Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

On the first January 2009 the official animal welfare control were transferred from the municipalities to the County Administrative board. With this transition, some changes occurred for those who work as animal welfare inspectors. The aim for this study was to examine farmers' view on the transition between the municipalities and County Administrative board, in order to compare the two authorities. I have also studied the farmers view about animal welfare inspectors' knowledge, both theoretical and practical. The questionnaire also included questions about farmers' view on animal welfare legislation. I choose to interview farmers from various places in Dalecarlia County, so that I would get all the municipalities represented. The questionnaire was sent to 40 farmers, which 26 chose to participate in my survey.

The results of my questionnaire showed a lack of introduction to the farmer, 38 percent of the farmers received no initial information. 62 percent of the farmers did not want animal welfare controls to be pre-notified. The overall opinion of the farmers was that they always should take care of their animals well, therefore they do not need animal welfare controls to be pre-notified. The County Administrative welfare inspector was considered to have a better knowledge than the municipality's animal welfare inspector had, although the difference was barely noticeable with 22 to 21 pleased farmers. Farmers were also pleased with animal welfare inspector’s practical experience, 50 percent were pleased with the municipality´s animal welfare inspector and 58 percent were pleased with the County Administrative animal welfare inspector.

Overall, the farmers were very satisfied with the animal welfare inspector’s ways to deal with animal welfare controls. Twice as many indicated that they were dissatisfied with the municipality´s animal welfare inspector than the County Administrative welfare inspector; as they do not take into account the farmers' thoughts and opinions. 81 percent of the farmers were satisfied with the County Administrative animal welfare inspectors work because they considered the farmer's thoughts and opinions. One of my questions was how the farmers perceived the animal welfare legislation. Half of the farmers responded that they had knowledge of the legislation surrounding their species. In my study, 18 out of the 26 farmers perceive that the animal welfare legislation is at an acceptable level. About half of the farmers had suggestions on how contact between farmers and animal welfare inspector could be done better. Opinions emerged suggesting that the farmers want to have a closer contact with animal welfare inspectors to promote prevention before major flaws were noticed.