Good evening everyone and welcome to tonight's webinar with the webinar vet in partnership with Vet Sustain. We're delighted to be joined by two experts in their field this evening to discuss animal welfare in sustainable development. My name is Laura Hyam, and I'm the director, or a director of Vet Sustain, the organisation championing sustainability in the veterinary professions.
So our two fantastic speakers tonight are Sean Wensley and Andy Butterworth. Really grateful to you both tonight for sharing your expertise, with us. So going on just to your, your career histories, Sean Wensley is a senior veterinary surgeon for communication and education at the UK veterinary charity, the PDSA, and is a director atet Sustain.
Holding a master's degree in animal, in applied animal behaviour and animal welfare, he has contributed to welfare and conservation projects internationally. And has lecturing responsibilities at Nottingham University and Queen's University of Belfast. He chairs the Animal Welfare Working Group of the Federation of Veterinarians in Europe and was president of the BVA from 2015 to 2016.
He's a fellow of the RCVS and in 2017, Sean received the world's first World Veterinary Association Global Animal Welfare Award for Europe. Our second speaker tonight is Andy Butterworth. Andy is director of Welfare Max with 27 years of experience in veterinary practise, applied research, and international consultancy in farm and managed animal welfare.
He's involved in standard development, consultancy, and welfare training for farmers, vets, academics, government and industry all over the world. And he was a reader in animal science and policy at Bristol Vet School and now works at national and international level on animal production, animal ethics, animal use and abuse issues, and animal welfare assessment systems. He is a member of the DFA Animal Welfare Committee and is a member of the Council of Management of British Poultry Science and was also a member of the EFSA Animal Health and Welfare Panel until 2018.
In a session, Andy will draw on information in his recent book, Animal Welfare in a Changing World. So thanks ever so much again for the two of you for, for sharing your evening with us. And just a bit of housekeeping before we, before we start.
As you go, please do feel free to use the chat box, to speak to us during the presentations, and, pop your questions in the Q&A box, as we go. And then at the end, I will share a Q&A session with, with Sean and Andy. So yeah, thanks very much everybody for joining tonight.
Over to you, Sean. Thanks very much, Laura. Thanks everyone.
It's my privilege to be, able to take this opportunity alongside you both, your colleagues that I've looked up to for, for many years. So this is a, a fantastic slot for me. Thank you.
I'm gonna take a policy perspective on the topic and consider some examples where policy is driving positive action, on animal welfare and sustainability. So I'd like to take some initial time to just reflect on the the direction of travel of animal welfare globally, it's emergence as a, a, a global topic of, of mainstream debate and concern. Then similarly, do, do that with sustainability, which of course has become thankfully and eventually some, many would say, front and centre.
And I'm going to do that . Looking to consider whether the two, whether opportunities to bring the two together perhaps more closely, see where they intersect. And I'm going to be particularly looking at it from the perspective of the, the veterinary and veterinary nursing professions.
As Laura mentioned, I, with Laura and, a director at Vet Sustaining, so we're looking to help the veterinary professions become a leading force for, sustainability in society. And that's really exciting and contemporary. And I will draw on experience from the, from recent years.
So just until this year, concluding this year, I've been a member of BVA council for 6 years, including, as Laura mentioned, aspell as president in 2015. I'm currently chairing FEE's Animal Welfare Working Group, and it's to remind you really, I'm keen to remind you that when I do mention both of those organisations, the, the representative bodies, the nat the national representative body for the UK and the representative body for the profession in Europe, making representations to the European institutions and citizens. And so we consult widely and deeply.
So some of what I say will inevitably draw on personal views, personal experience, but when I mention these two organisations, they they are representative views of of a wide body of vets after consultation. So to go to animal welfare first and then onto veterinary responsibilities. I think it's just reminding ourselves that sentience is the foundation of, of animal welfare concern, that being the capacity to feel things and to consciously experience feelings like hunger, thirst, pleasure, pain, and that we can consider ourselves, can't we, as.
Vehicles for animal sentience, if you like, once that that machinery is established to be present and there's a widespread global consensus that it is present in the many, many of the animals that we use for our benefit and that we impact in the wild. That that is consistent across taxa and groups, be they mammals, birds, reptiles, fish. Animal sentience is, is well established, well accepted, and increasingly better understood and and and researched, albeit that of course, consciousness and these questions of animal sentience remain some of the the the greatest problems and mysteries in biology.
But for our practical purposes, the the animals that we are concerned about are sentient. And so that's, that is a fundamental importance because it's the, it's the, the morally relevant basis upon which animal welfare concern rests. If we are persuaded that these species are sentient, then we have to account for that and consider it when we're thinking about using them or when we're assessing our impacts on them.
And I think in, in broad brush terms. The way we act on that concern can be divided into affording animals' rights or taking an animal welfare perspective of the world. In the former, we may argue for abolition and say that animals have a right not to be used and exploited by people.
Whereas through the animal welfare lens, we say that it can be acceptable to use animals for human benefit, so long as we account for their welfare and provide for their good welfare. That being their physical health, both their physical health and their mental wellbeing. Which may be articulated, in frameworks such as the, the five welfare needs, and I, I picked those, thinking about a UK audience in particular because they're shrined, enshrined in our animal welfare legislation.
So, we need to be providing them with a suitable environment, suitable diet, companionship, opportunities to behave normally and to have, good, good health. Another way of articulating that animal welfare duty is to give them simply a good life and a humane death. And I think, again, as I say, that's, that's a broadly shared view across citizens, certainly across Europe and other parts of the world, and I think it's the, it's fair to say it's the prevailing view of veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses, that this is what we need to achieve.
So then separately we can consider the areas that we in which we use animals for human benefit. And these would be some of the most common ones. We farm them, we have them as our much loved companions and family members.
We use them in sports and entertainment and research and we impact on them in the wild, and indeed maintain captive collections of, of wild animals as well. And I, and, and in each of those areas of animal use, I think most of us, attending this evening will be able to think of examples where one or more of those needs, if we take that needs-based approach, aren't, aren't met, and we can describe those as welfare problems and welfare challenges and things that in achieving our, our side of the ethical bargain with animals, we would seek to resolve to ensure that they then do have a good life and a humane death. And a final note, just there, I think in a, in a sense the, we, we don't lose the possibility of abolition.
So it may be the case where we decide that. A certain way of keeping using animals is, is so incompatible with this notion of a good life and humane death, or we judge it to be unethical or unethical representation of, of animals and animal use that collectively we decide it, it's actually no longer has a place in society. And I've given the example there of performing wild animals in travelling circuses, which both BVA and FVA have, are opposed to.
And have stated their opposition to. So next, then just building on that, having captured what we're talking about in terms of animal welfare, then thinking about veterinary responsibilities as they as they pertain to animal welfare and ethics. This is taken from the, the Vet Futures project, which was jointly driven by both BVA and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, so it can be taken as a consensus statement from them.
And I've, and that's to say that enhancing, protecting and securing the health and welfare of animals is the fundamental purpose of the veterinary and veterinary nursing professions. And when we explored that and sought to build build a policy agenda around that at BVA, a few years ago and continuing now, we launched our animal welfare strategy, that's Speak up for animal welfare in 2016. And amongst other things, that talks about our dual responsibility.
So on the one hand, we seek to prioritise animals' interests when we have animals under our care that we're treating and providing veterinary services to as individuals I've illustrated there on the left. But concurrently, we have a duty to advocate their best interests at a broader societal level, so it's not sufficient, it's necessary but not sufficient to to only advocate for their interests at the individual patient practitioner interface. But when we are aware of root causes to certain problems that we see commonly, or we become aware of, of problematic uses of animals in society, then we all have, also have a duty as our as our collective professions to, to speak up and and advocate on that.
And that. The the figure there is to represent that we have an opportunity to do that particularly as practises, veterinary practises in our communities, be that through newsletters or social media or practise posters, waiting room material, and so on, and there's associations, the, the bodies that that represent us. And clearly they link back to the individual because they rely on members and members feeding into policy and and sharing their grassroots experience of some of these problems.
So that all fits together nicely. I've just flashed up the, the logos of the World organisation for Animal Health and the World Veterinary Association, who in recent years have also articulated, this, this sense of a dual duty and our, the importance of our role in, in broader advocacy. And then just to go back to Vet Futures, that notion is stated also very clearly in that in that document and then the subsequent action plan.
So we're clear about our duty to champion animal welfare more broadly across society beyond the bounds of animals under our direct care. I think some poster boys from recent times, of that, societal level advocacy, challenging the status quo, have been the, the high profile campaigns to improve the health of brachycephalic, dogs and other animals and the problems arising from selective breeding, and also, the campaign that lots of you will be aware of, to, to challenge. The practise of non-stun slaughter, slaughter without pre-stunning.
Of course we enter those debates recognising that they're politically and culturally and sensitive, but we can be clear as we walk into them that we are animal welfare focused professionals and we have a legitimate claim to be commenting because of that. And I know Andy, I think, is gonna talk more about this issue of non stunning without slaughter without pre-stunning, sorry, later on. And perhaps on a way of describing our overall primary aim, if we're looking to, to challenge all these problems is to help make the world a better place for animals.
The, the overall primary aim of the veterinary professions is to help make the world a better place for animals. And then thirdly, sustainability and what it is and is talking about. I find it most helpful to go right back to basics and think about.
Our, jewel of a planet drifting through time and space, with the limited and finite resources that it has, for space and energy and everything else. And we marry that with the, the human population graph on the right. Recognising that we're on this exponential trajectory, just approaching around 8 billion of us at the moment, and predicted to reach and potentially plateau at 9 to 10 billion, around 2050 or so.
And that clearly presents some problems that are are are well recognised. We are numerically successful in some ways we've liberated ourselves from the shackles of nature, haven't we, with our medicine and our agriculture, but it's, we also have. Perhaps uniquely foresight, so an ability to look ahead as a species and see what the likely consequences of our actions are going to be in the future.
And I, as far as we can tell, the most the best developed in the animal kingdom, a moral sense, so we not only have the ability to think about what we can do. But what we should do. And some of the, the harms or the conflicts and difficulties that population is having on the planet are are harmful to us.
For example, pollution, climate change, pandemics. But they may also be considered to be unkind or unfair to others and have ethical consequences, including for the, the millions of sentient animals that we share the planet with, and that's, a matter with which we ought to be concerned as well. This is a quote from John Webster back in 1994, but I think it's, you know, it helps articulate, this, this moral sense.
Man has dominion over the animals, whether we like it or not, he wrote. We may elect to put a hen in a cage or to create a game reserve for a tiger, but in each case, the decision is ours, not theirs. So there is this Issue of a a sort of all dominant species, waving the baton, conducting the orchestra, and a lot of what happens on the planet as we well know, is down to the decisions that we make.
To think of some of the language of sustainability and the sustainability agenda. Sustainability itself might be thought of as something as a long term goal or paradigm, this notion of a more sustainable world where lots of things that we that we care about are in a in a sort of optimal balance with each other, and it's a, it's a good world that we that we desire. Sustainable development might be thought of as some of the processes and pathways that are necessary to help us get there, for example, sustainable agriculture.
And then more specifically, you'll be aware of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, 17 specific goals set in 2015 looking at delivery, . By 2030 is the is the ambition to help achieve a sustainable future. And I think the the nub of the topic that we're discussing tonight is that animal welfare and consideration of the interests of sentient animals.
Isn't explicit in this agenda, anywhere, and particularly in the sustainable Development Goals, it's, it's not mentioned as a, as a good and an objective in its own right. And that of course is a concern for us as as veterinary professionals. And it could just be Absent, that's sort of bad enough, for those of us who, who care about this, but it can also then mean that animals' interests, are, are brushed aside or not considered in a way that's to their detriment.
And I think an early example of this was in this report, Livestock's Long Shadow published back in 2006, which was one of the first reports to start thinking about the impacts of animal agriculture. On the climate in particular. It's set in train a conversation that clearly is continuing now, but importantly, it doesn't mention animal welfare anywhere, in the report, but it also paints a picture, that might include objectives that would be actively harmful for harmful for animal welfare whilst, they are.
Nevertheless, potentially achieving climate objectives. So for example, increased close confinement, and increased selection pressures for rapid growth and efficiency and so on which are known risks to animal welfare. So sustainable development has been thought about in terms of the three pillars of economic development, environmental development, and social development.
Strong, stable, prosperous, prosperous economies, opportunities for all, we respect the limits of the environment, resources and biodiversity. It talks about personal well-being, cohesion, inclusion, equal opportunity. But the interests of animals aren't explicit in that classic characterization.
Some have argued that it can be, can be included within the, the social pillar, but it's not, that's not clear, it's not written down anywhere. Sustainable development, many of you will have seen this definition, development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Being able to do tomorrow what you can do today, but it's been noted that today's societies have are characterised by inequity, poverty, malnourishment and so on.
And so as Kate Rawls, who's an environmental philosopher, said, a few years ago, sustainable development is also ethically aspirational. It's, it's about quality as well as quantity. She argued for potentially trying to reposition this as a sustainability diamond and actually including animal welfare that way.
Whilst others have started talking about the three E's of sustainable development and changing social development for ethical sustainability, recognising that if a populous citizens, consumers don't. Feel that methods of production marry with their, their values, then they won't continue to support them and they won't continue to be sustainable. And that, that iteration has found expression in certain documents like this report from what was the Farm Animal Welfare Committee saying environment and ethics will need to be considered for government and public acceptability while simultaneously considering economics.
So my key message from all of that is to say that we, I believe, should and should continue to advocate for the inclusion of animal welfare, specifically within the sustainable development agenda. I think that's missing in certain areas, weak in others, and we have a responsibility to, to push for it to be included. And I think that there are two principal reasons for doing that as I see it.
One is that animal welfare has intrinsic value. Sentient animals and the, the, the feelings, emotions of sentient animals matter. They have moral relevance, and we should extend our circle of compassion to include them.
And it's also has instrumental value, so clearly, animals that are happy and healthy can help us achieve, others of the sustainable development goals. But that for me would be insufficient, alone. I think we're doing it because it's the right thing to do as well.
So to give some examples of how this is now happening through veterinary activity, and, and advocacy, I've just put up a an example there of some . Veterinary academics who've looked at this relationship between animal welfare and the the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and we're exploring through a workshop methodology, to what extent meeting the goals helps animal welfare and the extent to which improving animal welfare helps meet the goals. And they were largely positive, but it's a really interesting paper that you might like to look at.
And very relevant to where we are this evening, these are the veterinary sustainability goals that have been . Devis devised and communicated by vets sustain. Who say the veterinary professions are uniquely placed at the human-animal environment interface to address the SDGs in our own work, including in practise, policy, research, academia, government, non-governmental organisations, industries and industry, and these goals provide a framework for our professions for contributing to the UN SDGs and importantly, they include a good life for animals in there.
So these are real practical tools to help our professions move forward. You can go to them on the Vett Sustain websites. Where there's a bit more detail, but just to point out that there, there's a bit more information about that, that particular goal, a good life for animals, what it means and how it marries across to the UN SDGs and we could probably include .
SDG 12 as well about consumption and responsible consumption and production. So for the final part then just to to to wind up as we head towards Andy, I wanna give some examples where veterinary activities are now taking all of that thinking, building on the vets sustained type approach. And I think we, we genuinely are moving forward and that's obviously very exciting.
In this first one, I, I just wanted to sort of explore the idea that simply promoting environmental, the environmental part of sustainability may itself then result in good animal welfare. So we could say that as vets and vet nurses, if we start advocating on climate change and biodiversity, then animal welfare will follow. I explored this in a vet record article in 2016, and certainly that is, is.
Woven into the thinking. So if we help address the so-called 4 horsemen of the ecological apocalypse, habitat destruction, overexploitation, pollution and non-native species instructions, they all have impacts on the quality of individual animals' lives. So as they are addressed, then so too animal welfare follows.
But I think just doing that still carries the risk and that animal welfare may slip through the gaps. So I think there is an argument for making it more explicit than that. The second example is looking at how policy has fed into practise.
I go back to the example of, of BVA's animal welfare strategy, and some of the actions in there were to develop a position on humane, sustainable animal agriculture and to review our food procurement policy in light of that. And we did do that, and that procurement policy now applies to, meetings and conferences and, and, and the headquarters and so on. In terms of the policy statement, you'll notice that the word humane was dropped, and that's for exactly this reason.
There was a sort of discussion, well, if sustainability is to incorporate animal welfare, we don't separately need to say humane sustainable. So we really are pinning our hopes on sustainability and sustainable development as incorporating welfare. And FBA, a few years ahead of that had actually produced a reflection paper also on the vet's contributions to the UN sustainable development goals.
So from the BVA paper first, the position, we say that ensuring the health and welfare of sentient animals is important as a marker of social progress. So I think that recognises the intrinsic value that I talked about the not just of, of instrumental relevance. And we say that approaches to and policies on sustainable animal agriculture must ensure that farm animals have a good life and a humane death.
To be considered sustainable, production systems should work towards the five welfare needs of stimulating living environments to allow for the performance of highly motivated behaviours, opportunities for positive welfare outcomes. Such as comfort, pleasure, interest, and confidence. And and agriculture described as sustainable should not depend on prolonged or routine use of pharmaceuticals with obviously the problem of AMR in mind or on mutilations.
So that's quite a a a principled vision of the future of animal agriculture. And if you look at the, the corresponding FVE document, it captures near enough, you know, exactly the same sorts of sentiments. Linked to that position and the the animal welfare strategy are a suite of bespoke position statements on er specific topics.
So one I've given an example of here is analgesia. In calf dis pudding and castration, which we produced with the British Cattle Veterinary Association. Clearly arguing for a critical examination, of common husbandry procedures and the pain relief that we offer and recommending increased use of, non-steroidals in particular, alongside local anaesthesia.
You then see the, the uptake, the dissemination of that policy through, for example, the trade press, Farmers Weekly, weekly reporting on the position. And then nice to see it, the, the sort of grassroots veterinary level, . A vet practise newsletter picking up on the position saying you might have read this, and, and starting to raise awareness of it with farming clients.
Allied, we've looked at sustainable consumption, which is also linked to the, the economics of, of farm animal welfare, because as we seek to value foods of animal origin differently, making sure that environmental and animal welfare, consequences are considered, then it does increase, often production costs. So the less and better message, which, BVA advocates linked to the Choose assured scheme, says that if we eat a bit less meat and dairy, but, maintain proportional spend, I spend, the same amount on a bit less, then that puts us in a position to, Makes us well placed to look for the various UK farm insurance schemes, and this is an infographic which helps consumers understand what some of the the different schemes cover. And that's available on the BVA website.
Back over in Europe, please say that just a year ago, we took a keen interest in, one of the mutilations, tail ducking in pigs. Again, we've made a commitment to do that in close association with the species specialist associations. So in Europe, that's the European Association of Poor Sign Health Management, and this is a joint position paper stating clearly that we should move away from mutilations such as tail ducking, .
I would encourage you to read the paper, it talks about transition times, it presents some of the evidence for those producers and vet teams that have been working successfully towards this on farm. But again, it's, it's moving towards that vision. It's, it's couched in terms of sustainable animal agriculture, and the European Commission is also talking, very clearly about sustainable animal agriculture and the importance of animal welfare in that.
And now happily, happy to say, November 2, we're currently consulting on. A position on cages for laying hands and firing crates for sows. So I feel that this vision of a good life and a humane death is increasingly coming to the fore.
And if I look briefly at PDSA, and the practise to policy, the other direction practise to policy, we've got loads of good stuff going on across, the, the UK veterinary charity that I work for, PDSA. We have, practice-based champions working on animal welfare and ethics, and that's a paper we published this year in vet record if you're interested. We take, have a, a keen and well developed commitment to, AMR and responsible use of antimicrobials.
And we have fantastic staff, such as Meta Pado, who, has been recently profiled by Bets Stain for her work on advocating for sustainability. Now that's happening in practise across the organisation in something of a, a, a, a, I would say a disparate way, actually. The, the activity on, on AMR and welfare and ethics is now well established and coordinated.
But we also have, things that we've come across in certain of our hospitals. Such as the development of a, a, a wildlife area out the back for both, the benefit of wildlife and staff wellbeing getting out for their breaks. So we can, we can bump into good activities as well.
But you can see how you can link those activities to the veterinary sustainability goals, a good life for animals, health and happiness, and, some of the work that Meta is interested and involved in as a zero waste society. And we would have the opportunity to then think about how we could bring those together under an overarching sustainability action plan, which I know increasingly practises and practise groups are doing. And the only reason I add a question mark there really is because you'll appreciate at the present time.
We're under a period of, of acute stress linked to the pandemic, at PDSA and elsewhere, so we're realistic about when this, could and should be taken forward, but that doesn't discount the good work that's already going on. So I think that's my time up, my two conclusions are that in policy. I think global veterinary professions do need to con or the global veterinary, the veterinary presss continue to argue for the inclusion of animal welfare and sustainability in sustainable development for both its intrinsic and instrumental value.
And in practise, an appeal to ensure that animal welfare is included in sustainability action plans. This is the Northwest coast, the Sefton coast. Where, I grew up.
I can take you there. We'll see skylarks and red squirrels and be orchids, and it's absolutely fantastic. You'll find no one more motivated than me to honestly veterinary professionals advocating for the environment and biodiversity.
But let's not in the process, lose sight of, for example, the quality of lives that the chickens had when we feed them to our hospitalised patients. Thank you very much. Now I'm gonna hand over to Andy, who's got some superb practical experience from around the world.
Thank you, Sean. I mean, sure, and that was a brilliant, very packed with information talk. I, I keep trying to keep some notes so that I can bring some strands of what you said into mind, but really great.
I just need to tell you all that some of the images I've got in here a bit graphic, and that's because some of the veterinary tasks and, and issues that we have to deal with are sometimes quite graphic. And I, so in a sense, I, I don't apologise for that because I think if you If you get involved in certain issues, you will sometimes see some things that make your heart stop and that you feel that you, you, you, you have a sense that you really ought to do or feel something about. I was looking at the chat as as was speaking, and I already see there's a very interesting question from John Cooper about invertebrates.
I'd just like to start off by saying quite a surprising thing that in the world now, about 60% of the mass amount of vertebrates on the planet are, are farmed. That doesn't include invertebrates, of course, and almost all the rest, the masses of vertebrates is humans, about 35% of the world's massive vertebrates, and only about 5% of the world's vertebrates are wild. And I think that in a sense says something about sustainability.
We've come to this point in the globe's history. By essentially being in a, in, in one way sustainable. I mean, and animals have come and gone, and evolution has meant that we've lost species and gained species, but, but the planet itself has mostly sustained life.
But now we're at a crux moment, I think, where the way that we're creating animals for our own purposes is so critically different and the mass, the numbers of farmed and managed animals is so huge that we really are at a critical moment. I'm also very pleased to see in the chat that we've got people from all over the world, from Madeira, from New Zealand, from Greece, from, from Portugal, from all over. So that's, that's really pleasing.
Next slide please, Sean. So, I've taken the 17 UN sustainable goals really as a kind of a, as questions really. These are very humanocentric goals, of course, and they're about maximising and and persisting in, in human needs and, and, and human aspirations and expectations.
And as Sean's already said, animal welfare per se has a very low momentum within that. Next slide, please. I also bring all of the images in this talk from 3 books.
I'm editor of these 3 books, and I must say right from the outset that the, the work and the images really come from the huge number of sort of co-authors within these books. The reason I chose to use images from these books is so that if you, if you wish, you can Go and find the background to the images because my talk is not rich in in information per se. It's not rich in graphs and and written data.
It's rich in images that I hope that we could use to, to understand and discuss some welfare strikes sustainability topics. Next slide, please. So these are clearly important goals for human sustainability, a reduction or no poverty, zero hunger.
I mean, what fantastic aspirations. Next slide please. But the cost to animals may be very high.
This is a feedlot in in the US. Feedlots are one of the Animal production systems you can see from space. You can't see the individual animals from space.
Sometimes you can see the land used from space, but you can see the dust created on certain days in the year. The dust plumes created by feedlots are a part of a consistent picture of of of of space photographs. And once again, I think that's a sort of a very strange thing that we've done.
We've made beef farming on such a dramatic global scale. And, and so dependent on, on energy inputs and movement of animals that it begins to form a, a, a noticeable aspect of the surface of the planet. Next slide please.
So this is a feedlot, and this is the life for these beef animals in their last months. It's devoid of green growing vegetation. All the feed is supplied to the animals, can be very dusty.
Of the sprinklers has to keep the dust down. Also can be very wet in the winter months. The animals are often given a little mound to stand on to keep them out of the mud.
And there's been quite a lot of interesting work done on improving conditions even within feedlots, but I think there are some fundamental questions about how we're keeping these animals. They are producing a product for us at, at a, at an acceptable cost. But is the cost to the animals, are they getting the expected outcomes of a life that Sean talked about, behavioural opportunities, companionship, I mean, certainly getting companionship, but there'll be a same age, same usually same gender group.
Are they getting in their relatively short lives, a fulfilled existence before they become a product for our consumption? Next slide, please. So this is how we feed feedlot cattle.
Everything that they need is provided by us. They have no capacity to forage or to browse. There's interesting work done on self selection of plant species within grazing animals, how they will take different plants at different times of the year, of course, as those plants develop.
But also when those animals have different nutritional needs or different medicinal needs. There's no capacity for that in a, in a total mixed rational totally fed system like a beef feedlot. But these animals grow and they certainly produce.
So if you use production as a metric of animal welfare, it's hard to say that these animals aren't productive. But if you use other metrics, behavioural opportunities, choice. Ability to express sexual or reproductive behaviours.
These are not really provided for these animals in the system. So I think these are things that the veterinary profession has the capacity to at least be informed about and certainly to discuss when discussing these bigger, these bigger questions of of animal production as part of a sustainable future. Next slide, please.
And you might think, well, that's fine, that's very, that's the US, that's Brazil, that's Latin America, that's global. But here closer to home, if you take a look, here's a sheep market. If you take, if you take this just as a view of how we treat and and and move animals, and it's of course, deeply embedded in our farming systems, but we are producing animals in a very Integrated ways animals move from farm to slaughterhouse to supermarket, in, in, in very as we say, commercial ways, not very industrial ways, and the scale is becoming larger rather than smaller in general.
And I think that's one of the things that sustainability requires us to look at as to whether large scale is compatible with sustainability or whether small scale can sometimes be what we've come from in the past and perhaps is the thing that we may have to go to in the future to increase the longer term viability of these kind of farming systems. Next slide, please. Even and and a lot of my pictures are international, but close to home, I think welfare still remains an issue even on our local farms in Europe and UK.
You don't always find very high welfare standards, even within our own farming systems. And I think as a veteran profession, as Sean has very rightly said, We not only need to speak out, but I think to a sense we also need to do out, we need to be part of the doing to change and to improve. As a vet and, and as a veterinarians we're in a difficult position, we have to assist our clients in support of the farming enterprises, and sometimes we have to oppose them if we find, if we find things that aren't acceptable either in the law or in, in an ethical perspective, but I think the very profession is a profession that traditionally has been recognised as as made up of individuals who are willing to to stand up for animals, to advocate for animals' needs and rights.
And I think we should not be afraid to do that. We'll need to do that in the future to make sure that the needs of animals are not just pushed to the side in the general rush to maximise availability of resources for humans. Next slide, please.
And this doesn't just extend to say beef cattle and for dairy cattle. Some of the systems that we increasingly see, even close to home here, graze systems, these are tethered cattle, not in the UK of course, but in many parts of the world, it's not uncommon. We're seeing bigger and bigger farms with less and less access to grazing, and whether that's directly a welfare issue is, is very much for debate.
But I think it is certainly an aspect of sustainability because When you have to feed a dairy cow only by what it receives in front of it in a, in a house system, then you're totally reliant on energy because you have to collect the forage from the field, you have to harvest it, transport it, store it. So, As an aspect of sustainability, I think, zero graze grazing of dairy cattle should be something that the vetting profession should discuss in welfare terms as well as in energetic and, and, and environmental terms. Next slide, please.
This is in, New Zealand, and, those of you who have maybe been and worked in New Zealand would have seen that many cows are kept without buildings there. It's a surprising system when you realise such an enormous dairy industry, but no housing to be seen. And, and this looks on the face of it, very welfare friendly, but it has its own challenges.
I think the energetic and metabolic requirements placed on these animals is very high, and the professions in a in a great place to advise on the welfare impacts of these kind of systems on animals. Next slide, please. My particular area of great interest is in poultry.
We now farm in the world about, nobody knows for sure, but at least 70 billion poultry animals a year. That mostly is spoiler chickens, but that includes laying hens, ducks, geese. And we've made this animal into an incredible growing machine.
But here's a philosophical construct for you really. If you take an animal that comes from an egg. And you never let that animal meet another young, another animal of another age.
It has to learn everything from a, from a blank slate. It's a bit like going to landing on a on a foreign planet where nobody is giving you any information about what you're going to find, and there isn't any information to be found other than what you've got inherently in your, in your nature. So a lot of the species that we farm now never meet an animal of another age.
They never meet another piglet, an older pig, they never meet an older hen or an older turkey. And so I think as an aspect of sustainability and animal use, we should have an awareness of the possible long term implication of non-generational transfer of information. Next slide, please.
So here's a group of piglets. Now, these piglets have learned everything they know about being a pig from themselves and from cohort of the same age. They've not been taught anything or learned or observed anything from an older animal because they've never, never met an older animal other than their mother, the sow, for the short period that that that they were with the sow during suckling and farrowing.
After that, they're released into a same age group world. Next slide, please. So a bit like young children learn their playground games from each other.
They're not in general taught by adults. The sort of transfer of information between young animals and and slightly older animals cannot occur in many of our farming systems. So as a slight Aside, I just bring up this concept of lack of transfer of learned experience between age groups in many of the farm systems we have now.
It's a philosophical point, but I think as veterinarians, we, we should not be afraid to go into areas of animal use philosophy. Next slide, please. Now, of course, some of the issues are about how we keep animals and a classic discussion is on caged hens.
And it still surprises me when I travel around the world, how many hens are kept in really quite challenging cage environments. The challenge is not just space, it's physical comfort. A hen that has nothing but a metal surface to, to live upon is challenged and it's, it's feathers, its body condition, its behaviours reflect that.
Next slide, please. And the scale of these systems is not decreasing, it's progressively increasing. I've been on farms that have nearly a million birds on them.
Next slide, please. And some of the hen houses being built now, not just imagine but built, are on an absolutely enormous scale, multi-deck houses with many tens or hundreds of thousands of hens kept within them. And so in some parts of the world, we're moving away from cage systems and other parts of the world are progressively moving towards more and more complex, automated, engineered cage systems.
And I think this is a challenge that people usually explain away as being driven by cost and the need for a cost effective and and acceptable cost product. But at the same time, I think as veterinarians, we should be willing to discuss and speak up and talk about the life experience of those many, many hundreds of millions of animals that are kept in increasingly complex engineered systems. Next slide, please.
So there are choices, developed world has sometimes offers the consumer choices right all the way from free range to bar systems to cage systems, and you and I can make in a privileged position position often to be able to make those choices. But in some countries, there isn't choice. Cost is the great driver.
And I think as one of the big sustainability stroke welfare debates, we should be willing to discuss what the lower limit. And, and traditionally that's been set by the law. But actually, there's almost a philosophical point at which there's a lower limit for tolerable animal experience.
And I think laying hens are one of those ones at which society can decide, law can decide, and these things are beginning to influence and improve. I, I, I believe the the lives of animals around the world. Next slide, please.
OK, Some of the other UN sustainability goals are about coastal communities are about the marine environments. Next slide, please. I've been very interested.
I was a veterinarian in Shetland Islands as my first job. And I would usually asked to go and see stranded, dying or dead marine mammals. And I got really interested in them as a, as a kind of a subset of veterinary species.
And one of the big problems now for marine mammals is, is the hazards of the marine environment created by people. He's a classic one. This is a boy rope.
It's a rope that's attached to a boy, and on the bottom of the boy is usually a a net or a lobster pot or something like that. It's a marker boy for fishing. But .
Cetacea, that's the the the whales and dolphins don't see those ropes very easily and become entangled with them, and this, this animal has been entangled and died in situ. Next slide, please. And there are some classic, entanglement problems around the world.
And in my book on marine mammals, there are, there's a really excellent chapter on, on entanglement hazards. And this is one of, one of the descriptive images that shows what the classic hazard is for North Atlantic right whales. 83% of right whales have had some kind of entanglement.
I mean, the ones that are alive to be measured are the ones that have escaped from that entanglement, but the, but many of them have not. Next slide, please. And the sort of injury, this is a minke whale in Scotland, the sort of injury that results is often chronic and rather horrid, and the animals don't necessarily die quickly.
They can take weeks, months, sometimes years to die. Next slide, please. And sometimes the entanglement doesn't kill the animal for a long, long time.
Here's here's an animal with a fin that's been entangled by a rope and finally died from the sort of necrotic horrible injury. And this is a recent problem of the, of the world for these animals, and it's only recent since man introduced non-rotting plastic rope into the environment. Before when ropes were made from size or and cotton.
They didn't, they had strength, but they didn't have longevity in the natural environment. Now that we have plastic ropes that can last for hundreds, perhaps even multiple hundreds of years, then this is a hazard we're going to live with for a long, long time. Next slide, please.
There's some more subtle effects in marine mammals. These are manatee that are actually decided to congregate in an outflow from a power station because they find a slightly increased water temperature suits their needs. But this change in behaviour means they're more at risk of boat injury, of of disease.
So. The subtle interactions between human changes in the environment and, and in this case, marine mammals can be quite impactful and not necessarily in the, in the ways that we might predict. Next slide, please.
I mean, everyone is aware of the classic hazards of bow injury for the manatees and the dugongs, but they are rather severe and very debilitating. These animals sometimes don't die. And in fact, in Florida and other places where these animals are found, the veteran profession has got very good at treating and rehabilitating these animals.
Next slide, please. Here's a bit closer to home, and even in our waters here of the UK we have a quite a strong seal population. But increasingly these, the seals are being affected by, by entanglement and usually in pieces of discarded net.
Which often cause chronic injury. The animals thought they're very playful and very exploratory, but once they find a piece of net around themselves, they can't remove it. So if you're interested, there's a lot of work being done on ways to try and clean up the ocean of some of this debris, but that is a monumental task that will be with us for hundreds of years to come.
Next time, please. Here's another. This is a California sea lion.
With a smaller diameter monofilament net. And as I said, these are man-made problems of our generation created by non-rotting plastic monofilament and other plastics in the environment. Next slide, please.
As well as local effects of, of human, population, the general, and Sean showed a really, of course, profound graph of human population change. Population change is having a very important effect on coastal communities, and that is having a pronounced effect on marine mammal populations. Next slide, please.
As an aside, the climate change agenda is, is fairly clear, but, climate change is affecting marine mammals in quite profound ways. Next, next slide please. One of the ways that it's affecting it is by changes in waterways.
This is part of the Amazon basin, which in recent years has changed the pattern of water drainage has changed as a result of temperature change. And so some of the parts of the Amazon that always had water throughout the year, now sometimes don't, and you end up with fragmented populations of fish, birds and mammals as a result of that. Next slide, please.
My next section is, is the UN goals on responsible consumption. Next slide, please. Now these are where some of the graphic slides really come in.
This is non-stun slaughter of a of a cow. And just as a veterinarian, for you to consider the impact on that animal to be killed without stunning by exsanguination. But, but my point is not.
For dra drama. It's more to point out that this is extremely common. Next slide, please.
Killing animals without stun, using only a knife is, is, has almost been the universal way of killing mammals since, since people started doing this as a as a way of sharing meat amongst themselves. And we're not going to cause change other than through a realisation that there are other, other ways to do it. Sean has already discussed the BVA position on no stunt slaughter, but in many parts of the world, it's an irrelevance because the technology for stunt doesn't exist.
The education, the perception that it's something of value. So if as a profession, we want to change that in many parts of the world, it will be a very slow process. It will be a process more of taking people along with us on a discussion track towards a change in in understanding of what animals experience and what sentence means when you're being killed.
Next slide, please. This is a rather horrid example. It starts off looking quite benign, and these are the 7 pigs waiting in baskets in Indonesia.
But what's more challenging is what's going to happen next. They're going to be tipped into a shallow pit with water in it and drowned as a means of slaughter. Now, we haven't accepted drowning as a means of commercial slaughter for, for many, well, for hundreds of years, probably.
But in some countries, that would be seen as actually a rather good method of slaughter. It will be quiet. It would be very inexpensive.
It would result in no visible amount of blood or trauma to the animals. So, as I said, if we're going to have discussions about nonstone slaughter, we have to be willing to engage at a cultural, religious level and understand the reasoning behind the way systems are done and why they may even appear to be effective and good systems in certain places and, and to bring people along in our discussion on that. Next slide, please.
What can go wrong is when a kind of a Arrogant attitude prevails where NGOs or charities say, right, well, we'll invest money and improve slaughter facilities. And what can happen is new technology comes along, stunning and slaughter equipment is provided. But then within a short period of time, because the people are not able to maintain that equipment and don't have motivation to continue with it, the facility becomes useless and empty, and the people go back to the traditional methods that they, they used before.
Next slide, please. Now all around the world, people can actually be very careful and caring about animals, even in not very complicated farming systems. Here are people collecting hens and putting them into modules for transport.
Next slide please. Here's somebody showing very clear care and affection for animals, and actually that is almost universal too. In surprising places, you will find people who are extraordinarily caring, compassionate, careful, loving, even, even with their animals up until the moment that they must slaughter them or harvest from them.
And so I think care and compassion are words that the veterinary profession can can propose and support as aspects of animal care anywhere in the world, here in the UK in any part of the world. Next, next slide, please. Next slide.
Moving on to climate action, we're all aware of the evidence of climate change. Next slide, please. But along with climate change, changes in marine salinity, for instance, next slide, please.
And some work I've been done and very interested in is the changes in habitat resulting from that. And this is work done on polar bears, which is well described in, in my book on marine mammal welfare. And there are recognisable changes in the polar bear habitat.
Next slide, please. And the effect that's having on the bears is not very complex. The fewer bears are surviving, fewer young bears are surviving, and adult bears are in general, in some areas losing body condition because they're finding it more difficult to find resources.
Next slide, please. And if you're interested in metrics, key welfare indicators or other performance indicators, there are even now things like body condition scores for polar bears. Next slide, please.
And one effect that's that climate change is having is it's changing the way that people have to carry out the behaviours that they've done over many generations before. This is the seal hunt in Newfoundland, and previously it was fairly consistently carried out on hard sea ice. But now as the sea ice is more commonly fragmented, the seals are often found on smaller patches of ice, and that's changing the way that the animals are being hunted.
Next slide, please. And it sometimes means that animals have to be retrieved when injured using rather what I consider to be challenging methods. This is a seal being retrieved using a long gaffe.
If you're interested, you can find out more information on this, but I think some of these things are changing because the environment's changing and it's directly impacting on animals and the and the way those animals interact with people. Next, next slide, please. OK, next slide, please.
Now, as an example, I mean, there are many, many examples, but I think one thing that is, is a very significant change for many wild animals now is the presence of fences. And in large parts of continental Africa, Asia, where there weren't fences before, particularly, and I'm just discussing here the impact on wild animals. Now, large areas of the land are completely fenced.
Next slide, please. And the next slide please. Next time, please.
They're fenced for two reasons really. They're fence to keep animals and lives took apart, and they're also usually fence to keep wild animals away from from horticultural areas. Next slide, please.
And at the same time as changing the way that wild animals can move around the landscape, we're also changing our interaction with wild animals. Here's somebody who's paid to have an interaction with in this case, young lion cubs. And I think across the world now, more and more people are seeing wild animals as a resource that is a tourist resource rather than a naturalistic resource.
Next slide, please. Of course that expresses itself most clearly in zoos. Next slide please.
But also in game parks, I mean, we're all quite excited, I think, about the prospect of seeing animals in a game park, but also I think there is a risk that we're turning even these wilder places into into into entertainment sites. Here, here's an elephant to a sense being hounded by, by in in a in a in a safari situation. Next slide please.
And I think this is my last slide. Just to finish off, things could be more subtle. This is from Greece.
Because of human changes in the way that human agriculture occurs, some of the animals that we even perceive as as pests or as scavenging animals are finding it very difficult. Now, these are vultures in Greece, and they find it increasingly difficult to find the carrion they require. Now that raises a question, of course, as to wealth, whether welfare and and conservation.
Are the same or can be linked or should be linked. But I just bring it up to identify that across the world, there are many, many issues where the the the response of animals, the welfare of animals is is impacted directly and indirectly by by human changes. Thanks very much.
OK, next slide. Last slide, I think. We, of course, humans use animals for entertainment in a very pure way as well.
This is a deer that's been hunted, not very successfully the bow. And as veterinarians, it surprises me how very few veterans are outspoken about the impact on animals that result from, from sport hunting. It's a whole area in its own right, and, and whether it links directly to sustainability, but I think it does in that if animals are seen as an entertainment resource and hunting as a part of that, it needs to be well managed.
It needs to be managed with the care and welfare of those animals in mind. Next slide. That brings me to my end, to the end of my talk.
I'd really like to thank all the co-authors in my books. I mean, I say that my books, they're really compiled with a huge and enormous amount of input from many, many other authors for which I'm extremely grateful. Thanks very much.
Thank you so much, Andy, and to Sean earlier for your fantastic talks. They were incredibly impactful, and I'm sure everybody found those, there, there was much food for thought there. And yeah, thank you so much for, for delivering those presentations so well.
We, we're coming quickly. In fact, we've already surpassed the end of our official, time, but that's not a problem because it was, it was super important content. But I think it's important that we just go through a couple of questions if, if you don't mind sticking with us, Sean and Andy, just for a couple more minutes.
I think the first one to, to you, perhaps, Andy, going back to the invertebrates question, so John and Margaret ask, that because invertebrates account for 90% of the animal kingdom, they obviously a huge, a huge proportion of, of, of our animal world, but rarely attract attention of, of welfarists. Have you got anything on there about, about welfare of invertebrates? What are your views?
I, my view is that we, we, we should have care for, for animals where it, where it is possible and appropriate. I think the classic example at the top end of the spectrum is, of course, that this is the crustacea, where quite a lot of work has been done on improving the conditions for crustacea while being caught. I think at lower levels, for the bio valves, for, for, for the worms and even for the microscopic invertebrates that most people are benignly unaware of.
There will be people who can propose ways that we can make improvements. I think for the average veterinarian who focuses on birds, fish, vertebrates, in a sense, it's a long way from their experience and knowledge, but I think there is a place for people like John and others to inform us and make sure that we know what is possible and, and to help us steer our thinking in that area. I don't know if that helps.
Thanks, Andy. That's, that's great. One perhaps here for you, Sean, from Zachariah.
Many scientific and animal welfare or animal rights organisations exist, and I think you referenced quite a few within the veterinary world, in your presentation. So do we get a bit lost in, in all of that? Are there too many conflicts, with vets often in the firing line, from some of those organisations?
Have you got any comments around that? Yeah, I think when we were consulting for BVA's animal welfare strategy, and we're now going through a similar process with FAA in the European profession, that, that question, and. Set of ideas comes up frequently, where do we fit in the landscape of of animal advocates, and I think what we found most helpful at BVA is to recognise that, Animal welfare as we've hopefully conveyed, is singing for its supper, amongst all of these complex huge challenges.
So the more we can collaborate and come together, the better. Some, So, you know, vets have been too meek and we need to sort of get back at the table and, and all this sort of thing, but we've viewed and interpreted that very much, not in a competitive way, but where can we find common ground and collaborate when appropriate? And actually, what's been most interesting for me personally is to build relationships with organisations with which we have some overlap, and then there would be other areas that either, we're not involved with or we might have a different.
But nevertheless, we can find common ground on certain issues, and, and make a joint representation then, which I think's really, powerful. And of course from our perspective, it brings a professional voice for what's that, for what that is worth. I think it's worth something because we're trusted and credible, alongside the, the, the, NGOs that are, are credible in, in their own right for and particularly those that draw heavily on science.
Thanks, Sean, that's, that's helpful. One from Jose here again, back to you, Andy, if you don't mind. Are there any practical grids for animal welfare assessment in the field, and I'm assuming this is primarily for veterinary professionals.
It depends what species. I mean, for certainly for farm species, there are a lot of welfare assessment methods now. If Laura, if you want to put Jose directly in touch with me, I can, I can direct him to welfare assessment, sort of key welfare indicator methods for a lot of the farm species for wild species.
Is it's coming. I showed you the image of polar bears. The same is happening in many zoo animals now and wild animals, where people are finding ways to assess the impacts, welfare impacts, disease impacts on the animals through, through, through metrics of, of, of, of, of outcomes for the animals.
So there isn't a one simple practical grid. There, there are many and they've all been created by People who've worked hard and use their expertise to try and identify what are the sort of indicators of animal experience and animal outcome. I don't know if that answers the question.
Yeah, no, that's good. Andy, thank you. Jose, if you're still there, please get in touch with me.
I'll put my email on the, chat box. Anybody else that has any sort of outstanding questions, please, please feel free to get in touch. Just one final last question, which I think I'll be able to answer as well a little bit, but Charlotte asks, Are there, is there likely to be a sustainability accreditation for veterinary general practises in the future, covering welfare framework strategies to tackle welfare concerns, for example, mutilations, elective C-sections, and farm animal welfare challenges.
That's a really good question and one that's better stain is currently working towards actually. So hopefully in 2021 we'll be able to speak more about, hopefully, some form of, sustainability, sort of self-assessment for veterinary practises that will help practises to walk through all of the different domains of, of sustainability. As we see them in our vein sustainability goals, and hopefully make progress towards, a more sustainable sort of working position.
So keep an eye out for that. Sean, if you got any final thoughts on that from your PDSA perspective or the perspectives about sort of accreditations or policies and practises within veterinary practises? Not really.
I, I thought exactly saying that you're perfectly placed to answer that. All that I would say is, I think the, the, the, the ground really is shifting and softening, isn't it? So we've got, the president of SIBS at the moment, Anna Judson, really strongly advocating sustainability.
Similarly, Joe Oakton is the newly installed president of, of the British Veterinary Nursing Association. RCVS, BVA, there are loads of, sustainability commitments coming forward and it's that sustain is playing this brilliant role in trying to help, help foster that because clearly these associations deal with very many things alongside sustainability, so we can help, particularly in practical ways like, those sorts of accreditation systems. So I, I think the future's really positive.
It's, it's really exciting at the minute. Thanks, Sean. That's great.
And I think heading heading up to 1009, I think we'd better let everybody go. So, look, everybody, thank you so much for joining us tonight for this really excellent session from two speakers. A big thank you to the webinar vet and Anthony Chadwick and team for, for hosting our webinars this year.
We've got one last one, in December on the impacts of, vet flea treatments on, on the environment. That's from. Rose Perkins, Dave Gulson, and, team at the University of Sussex.
So please look out for that on the 16th of December, in that sustains communications. But in the meantime, thank you, thank you again for joining us tonight. Thanks to our two speakers.
It was absolutely brilliant to have you here. So thanks and good night, everyone. See you soon.
