In English: Animal welfare act to be reformed

ANIMAL WELFARE ACT TO BE REFORMED

A law reform which has been in preparation since the year of 2010 is finally coming to fruition. The reformed Animal Science producers Welfare Act will focus on advancing animals’ welfare and respect.

TEXT Kaisa-Reetta Seppänen TRANSLATION Henna Kaaresto PICTURE Maiju Putkonen

The Finnish Animal Welfare Act, dating back to 1996, is being reformed. Preparations for the reformed act have been underway since 2010. According to the Cabinet’s legislative plan, the bill will be submitted to Parliament at the end of August. The purpose of the act is to advance animal welfare and respect for animals. Animal welfare organisations are also demanding for the act to recognise the intrinsic value of animals. Recognition of intrinsic value means that animals would be given a moral status - in other words, the law would not treat animals as objects or property.

As key changes, the reformed Animal Welfare Act will ban surgical castration of pigs (ed. note: boars, as in male pigs) and use of new stanchion stables, as well as better allow intervention in harmful animal breeding practices.

In Finland, boars are castrated in order to prevent the “boar’s smell” present in pork that some consumers find unpleasant. In nearly all cases, castration is carried out without pain relief. The procedure is painful for the animal.

In stanchion stables, cows are confined in stalls with the ability to only lie down or stand. Turning around is not possible. The Animal Welfare Act obliges cows living in stanchion stables to be provided with opportunities to exercise on no fewer than 60 days per year. However, for example during a monitoring round carried out in 2017, it was found that nearly half of all stanchion stables have failed to provide the required amount of exercise.

Harmful animal breeding primarily refers to domestic pet breeding that leads to characteristics that cause the animal lifelong suffering. For example, short-muzzled dog breeds’ short snouts cause various health risks for the animal, such as problems with breathing, sleeping and regulating body temperature. Short snouts are caused by human’s desire to enhance certain physical traits in a dog, typically for aesthetic reasons. Such a condition is unnatural for an animal.

The Draft Animal Welfare Bill also obliges dogs and cats to be ID-marked and registered. This change is especially positive for cats, as their societal position as pets is weaker than that of dogs.

DRAFT BILL FAILS TO ADEQUATELY ADDRESS FUR FARMING

In her work, sociologist Salla Tuomivaara has focused on the conception of animals in society. According to Tuomivaara, the most glaring shortcoming of the welfare bill is the complete failure to restrict or reform fur farming. Fur farming has been a matter for debate for a long time - for example, in Finland, a citizens’ initiative with 70 000 signatures was submitted to Parliament in 2013 and ultimately rejected. Finland remains the only Nordic country with no restrictions on fur farming. In the summer of 2022, animal welfare organisations around Europe launched a European citizen’s initiative calling for a ban on fur farming and the importing and trading of furs in the European Union. In several European countries, fur farming has either been banned or severely restricted to the point of total shutdown of operations.

GLOBAL ISSUES CONTRIBUTE TO CRITICISM OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION

Tuomivaara was also involved in the founding of the organisation Justice for Animals in the mid 1990s. According to Tuomivaara, attitudes towards animals and their treatment have changed as a result of the 1970s rising awareness of animal rights.

“The change has been enabled by rapidly increasing scientific evidence of animals’ cognitive and social abilities, as well as humanistic research of our relations with other animals. The animal rights movement’s revelations and information shared by organisations, particularly regarding conditions of livestock, have been received with shock around the world, and the so-called food scandals, animal-sourced pandemics, climate change, species decline, local environmental issues, and health risks found in animal products have contributed to the increasing criticism of animal production and its practices.”

Animals’ consciousness and ability to feel pain are typically emphasised in discussions of animal rights and why they should have rights. For example, the 1800s animal rights movement emphasised the importance of teaching children how to treat animals well in order to prevent violent behaviour towards other humans as well. In Finland, among said animal rights movement was Zacharias Topelius who was particularly passionate about the rights of small birds. Although pain and suffering are a part of the lives of all feeling creatures, Tuomivaara notes that we are also social and empathetic at our core:

“We share the ability to feel compassion and the desire to help those in need – including other species – with many other animals. Although – and because – we know that suffering and pain are a part of everyone’s lives, humans always aim to avoid causing unnecessary pain and suffering to others, and to help those in distress.”

”HUMANS’ TENDENCY TO PROJECT NON-EXISTENT MENTAL TRAITS

ONTO ANIMALS CAN MAKE IT MORE DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND AN

ANIMAL’S EMOTIONAL STATE, LEADING TO WEAKER WELFARE.

ATTITUDES TOWARDS WILD ANIMALS ARE DIFFERENT

Tuomivaara’s book Edible Dogs and Sympathetic Pigs details Tuomivaara’s encounters with animals and examines views of animals in Finland and beyond. For example, while living in Hong Kong, where nearly all animal species are protected, Tuomivaara saw up close how wild animals that had ended up near human settlements were transferred back into the wild. Her experiences in Hong Kong motivated Tuomivaara to examine attitudes towards wild animals in Finland.

“My experiences in Hong Kong made me wonder why animals unusually close to human settlements are killed nearly without fail in the sparsely populated Finland. In the highly populous Hong Kong, disturbances caused by wild animals can be seen as more serious and their encounters with humans as more common than in Finland. In spite of this, the aim was to transfer or lead even the most dangerous animals (wild boars, snakes etc.) away alive.”

ANIMAL WELFARE IS A SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE OF ANIMAL’S PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL STATE

One of the aims of the Animal Welfare Act is to strengthen the supervision of animal welfare. Animal welfare is defined as an animal’s subjective experience of its psychological and physical wellbeing.

In Finland, animal welfare is supervised by animal protection authorities: the Regional State Administrative Agencies’ regional, municipal and supervising veterinarians, the police, health inspectors, slaughterhouses’ inspection veterinarians, and border veterinarians.

“It is more difficult to identify a well animal than an unwell one”, says Tiina Kauppinen from Finnish Centre for Animal Welfare. A well animal gets to satisfy its species-specific basic needs. According to Kauppinen, a well animal is not suffering from conditions or injuries affecting its general wellbeing, and it is not hungry, under- or overweight, or dehydrated. A well animal is well-rested, curious and sociable (ed. note: herd animals), exercising, playing and displaying species-typical behaviour.

Different measurement protocols have been developed to assess animals’ welfare. WQ, or Welfare Quality, is a system developed by a scientific community to measure and assess animal’s welfare. In the protocol, animal’s welfare assessment is divided into four sections; good living environment, good nutrition, good health and behaviour. The official WQ assessments are carried out by specially trained individuals, but according to Kauppinen the principles of the measurement protocol can be utilised to assess, for example, your own pet’s welfare.

ASSESSMENT OF ANIMAL’S PSYCHOLOGICAL WELFARE REQUIRES UNDERSTANDING OF ANIMALS’ MENTAL ABILITIES

In order to secure an animal’s welfare, it is important to be able to identify behaviours motivated by fear, pain and discomfort, but it is not easy, as different animal species and individuals express emotions in different ways. For example, all mammals are able to feel basic emotions, such as fear, aggression, sorrow, nurture, sexual desire, playfulness and joy. Humans’ tendency to project non-existent mental traits onto animals can make it more difficult to understand an animal’s emotional state, leading to weaker welfare. For example, a dog is not able to feel guilt, as that would require understanding of morals and ability to think reflectively. Whereas, as a social animal, a dog is able to sense a human’s emotional state; a dog does not understand that it was wrong to rip up a rug, but it can be worried as it senses the presence of an irritated human.

The qualitative behaviour assessment method can be utilised to assess animal’s psychological welfare. QBA aims to consider the animal a dynamic whole, a living creature, “behavioural” - so, a subject - instead of something that operates mechanically.

“QBA is based on a human observing an animal’s emotional state and behaviour with the help of a list of words and expressions to describe the animal, and choosing the best suited ones. According to research, when carried out correctly QBA correlates well with, for example, physical measurements.”, sums up Kauppinen. •