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Sign language
By Beth Forbes
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Jeff Armstrong, head of Purdue's animal sciences department, serves on national animal welfare committees for both McDonald's Corp. and United Egg Producers. "Producers have always been animal welfarists," he says. "But while researchers and producers see the relationship between animal well-being and productivity, consumers may not."
Photo by Tom Campbell |
If we could talk to the animals and they could talk to us, imagine what we'd learn. Cats would no longer be a mystery, dogs could politely ask to go outside and contented cows--well, we'd know what makes them that way. It's a storybook idea to some, but not to Purdue researchers.
Animals communicate with us all the time," says Purdue animal scientist Ed Pajor. "We just have to pay attention to how they sound, how they act and how they look."
Focusing on animals and the messages they provide is essential to Pajor's studies of animal behavior. Mixing the real world with a little of the imaginary Dr. Doolittle, Pajor applies scientific measures to the activities of farm animals. By studying farm animal well-being, he's providing evidence as to what animals think and feel about their treatment and surroundings.
Whether it's a sow surrounded by her litter or a cow plodding to the milking parlor, Pajor says all animals display indications of their emotional and physical states. He and other scientists are developing methods for determining well-being based on behavior, physiology, productivity, health and other indicators.
Promoting animal well-being is one of the primary goals of Purdue's Food Animal Productivity and Well-Being Center. Animal scientists here have joined with the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Agricultural Research Service (USDA/ARS) Livestock Behavior Unit, Purdue's School of Veterinary Medicine and other groups to create one of the few locations in this country where multi-disciplinary animal well-being research is under way.
Current research projects integrate discoveries in animal well-being with developments in meat quality, pre-harvest food safety, genetics and farm production systems.
Center director and bioethicist Paul Thompson says Purdue's efforts are unique because of the variety of perspectives that are represented in the discussion. "It's not just about raising a healthy animal," he says. "We are also considering quality of life and other ethical concerns."
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