Meat+Poultry - October 2018 - 94

FROM THE CORRAL

Forward thinking
Candace Croney, Ph.D., director of the
Center for Animal Welfare Science and
a professor of animal behavior and
well-being at Purdue Univ. has done
important research on how consumers
view the use of meat. She used a
type of questionnaire, called "forced
choice," which assists in facilitating
more realistic answers. In the minds of
the consumer, health and food safety
come first, environmental concerns are
second and animal welfare is third or
fourth. The issue of animal welfare is
now broadening into a broader concept
of social responsibility. She also makes
it clear that science cannot provide all
the answers to ethical questions.
Her research revealed a surprising
conclusion. Animal welfare is at the
top of the list of consumer concerns for
both the most affluent consumers and
those in the low-income demographic.
The interest in animal welfare among
low-income consumers may be
related to labor issues. They may
perceive a relationship between poor
working conditions for people and
poor conditions for animals. Welfare
is a lower priority for middle-income
consumers. Croney also warns the
industry that statements about feeding
starving people are not persuasive.
Her research has also shown that the

undercover videos and other work
by animal activists has caused some
consumers to reduce milk consumption
by as much as 12 percent. A similar
drop in pork consumption has occurred
in a segment of the population.

CONNECTING THE DOTS
Animal welfare has three basic issues.
Each one of these issues requires a
different approach.
1. Improvements in management
to prevent overt animal abuse
during handling: Other issues related
to management practices are: lameness,
severe liver abscesses, lung adhesions,
hernias, and other obvious problems
that may cause suffering. The industry
has done a wonderful job improving
animal handling, but unfortunately,
there are some people who still find it
difficult to admit that problems exist.
2. Housing issues: Phase out
the most restrictive forms of housing
such as sow gestation stalls and small
battery cages. Eventually everybody
will have to do it.
3. Issues requiring problem
solving: The issue of the use of slowgrowing broiler chickens is a prime
example. Going back to the slowest
growing birds would increase feed
consumption up to 20 to 25 percent.
From a sustainability standpoint, this
is a huge waste of feed. Perhaps the
solution is to slow down just a little bit,
maybe 2 to 5 percent. This issue may
have complex tradeoffs. When I discuss

feed conversions with consumers, I
like to paint a visual picture of the feed
waste. If there are four semi-trailers
at a truck stop, the slowest growing
chickens will add a fifth truck.

IMPROVEMENT SHARING
The poultry industry is the worst
when it comes to telling people about
the good things they have done. They
have made improvements in reducing
lameness in broilers, but nobody knows
about it. Today a bird has much heavier
legs. Thirteen years ago, in my book,
"Animals in Translation," I wrote about
extremely aggressive broiler breeder
roosters that killed the hens. To prevent
the roosters from killing the hens,
they had to cut their toes off. Today,
the rooster is a nice guy, therefore
he is able to keep both his toes and
claws. After I saw these roosters in
2017, I went home to find research
papers about improvements in rooster
behavior. I spent three hours on Google
Scholar, but there were no research
papers in the published scientific
literature. All of the research has gone
commercial proprietary.
In the developed world of the
US, Canada, Europe, Australia and
other places, budgets are shrinking
in all areas of research. More and
more research will be proprietary and
never published. This is bad for the
meat industry because when they fix
something, nobody knows about it.
T E M P L E G R A N D I N | m e a t p o u l t r y @ s o s l a n d .c o m

The issue of animal welfare is
now broadening into a broader
concept of social responsibility.
Rosalie Winard

94

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