Welfare Through Competence: A Framework for Animal-Centric Technology Design

Abstract

Digital technologies offer new ways to ensure that animals can lead a good life in managed settings. As interactive enrichment and smart environments appear in zoos, farms, shelters, kennels and vet facilities, it is essential that the design of such technologies be guided by clear, scientifically-grounded understandings of what animals need and want, to be successful in improving their wellbeing. The field of Animal-Computer Interaction proposes that this can be achieved by centering animals as stakeholders in technology design, but there remains a need for robust methods to support interdisciplinary teams in placing animals' interests at the heart of design projects. Responding to this gap, we present the Welfare through Competence framework, which is grounded in contemporary animal welfare science, established technology design practices and applied expertise in animal-centered design. The framework brings together the “Five Domains of Animal Welfare” model and the “Coe Individual Competence” model, and provides a structured approach to defining animal-centric objectives and refining them through the course of a design project. In this paper, we demonstrate how design teams can use this framework to promote positive animal welfare in a range of managed settings. These much-needed methodological advances contribute a new theoretical foundation to debates around the possibility of animal-centered design, and offer a practical agenda for creating technologies that support a good life for animals.

A biological integrity framework for describing animal welfare and wellbeing

“…The Five Domains model provides a stronger focus on mental experiences than does the Five Freedoms model by viewing positive and negative occurrences in four physical/functional domains (Nutrition, Health, Environment, Behaviour) as inputs that generate the fifth domain (Mental experience), which, in turn, represents an integrated welfare outcome (Webster 2016;Johnson et al 2022). Coe (2017) and Webber et al (2022) reframed the Five Freedoms to describe positive welfare in zoo animals, as follows:…”

“…Similar to the Good Life framework are the five 'Opportunities to Thrive' described for wildlife kept in captivity as (1) opportunity for a thoughtfully presented, well balanced diet, (2) opportunity to selfmaintain, (3) opportunity for optimal health, (4) opportunity to express species-specific behaviour, and (5) opportunity for choice and control (Miller et al 2020). In the Welfare through Competence framework, opportunities for achieving competence are enabled by environments that provide choice, control, variety, and complexity (Webber et al 2022). OIE Welfare Principles draw on the Five Freedoms to provide a globally applicable framework for the development of international standards that emphasise animal-based outcomes as measures of welfare (OIE 2021).…”

A biological integrity framework for describing animal welfare and wellbeing

“…The Five Domains model provides a stronger focus on mental experiences than the Five Freedoms model by viewing positive and negative occurrences in four physical/functional domains (Nutrition, Health, Environment, Behaviour) as inputs that generate the fifth domain (Mental experience) which in turn represents an integrated welfare outcome (Webster 2016;Johnson et al 2022). Coe (2017) and Webber et al (2022) reframed the Five Freedoms to describe positive welfare in zoo animals as:…”

“…Similar to the Good Life framework are the five "Opportunities to Thrive" described for wildlife kept in captivity as: 1) opportunity for a thoughtfully presented, well-balanced diet; 2) opportunity to self-maintain; 3) opportunity for optimal health; 4) opportunity to express species-specific behaviour; and 5) opportunity for choice and control (Miller et al 2020). In the Welfare through Competence framework, opportunities for achieving competence are enabled by environments that provide choice, control, variety, and complexity (Webber et al 2022). OIE Welfare Principles draw on the Five Freedoms to provide a globally applicable framework for the development of international standards that emphasize animal-based outcomes as measures of welfare (OIE 2021).…”

“…Negatives addressed in other frameworks are identified in the proposed framework as input constraints that are broadly classified within categories of feed, environment, genotype, and management. Opportunities identified in the Good Life (Rowe and Mullan 2022) and Welfare through Competence (Webber et al 2022) frameworks are incorporated as intermediaries lying between inputs and outcomes. Outcomes inspired by concepts in positive biology are broadly aligned within the tripartite model of welfare.…”