Page 300 - Zoo Animal Learning and Training

272 11 Welfare Implications of Zoo Animal Training

VetBooks.ir and initiate discussion and hopefully motivate of ethical debate. Whereas measuring the
impact of what we do to animals is the realm
investigation of the relationship between ani-
mal welfare and the provision of husbandry
There are various texts which specifically
training in zoos. Given that we anticipate that of animal welfare science.
readers of this chapter have or will read other consider the ethics of zoo animals (e.g. Norton
chapters in this book, we have not provided et al. 2012; Gray 2017). Other than wanting to
and overview of the impact different training draw the readers’ attention to the distinction
techniques may have on the welfare of animals, between animal ethics and welfare, this chap-
as this is considered throughout this book, ter aims to focus on animal welfare as it relates
especially in Chapters 4 and 7. So the obvious to zoo animal training. There are many ethical
misconceptions, conveyed by language, that considerations which relate to zoo animal
any training which includes the term negative training, not least should we train animals?
or punishment, is also detrimental to animal Does training impact the animals’ integrity
welfare is not further discussed. (telos; Figure 11.1)? Does training zoo animals
further remove them from their wild conspe-
cifics and does it matter? If zoo animals are
11.2 Animal Welfare Science vs trained does it influence our perception, treat-
Ethical Considerations ment, and consideration of them? As can hap-
pen within the field of ethics, the number of
Ethics are the ‘moral principles that control questions which arise can become over-
or influence a person’s behaviour’ (OED whelming and the discourse required to do
2018). The study of animal ethics relates to justice to these important issues lengthy! As
how we as humans use animals within society pragmatists, and let’s be honest zoo animal
and whether these uses can be justified. The welfare scientists rather than philosophers, we
study of ethics is based on theoretical philo- have decided it would be really valuable to
sophical reasoning of concepts such as, the provide an overview of the implications train-
moral status of animals and the nature and ing zoo animals might have relative to their
significance of species, as well as considering welfare state. This overview is intended to
practical applications, in terms of how ani- support you, the reader, to make evidence
mals are used in today’s society for example in based decisions about training, which might
farming systems or within zoos (reviewed
Beauchamp and Frey 2011). By contrast, ani-
mal welfare describes the animals’ state, along
a continuum (from great to awful) at a par-
ticular time, which manifests as a result of its
ability (or lack thereof) to meet physical and
psychological challenges within its daily life.
Animal welfare science is a relatively new
multidisciplinary subject which aims to
empirically evaluate and consider the welfare
state of animals; a good review of the history
of animal welfare science was undertaken by
Broom (2011). There can be some confusion
whether a topic is an ethical or welfare issue.
It is important to clarify how these perspec-
tives differ, as the study and outcomes of them Figure 11.1 An animal’s telos typifies what it is to be
can lead to different results and thus applica- that animal: a hummingbird illustrated here
hovering typifies what it is to be a hummingbird.
tion. Simply, issues relating to whether we Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/animal‐
should use animals and how is the realm avian‐beak‐bird‐349758.