Page 275 - The Welfare of Cattle

252 the WeLfare of CattLe

selection for production traits, the domestic dairy cow retains the drive to engage in certain key
behaviors, as reflected through her ethogram. For example, cattle will typically spend the majority
of their days alternating between feeding and rumination (Hall, 2002). Grazing usually begins at
sunrise, followed by rumination during the mid-morning period, after which they continue to graze
sporadically through the afternoon and evening hours. In addition, like her wild counterparts, the
modern-dairy cow will tend to form and strive to maintain relatively stable dominance hierarchies
that are reinforced by behaviors such as lying in proximity to those of similar rank and engaging in
allo-grooming. Groups of free-ranging cattle are generally observed to consist primarily of cows
and their calves, although bulls join and leave the groups periodically (Hall, 2002).
The potential thwarting of behaviors inherent to the nature of the dairy cow, particularly those
she remains highly motivated to perform, can be considered as a violation of her telos. It also
appears to elicit societal concerns as indicated by studies of public perceptions of dairy cow welfare
(see section “Societal Perceptions of Cow Welfare and telos”). Restricting such behaviors is also
likely to undermine an intrinsic aspect of cattle welfare, that is, cows being allowed to live accord-
ing to their telos, which requires “meeting of those needs and interests that matter to the animal
and affect its feelings by virtue of its biological and psychological nature,” (Rollin, 1993, 2007).
Such restriction, particularly over any continuous length of time, may generate frustration and
other negative affective states and therefore undermine psychological and emotional well-being as
well. The concurrent physiological stress responses that are evoked may also ultimately undermine
the cow’s biological “fitness,” impacting her reproductive, productive, and survival capabilities as
resources are mobilized in an attempt to help her cope (Broom and Johnson, 1993; von Borell, 1995;
Moberg, 2000).
Consideration of the dairy cow’s telos—together with her evolutionary history and modern
conceptions of animal welfare—is thus integral to evaluations of her capacity to cope successfully
with environmental and production demands. Coincident societal pressures for the dairy industries
to better accommodate animal natures into production systems and practices provide additional
impetus to evaluate the role of telos in helping to inform best practice for modern-dairy farms,
enhance public trust, and allow farmers to maintain their social license to operate (Croney and
Anthony, 2011).

Conceptual Framework

Before examining public views of the more contentious animal welfare challenges faced in
the dairy industry, it is useful to first establish a conceptual framework from which to understand
these challenges and how they may relate to the telos of the dairy cow. Others (Moberg, 1985;
Dawkins, 1988; Broom, 1991; Duncan, 1993; Gonyou, 1993; McGlone, 1993) have written exten-
sively on the differing definitions of animal welfare, but for the purposes of this chapter, we will
rely on the conception of animal welfare put forth by David Fraser, Daniel Weary, Ed Pajor, and
Barry Milligan (1997), which is to say that animal welfare can be thought of as three distinct but
interrelated concepts. First, that welfare has to do with how an animal functions physically, for
example, in order to have good welfare a dairy cow must be free from disease and injury and
consume biologically appropriate feed; second, that welfare has to do with how an animal feels,
for example, a cow should experience positive mental states like pleasure and comfort and avoid
negative states like pain, frustration, and fear; and third, that animal welfare must involve an animal
being able to live naturally, that is, a cow should be able to express the behaviors intrinsic to her
natural repertoire and live within a natural social structure and physical environment. The latter
concept perhaps relates most closely to telos, though it should be noted that the interrelatedness of
each of these three concepts dictates that a cow’s ability to physically function and feel well are also
critically important to fulfilling her telos.