“…First, an extensive literature documents that vocalization rate, types of vocalization, and acoustic structure within a call type may vary with stressful contexts, such as aggression, panic, social separation, and levels of stress hormones among rodents [Goldstein et al, 1996;Blanchard et al, 1997], primates [Bayart et al, 1990;Champoux and Suomi, 1994;Laudenslager et al, 1995;Friedman et al, 1995] and pigs [von Borell and Ladewig, 1992;Désautés et al, 1997;Weary et al, 1997]. Second, vocal indices of animal welfare are already commonly exploited in food animal research to minimize distress during slaughter [Warris et al, 1994;Grandin, 1998], castration [White et al, 1993;Weary et al, 1998], branding [SchwartzkopfGenswein et al, 1997, and weaning [Cockram et al, 1993].…”