Animal welfare and ethics update

Welfare and ethics UPDATE

Virginia Williams, for MPI and the NZVA, provides an update on welfare and ethics.

TAIL DOCKING IN LAMBS

The British Veterinary Association (BVA) has updated its policy on animal welfare at slaughter. The policy states:

“Slaughter is the final event in a farm animal’s life. The following principles must be observed if slaughter is to be humane with minimal pain, suffering and distress: » All personnel involved with slaughter must be trained, competent and caring; » Only those animals that are fit should be caught [or penned], loaded and transported to the slaughter site; » Any handling of animals prior

to slaughter must be done with consideration for the animals’ welfare; » In the slaughter facility only equipment that is fit for the purpose must be used; » Prior to slaughter of an animal, either it must be rendered unconscious and insensible to pain instantaneously or unconsciousness must be induced without pain or distress; » Animals must not recover consciousness [before] death ensues”. In addition, the BVA has developed 67 recommendations to build on these principles and improve welfare at slaughter. The new policy was A Chilean study comparing 10 tail-docked lambs (docked using hot-iron cautery) with undocked lambs found – unsurprisingly – lower mechanical nociceptive thresholds in the docked lambs (Larrondo et al., 2019). In addition, traumatic neuroma formation was found in two of the docked lambs and neuromatous tissue development in six. This led the authors to conclude that tail docking by hot-iron cautery induces acute and chronic pain in lambs, initially through inflammation and then via longterm hyperalgesia and traumatic neuroma formation, with chronic, negative implications for their animal welfare.

This work built on earlier studies proposing that pain from tail docking was likely to continue for some time after pain relief ceased to be effective, and that docked lambs may be more sensitive to pain throughout their lives.

REFERENCE: Larrondo C, Bustamante H, Paredes

E, Gallo C. Long-term hyperalgesia and traumatic neuroma formation in tail-docked lambs. Animal Welfare 28, 443–54, 2019 doi:

WELFARE AT SLAUGHTER

10.7120/09627286.28.4.443 announced ahead of an upcoming Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs review of England’s Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing regulations.

The NZVA does not have specific policies for welfare at slaughter, but the Code of Welfare for Commercial Slaughter has detailed requirements to ensure the welfare of animals at slaughter plants.

The updated BVA policy can be found at www.bva.co.uk/media/3665/

executive-summary-bva-positionon-the-welfare-of-animals-atslaughter.pdf.

WINTER GRAZING

New Zealand’s Winter Grazing Action Group has responded to farmers’ requests by publishing a guidance document that describes and helps them meet expectations developed by the Winter Grazing Taskforce in 2019.

The release of the guidance was timed to support farmers’ preparation for winter 2021. It helps them to understand what they’re doing well, highlights opportunities for improvements and supports planning and winter grazing management. It covers seven expected ‘Short Term Outcomes for Animal Welfare’: » We ensure our animals give birth in the right environment. » We are prepared for all weather conditions. » Our animals can easily access acceptable drinking water. » We plan for successful winter feeding. » Our animals can lie down comfortably. » We work together to provide care to our animals during winter. » We find opportunities to improve. The guidance is available on the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI’s) website at www.agriculture.govt.nz/dmsdocument/41683-Short-

term-expected-outcomes-for-animal-welfare.

QUOTE

“We patronise the animals for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they are more finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”

– HENRY BESTON (AMERICAN WRITER AND NATURALIST), THE OUTERMOST HOUSE, 1928 REPORT ON NATIONAL CAT MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

New Zealand’s National Cat Management Strategy Group was formed in November 2014 to develop an overarching strategy for responsible, compassionate and humane cat management in New Zealand. The group consists of representatives from national organisations with an interest in cat management: Local Government New Zealand; the Morgan Foundation; Companion Animals New Zealand (CANZ); the NZVA; the NZVA’s Companion Animal Veterinarians special interest branch; and SPCA. MPI is an observatory member and the Department of Conservation a technical advisory member of the group.

In August this year the group published its updated, second report. In the interests of ensuring effective and humane cat management, its recommendations included: » acknowledgement that all cats are sentient » the responsible ownership of cats » the integration of best-practice management for all cats » community education programmes on the positive and negative impacts of cats » the protection of sensitive wildlife areas from cats » stray cat management » the establishment of a national cat management advisory committee and local management advisory groups » consistent legislation and commitment from

Government around cat management. The updated report can be found on the CANZ website at www.companionanimals.nz/

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