Animal Welfare: An Empirical Analysis of Agricultural Frames

Abstract

According to the current state of livestock sciences the assessment of animal welfare nowadays is based on four dimensions, i. e. good housing, good feeding, good health and appropriate behaviour (KEELING and KJÆRNES, 2009). However, it remains unclear to what extent this understanding of animal welfare is shared by farmers. The aim of the present study is thus to estimate the concerns of conventional German pig farmers about animal welfare by means of a factor analysis. For this purpose the theoretical concept of framing is applied. The results show that two animal welfare frames exist among respondents. While an animal welfare understanding that focuses on biological and technical aspects is highly approved, criteria based on (natural) animal behaviour play only a minor role.