The Welfare of Domestic Fowl and Other Captive Birds

The Welfare of Domestic Fowl and Other Captive Birds

Animal Welfare VOLUME 9 Series Editor Clive Phillips, Professor of Animal Welfare, Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics, School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland, Australia Titles published in this series: Volume 1: Volume 2: Volume 3: Volume 4: Volume 5: Volume 6: Volume 7: Volume 8: The Welfare of Horses Natalie Waran ISBN 1-4020-0766-3 The Welfare of Laboratory Animals Eila Kaliste ISBN 1-4020-2270-0 The Welfare of Cats Irene Rochlitz ISBN 978-1-4020-3226-4 The Welfare of Dogs Kevin Stafford ISBN 978-1-4020-4361-1 The Welfare of Cattle Jeffrey Rushen, Anne Marie de Passillé, Marina A.G. von Keyserlingk and Daniel M. Weary ISBN 978-1-4020-6557-6 The Welfare of Sheep Cathy M. Dwyer ISBN 978-1-4020-8552-9 The Welfare of Pigs Jeremy N. Marchant-Forde ISBN 978-1-4020-8908-4 The Welfare of Animals Clive Phillips ISBN 978-1-4020-9218-3

The Welfare of Domestic Fowl and Other Captive Birds Edited by Ian J.H. Duncan University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada Penny Hawkins Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Southwater, UK 123

Editors Dr. Ian J.H. Duncan University of Guelph Dept. Animal & Poultry Science Guelph ON N1G 2W1 Canada iduncan@uoguelph.ca Dr. Penny Hawkins Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Research Animals Dept. Wilberforce Way Horsham, W. Sussex Southwater United Kingdom RH13 9RS phawkins@rspca.org.uk ISSN 1572-7408 ISBN 978-90-481-3649-0 e-isbn 978-90-481-3650-6 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3650-6 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2009942767 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Animal Welfare Series Preface Animal welfare is attracting increasing interest worldwide, especially in developed countries where the knowledge and resources are available to (at least potentially) provide better management systems for farm animals, as well as companion, zoo and laboratory animals. The key requirements for adequate food, water, a suitable environment, appropriate companionship and good health are important for animals kept for all of these purposes. There has been increased attention given to farm animal welfare in many countries in recent years. This derives largely from the fact that the relentless pursuit of financial reward and efficiency, to satisfy market demands, has led to the development of intensive animal production systems that challenge the conscience of many consumers in those countries. In developing countries, human survival is still a daily uncertainty, so that provision for animal welfare has to be balanced against human needs. Animal welfare is usually a priority only if it supports the output of the animal, be it food, work, clothing, sport or companionship. In principle the welfare needs of both humans and animals can be provided for, in both developing and developed countries, if resources are properly husbanded. In reality, however, the inequitable division of the world s riches creates physical and psychological poverty for humans and animals alike in many parts of the world. Livestock are the world s biggest land users (FAO, 2002) and the farmed animal population is increasing rapidly to meet the needs of an expanding human population. This results in a tendency to allocate fewer resources to each animal and to value individual animals less, particularly in the case of farmed poultry where flocks of over 20,000 birds are not uncommon. In these circumstances, the importance of each individual s welfare is diminished. Increased attention to welfare issues is just as evident for companion, laboratory, wild and zoo animals. Of increasing importance is the ethical management of breeding programmes, since genetic manipulation is more feasible, but there is less public tolerance of the deliberate breeding of animals with genetic abnormalities. However, the quest for producing novel genotypes has fascinated breeders for centuries. Dog and cat breeders have produced a variety of extreme forms with adverse effects on their welfare, but nowadays the quest is pursued in the laboratory, where a range of species, mainly mice, is genetically altered, sometimes with equally profound effects. v

vi Animal Welfare Series Preface The intimate connection between animals and humans that was once so essential in some spheres is rare nowadays, having been superseded by technologically efficient production systems where animals on farms and in laboratories are tended by increasingly few humans in the drive to enhance labour efficiency. With today s busy lifestyle, companion animals too may suffer from reduced contact with humans, although their value in providing companionship, particularly for certain groups such as the elderly, is increasingly recognised. Consumers also rarely have any contact with the animals that produce their food. In this estranged, efficient world, people struggle to find the moral imperatives to determine the level of welfare that they should afford to animals within their charge. Some, in particular many companion animal owners, aim for what they believe to be the highest levels of welfare provision, while others, deliberately or through ignorance, keep animals in impoverished conditions where their health and wellbeing can be extremely poor. Today s multiplicity of moral codes for animal care and use are derived from a broad range of cultural influences including media reports of animal abuse, guidelines on ethical consumption, animal behaviour and welfare science, and campaigning and lobbying groups. This series has been designed to help contribute towards a culture of respect for animals and their welfare by producing academic texts discussing the provision for the welfare of the major animal species that are managed and cared for by humans. They are not detailed blue-prints for the management of each species, rather they describe and consider the major welfare concerns, often in relation to the wild progenitors of the managed animals. Welfare is considered in relation to the animal s needs, concentrating on nutrition, behaviour, reproduction and the physical and social environment. Economic effects of animal welfare provision are also considered where relevant, as are key areas where further research is required. In this volume one of the world s leading scientists in the field of poultry welfare science, Professor Ian Duncan, has joined with Dr Penny Hawkins, a leading advocate for improvements in laboratory bird management and welfare and Deputy Head of the RSPCA s Research Animals Department. Together they have brought together many experts in the field of captive bird welfare, including those that have been involved with research on improving poultry welfare as well as those with experience of other captive birds. With the growing pace of knowledge in this new area of research, it is hoped that this series will provide a timely and much-needed set of texts for researchers, lecturers, practitioners, and students. My thanks are particularly due to the publishers for their support, and to the authors and editors for their hard work in producing the texts on time and in good order. Clive Phillips Series Editor Professor of Animal Welfare and Director, Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics, School of Veterinary Science,

Animal Welfare Series Preface vii University of Queensland, Australia December 2008 Reference FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) (2002). http://www.fao.org/ag/aga/index_en.htm.

Contents 1 Introduction... 1 John E. Cooper and Margaret E. Cooper Part I Captive Birds 2 Human Bird Interactions... 17 Patricia K. Anderson 3 The Welfare Implications of Housing Captive Wild and Domesticated Birds... 53 Penny Hawkins 4 Training Companion Birds... 103 Greg Glendell 5 The Welfare of Captive Birds in the Future... 115 Simon J. Girling Part II Domestic Fowl 6 The Physical Environment and Its Effect on Welfare... 137 Tina Widowski 7 Nutrition, Feeding and Drinking Behaviour, and Welfare... 165 John Savory 8 The Impact of Disease on Welfare... 189 Andrew Butterworth and Claire Weeks 9 Managing Poultry: Human Bird Interactions and Their Implications... 219 Paul Hemsworth and Grahame Coleman 10 The Welfare and Ethical Assessment of Housing for Egg Production... 237 Chris M. Sherwin ix

x Contents 11 Stunning and Slaughter... 259 Mohan Raj 12 The Future of Poultry Welfare... 279 Suzanne T. Millman, Joy A. Mench, and Anne E. Malleau Index... 303

Contributors Patricia K. Anderson Department of Sociology & Anthropology, Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL 61455, USA, pk-anderson@wiu.edu Andrew Butterworth Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS40 5DU, UK, andrew.butterworth@bristol.ac.uk Grahame Coleman School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Animal Welfare Science Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC 3800, Australia, grahame.coleman@med.monash.edu.au John E. Cooper Faculty of Medical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, ngagi2@gmail.com Margaret E. Cooper Faculty of Medical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, ngagi2@gmail.com Simon J. Girling Muirfield, Perthshire, Scotland, sj.girling@btinternet.com Greg Glendell The Pet Parrot Consultancy, Axbridge BS26 2WD, UK, mail@greg-parrots.co.uk Penny Hawkins Research Animals Department, RSPCA, West Sussex RH13 9RS, UK, phawkins@rspca.org.uk Paul Hemsworth Department of Primary Industries (Victoria), The Melbourne School of Land and Environment, Animal Welfare Science Centre, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia, phh@unimelb.edu.au Anne E. Malleau Whole Foods Market Inc., Austin, TX, USA, anne.malleau@wholefoods.com Joy A. Mench Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, CA, USA, jamench@ucdavis.edu Suzanne T. Millman Veterinary Diagnostic & Production Animal Medicine/Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA, smillman@iastate.edu xi

xii Contributors Mohan Raj Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS40 5DU, UK, m.raj@bristol.ac.uk John Savory West Linton, Peeblesshire, UK, jandesavory@hotmail.com Chris M. Sherwin Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, Centre for Behavioural Biology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK, chris.sherwin@bristol.ac.uk Claire Weeks Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS40 5DU, UK, claire.weeks@bristol.ac.uk Tina Widowski Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1, twidowsk@uoguelph.ca