Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Farm animal welfare is an increasingly discussed topic in today's society. Swedish farmers have a notable reputation for their animal husbandry, which include high animal welfare and good health. The Swedish Board of Agriculture has the overall responsibility of the development and maintenance of animal welfare in Sweden. The Swedish Animal Welfare Act was recently revised to secure a higher animal protection and promote good animal welfare with respect for the animals. A report from the Swedish Board of Agriculture shows that non-compliances continue to be at a relatively high level.
This study is a part of a larger research project that is being conducted to investigate how dairy farmers and trotting-horse trainers perceive animal welfare controls, by sending out questionnaires to animal keepers. There is very little research on what Swedish animal keepers think about animal welfare legislation. This study aims to give a picture of the Swedish dairy farmers’ and trotting-horse trainers’ opinions of the animal welfare legislation. Furthermore, the work will investigate whether there are any similarities and differences between their opinions. This study conducted a qualitative analysis of the questions in the questionnaires regarding the perception of animal welfare legislation.
The results showed several differences regarding the perception of how easy it was to achieve compliance with the animal welfare legislation. The dairy farmers considered the requirements regarding pasture to be hard to comply with, as well as not promotion animal welfare. The trotting-horse trainers had most predicaments with the measurement requirements, which they also perceived to be the last beneficial requirements for their horses’ welfare. This could lead to a higher risk of lower compliance of these requirements. There were several requirements regarding documentation and record keeping that was considered to be redundant by the animal keepers. However, most of these requirements originated from other legislation than the animal welfare legislation. A considered amount of the animal keepers could not answer the questions, which indicate that they may not have enough knowledge about the animal welfare legislation.
In conclusion there are several areas in the animal welfare legislation that dairy farmers and trotting-horse trainers seems to be problematic, at the same time there is some difference between the groups. There is a need for further studies in order to get a deeper understanding of Swedish animal keepers’ perception of the animal welfare legislation.