Farm animal welfare: a regulatory history

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Farm animal welfare a regulatory history

• Dr Abigail Woods
• Centre for the History of Science, Technology and
  Medicine
• Imperial 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 governments 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 storiesThe ancient contract (Rollin)
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Origin storiesThe 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
• In public spaces (1822, 1835 1849, 1911)
• In transit (1869, 1894, 1927, 1950 Acts)
• 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 Harrisons 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

• Doesnt the new legislation / codes implement a
  new concept of welfare?
• Closely resemble transit regulations drawn up
  by the same people (vets).
• MAFFs 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.