Interacting With Animals: Understanding Their Behaviour and Welfare. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Interacting With Animals: Understanding Their Behaviour and Welfare

Animal behavior and welfare is an increasingly complex area of study, with the diversity of the animal kingdom ensuring there is no one, easy answer. Instead, it requires us to take a holistic approach combining scientific principles with both philosophical and ethical considerations to develop all-inclusive policies and legislation that decide how society should interact with domestic, farm, and native animals.

With a focus on domestic animals, but with references to wild species to reinforce the arguments made, this book:

• considers the concept of consciousness, how it can be assessed, and how it relates to suffering and animal welfare more widely;
• emphasizes the need to better understand how animals behave both in relation to and outside of human influence, considering the diversity of behavior and sensorial capacities across species;
• includes author expertise across a wide range of animal species, from primates to domestic farm animals, and across living situations from intensive to free-ranging.

We are far from having all the answers, so this book also raises areas that require further research and focus, such as the way animals are likely to act based on recent and life-long experiences. Still, this review of the topic, an updated translation of the French language work Vivre parmi les animaux, mieux les comprendre, provides an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in animal behavior and welfare.

Pierre Le Neindre is a retired scientist from INRA, France. He worked in the field on sheep and cattle in many environments ranging from very intensive such as veal calves in cages, to extensive such as beef cattle in the hills of France. He worked widely with sheep in France and Australia, mostly under in extensive conditions. He also worked on experiments into the onset of maternal behaviour and on the importance of endocrinology. He led a team studying ethics of animal husbandry and the biology of pain, suffering and consciousness. His team worked on basic academic studies as well as contract research for both the European and French ministries.

Bertrand Deputte's main research is on the social behaviour of captive primates, their visual and vocal communication, development of social behaviour and social perception. Formerly he was Honorary Director of Research at the CNRS / Honorary Professor of Ethology at French National Veterinary Schools at Alfort (ENVA), where he also taught ethology and directed research on perception and social behaviours in cattle and dogs.