Farm animal welfare: a regulatory history

Dr Abigail Woods

Centre for the History of Science, Technology and MedicineImperial College London

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.

The British government’s role

Key questions:

• How / why / when did it become involved in regulating farm animal welfare?

• What did it think welfare was?

Origin stories:The ancient contract

(Rollin)

Origin stories:The rise of welfare

(Webster)

• 1965 Brambell committee• 1968 Agriculture Act

– Welfare standards– FAWAC– Welfare codes

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?

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).

i) The legislative picture

• By 1960, farm animals protected by a patchwork of legislation:

1. In public spaces (1822, 1835 1849, 1911)

2. In transit (1869, 1894, 1927, 1950 Acts)

3. At slaughterhouses (1954, 1958)

• In public spaces:

– Included in broader legislation (1911) to prevent animal cruelty and avoidable suffering

– Responsibility of the Home Office & Local Authorities.

• In transit:

– Provoked by growth in transport, associated disease spread and humanitarian concerns

– Responsibility of state vets & Local authorities

ii) Intensification & the animal body• Drive to increase productivity and critique of

practices date from at least the 19thC

• eg urban dairies

• Eg inter-war ‘progressive’ dairying

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.

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?)

• P Brassley, ‘Output and technical change in 20th century British Agriculture’, Ag Hist Rev 48 (2000), p62

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)

ii) Intensification & the animal body

1964: Harrison’s 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

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’

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

iii) The concept of welfare

• Doesn’t the new legislation / codes implement a new concept of welfare?

• Closely resemble transit regulations & drawn up by the same people (vets).

• MAFF’s legal understanding is that welfare = ‘absence of unnecessary pain or distress’: FAWAC told to work within this definition.

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

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.