farm animal welfare: a regulatory history dr abigail woods centre for the history of science,...
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Farm animal welfare: a regulatory history
Dr Abigail Woods
Centre for the History of Science, Technology and MedicineImperial College London
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The
governance of FAW
• EU
– Directives– Conventions of the council of europe
• British government– 2006 Animal welfare act – Voluntary codes of practice– FAWC, Animal Health
• Private– farm assurance schemes.
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The British government’s role
Key questions:
• How / why / when did it become involved in regulating farm animal welfare?
• What did it think welfare was?
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Origin stories:The ancient contract
(Rollin)
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Origin stories:The rise of welfare
(Webster)
• 1965 Brambell committee• 1968 Agriculture Act
– Welfare standards– FAWAC– Welfare codes
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Origin stories
• See welfare as a fundamentally new concept, that arose in the 1960s as a result of intensive farming practices, and required new government interventions.
• But all disciplines have their (often historically unsupported) founding myths –– is there any truth in this one?
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A plea for historical continuity:
• The 1968 act and the subsequent welfare codes simply extended to farms the type of measures laid down in earlier legislation for protection of animals in transit.
• Major change did not take place until c1980 (at the earliest).
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i) The legislative picture
• By 1960, farm animals protected by a patchwork of legislation:
1. In public spaces (1822, 1835 1849, 1911)
2. In transit (1869, 1894, 1927, 1950 Acts)
3. At slaughterhouses (1954, 1958)
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• In public spaces:
– Included in broader legislation (1911) to prevent animal cruelty and avoidable suffering
– Responsibility of the Home Office & Local Authorities.
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• In transit:
– Provoked by growth in transport, associated disease spread and humanitarian concerns
– Responsibility of state vets & Local authorities
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ii) Intensification & the animal body• Drive to increase productivity and critique of
practices date from at least the 19thC
• eg urban dairies
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• Eg inter-war ‘progressive’ dairying
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ii) Intensification & the animal body
Q:
• So why did state-led welfare interventions not happen earlier?
A:
• Such practices were seen as ‘bad farming’
• State intervention not considered: nature would restore order, eg by disease.
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ii) Intensification & the animal body
Post-WWII
• New definitions of good and bad farming
• Changing nature of
intensification– Larger scale; indoor – Farm becomes a factory
(or a cattle truck?)
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• P Brassley, ‘Output and technical change in 20th century British Agriculture’, Ag Hist Rev 48 (2000), p62
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ii) Intensification & the animal body
• Post-WWII: new critique
– No longer expect redress from nature
– Farmers are harming nature with aid of science (Carson, Silent Spring, 1962)
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ii) Intensification & the animal body
1964: Harrison’s Animal Machines
• Not the first critique of factory farming; but the first to prompt MAFF action– unemotional tone– attacked MAFF defences. – huge publicity– political pressure.
• Officials look to transit regulations for inspiration
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iii) The concept of welfare
• Pre-1960s, key terms are animal protection, cruelty, suffering and humanity
• Welfare used mainly in relation to ‘welfare societies’
• Use of welfare increases early 60s.
• Enters mainstream following 1964/5 Brambell committee inquiry ‘into the welfare of animals’
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iii) The concept of welfare
What did it mean?
• For Brambell committee:– physical and mental wellbeing
• For MAFF officials, farmers and many vets:– the converse of suffering– a new name for animal protection
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iii) The concept of welfare
• Doesn’t the new legislation / codes implement a new concept of welfare?
• Closely resemble transit regulations & drawn up by the same people (vets).
• MAFF’s legal understanding is that welfare = ‘absence of unnecessary pain or distress’: FAWAC told to work within this definition.
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From animal protection to animal wellbeing
• Driven by Harrison
• institutionalised by FAWC (1979)
• Aided by scientific research (Dawkins)
• Re-iterated by 1980-1 agriculture select committee
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Conclude
• The early history of FAW regulation in Britain amounted to a re-branding exercise:
From the protection of animals in transit….to the promotion of animal welfare.