccination would be higher than the costs involved in controlling an epidemic by stamping out the disease. (Berentsen 1991, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen 2002). Accordingly, during each of the recent epidemics in Europe animals were not protected by vaccination, and millions of infected as well as healthy animals were culled in an effort to eradicate the diseases (Mepham 2004 Woods 2004). The financial setback for the individual animal keepers was outweighed by the benefit to the trade position of a country as a whole. This policy was based on knowledge from the early nineties. However, since then, substantial changes have taken place. Agricultural production systems have developed considerably. In The Netherlands this has led to scale enlargement, intensive contact structures over often great distances, and an intensifying of the livestock sector. At the same time, the rural area was changing with an increasing number of livestock animals kept for non-commercial purposes. Poultry, cattle, goats and sheep normally kept for the production of food, were now also kept for company, breeding of special breeds, sport, recreation and therapeutic purposes. As a consequence the spectrum of stakeholders has broadened. Furthermore, more knowledge is available about the diseases and their spreading, about the efficiency of the control policy and about the financial setback after the epidemic, which proved to be larger and more complicated than expected. To distinguish between infected animals and healthy, vaccinated animals, marker vaccines have since been developed. Additionally, the last century has seen a major change in attitude towards animals. Where people once regarded animals from a purely instrumental point of view, now a shift has taken place towards a more protective and respectful attitude. This has resulted in changing views on the proper 3 Chapter 1 treatment of animals during their life, and on acceptable reasons to kill them. Rollin (2007) argues that technological developments, especially the intensification of the livestock sector and animal experimentation, have led to social concern about the treatment of animals. These views he calls the new social ethics. Animal disease epidemics From 1997 on, the European Union faced major outbreaks of foot and mouth disease, highly pathogenic avian influenza (bird flu) and classical swine fever. In the Netherlands there were .outbreaks of classical swine fever in 1997-98, foot and mouth disease in 2001 and highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2003. The United Kingdom suffered a major foot and mouth disease epidemic in 2001, and Italy was confronted with highly pathogenic avian influenza epidemics in 1997-98 and again in 2000. In 2006 classical swine fever was reported in Germany and highly pathogenic avian influenza was identified in several member states. The control policy was in line with the then current EU non-vaccination policy. Therefore, the animals had not been protected by vaccination and in Europe about 50 million infected and healthy animals were culled in the stamping-out strategy. (www.oie.int retrieved November 2007). A large number of reports described these epidemics and the issues involved (Curry 2002) Social and psychological issues The epidemics left a deep impression on those involved; livestock farmers, veterinarians, non-commercial animal keepers and many others, and even on society as a whole. A number of studies in The Netherlands (Van der Berg 2000 Huirne and Mourits 2002 Van Velzen and Dekker 2003 Welboren et al. 2003 Van Haaften and Kersten 2002, in the United Kingdom and in the OIE (Cumbria Foot and Mouth Disease Inquiry Panel 2002 Institute for Health Research OIE 2003) have addressed these issues. The on-farm culling of healthy animals on a large scale, the animal welfare problems, the lack of autonomy on one’s own farm, the severe restrictions on people and animal movement, and the burning pyres in the UK caused major psychological problems. Not only animal keepers, but also veterinarians were involved in the culling. Although the culling was a means to stop the disease from spreading, thus preventing other animals from catching the disease, it still weighed heavily on the latter. They felt the burden of having to cull perfectly healthy animals, which ran contrary to their professional calling to protect and heal animals, for the sake of the animals as well as for the keepers. Animal welfare During the epidemics, the Farm Animal Welfare Council in its report to the British authorities (Farm Animal Welfare Council 2002), the Royal Society for the 4 Introduction Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Laurence 2002) and the Dutch Society for the Protection of Animals (Van den Berg 2002 Nederlandse Vereniging tot Bescherming van Dieren 2004) monitored the animal welfare situation. It was clear that no one was equipped to deal with so many animals to be culled within a very short time, in conditions that were far from ideal. Moreover, handling and culling were sometimes in the hands of unskilled people not accustomed to working under these circumstances. As a result, a number of animal welfare problems occurred, due to the handling, killing, stunning and transport of the animals. Furthermore, movement restrictions led to the death of healthy animals due to overcrowding, causing physical problems in rapidly growing poultry, and aggression and cannibalism in pigs (Crispin 2002). In the Netherlands,

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