Private Animal Welfare Standards—Opportunities and Risks

Abstract

Simple SummaryIn all European countries, farmers keeping animals must comply with European and national animal welfare legislation. Each government has a responsibility to make sure that the legislation is complied with by the farmers. However, during the last decades it has become increasingly common that private organisations, such as the industry, farmers’ organisations, or animal welfare organisations, develop additional animal welfare regulations (‘private standards’) that the farmers also need to comply with. These private standards have the opportunity to improve animal welfare above the legislative level, however, in our study we have shown that this is not always the case and that all of these different private standards, in addition to the legislation, makes it difficult to get an overview of the animal welfare regulation and control arena. For the sake of the farmers, the animal welfare inspectors, the consumers, and the animals we conclude that it is important that policymakers consider this arena as a whole and not their own regulation as a single phenomenon.AbstractThe current shift moves the governance of animal welfare away from the government towards the private market and the consumers. We have studied the intentions, content, and on-farm inspection results from different sets of animal welfare legislation and private standards with an aim to highlight the most important opportunities and risks identified in relation to the trend of increasingly relying on private standards for safeguarding or improving farm animal welfare. Our results show that different focuses, intentions, animal welfare requirements, inspection methods (i.e., methods for measuring and evaluating the compliance with a regulation), and inspection results, together with the use of vague wordings and a drive towards more flexible regulations does certainly not facilitate the interpretation and implementation of animal welfare regulations, especially not in relation to each other. Since farmers today often have to comply with several animal welfare regulations, including private standards, it is important to stress that a given regulation should never be seen as a single, stand-alone phenomenon, and the policymakers must hence consider the bigger picture, and apply the standards in relation to other existing regulations. This is especially relevant in relation to the legislation, a level that a private standard can never ignore.

Non-Compliance and Follow-Up in Swedish Official and Private Animal Welfare Control of Dairy Cows

“…CAB inspectors sometimes argued that a single dirty animal was not a systematic problem and therefore not a non-compliance. There is a general calibration problem when policy-making bodies establish different limits for comparable requirements, because this may result in different animal welfare levels in practice [ 36 ], and it is especially important for private policy makers to not consider their private standard as a single stand-alone phenomenon as a farmer will always need to comply with the binding regulation [ 37 ]. In addition, intra-observer agreement can be difficult to reach when there is no reference observer [ 38 ], or when there is no validated standard protocol to use when assessing a welfare parameter [ 39 ].…”

Livestock Farming at the Expense of Water Resources? The Water–Energy–Food Nexus in Regions with Intensive Livestock Farming

“…Contrary to other branches, the market for animal products in Germany and the European Union is characterized by a very low degree of differentiation. This results in the price being the main purchasing criterion, whereas criteria such as animal welfare or ecological sustainability still play a minor role [52,53]. Particularly in pig farming differentiation is extremely low and the market is highly internationalized [45].…”

“…Several interviewees stressed the problematic connection between the production of animal products for a price-sensitive national and international market and the regional limitation of negative accompanying symptoms (interviews 2 and 3). One opportunity to bypass the focus on pricing raised by three interviewees is the recent introduction of retail initiatives and labels for improved animal welfare [45,53,54] (interviews 2, 3 and 4). These private sector initiatives aim at achieving a differentiation of animal products for customers.…”

“…These private sector initiatives aim at achieving a differentiation of animal products for customers. A commonly applied criterion is more space allowance for the individual animal [53,55]. Farmers who participate in such schemes receive a financial compensation for keeping a reduced number of animals in their stables.…”

Instagranimal: Animal Welfare and Animal Ethics Challenges of Animal-Based Tourism

“…The dilemma raises questions about the expediency of hard versus soft regulatory mechanisms to implement animal welfare regulations globally, relating to both governmental legislation and voluntary standards [ 57 ]. A neoliberalisation of government policy may exacerbate the establishment of regulation.…”