Farmers and non-farmers alike have had opportunities to provide their comments at several listening sessions hosted by the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board. Hearing public comments from nearly 50 of the close to 300 people at the two sessions I attended was an eye opener. I plan to share some of those comments in future Ohio Farm News articles, but believe it is important to provide a background of animal care.

Dr. Mo Saif heads the Food Animal Health Research program at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center and The Ohio State University. Most of what follows, he shared at a listening session on May 18.

Our contacts with animals began when man walked on this earth and learned to hunt animals for food and fiber. Since then we have had a long history of interacting with animals. It began in earnest when humans settled into agricultural communities in the Middle East 10,000-11,000 years.

Domestication of animals was mankind’s way of ensuring the presence of animals for its use for food, fiber, work and companionship. Thus, the use of animals for man’s benefits has historic roots that later became supported by philosophical and religious thoughts.

From the beginning our ancestors realized that it is in their best interest to provide for animals to ensure their productivity. Again over the history of mankind improvements have been made in animal housing, disease control, nutrition, and genetics.

It became obvious that animals raised outdoors suffer from high morbidity, mortality, predation and aggression. Hierarchical structures of animal communities are such that dominant animals inflict great pain and suffering on animals low in the hierarchy.
Thus animal confinement became the logical solution to these issues. The results have been scientifically proven. Confined animals suffer less from diseases and predation, and they are protected from adverse climatic conditions. Genetic research has also resulted in less aggressive animals that are more suited to confinement systems.

The issue becomes what are the best management practices that ensure the welfare of the animals in confinement. A variety of definitions have been proposed for animal welfare, but the one that seems to be gaining support is that developed by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), which represents animal health officials from 160 nations.

From a policy perspective the OIE stated: “Animal welfare is a complex international public policy issue, with important scientific, ethical, economic, cultural, religious and political dimensions and which also raised important international trade policy considerations.”

The OIE adopted the concept of incremental evolutionary change with a commitment to continuous improvement as individual organizations and countries proceed along the animal welfare “journey.”

It is obvious that animal welfare issues are at times simplified into black and white perspective, whereas, these issues are complex policy issues. Consideration should be given to scientific, ethical, and economic issues. In addition, cultural, religious and trade policies are important considerations.

Fortunately, this Board does not have to start its work from a vacuum. All the food animal organizations in this country have done considerable work to develop standards for the care and use of animals. The National Cattlemen Assoc., The National Pork Producers Council, The National Chicken Council, United Egg Producers, National Turkey Federation and dairy producer organizations have adopted standards for animal care.

Veterinary specialty organizations such as the American Assoc. of Avian Pathologists, the American Assoc. of Swine Veterinarians, the American Assoc. of Bovine Practitioners and the American Veterinary Medical Assoc. have also developed statements on animal care.
Dr. Saif urged the Board to consider these guidelines developed by people that work closely with our food animals. In addition, if management standards are to be considered, their economic impacts on the consumer and the producer should be closely scrutinized.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Roger Bender may write to him in care of this publication.