By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent

EAST LANSING, Mich. — The term “animal welfare” can have a lot of different meanings depending on who is using it and the context in which it is being used.

Animal welfare was one of the issues that Janice Siegford, assistant professor in the Michigan State University (MSU) Department of Animal Science and researcher, discussed at the 31st annual Ag Expo last week during her presentation, “Taking Stock: Are You Prepared for Animal Agriculture’s Future?”

“Animal welfare has gotten a lot of attention recently,” Siegford said. “It’s important to understand what is meant – a lot of people talk about different things. My definition is the quality of life for the animal.

“For people working with animals, you’re invested in giving your animals good care because you know that well- cared-for animals produce better,” she said.

Siegford discussed House Bill 5127, which was approved by the Michigan legislature last October. It established basic animal care guidelines that require that calves being raised for veal, egg-laying hens and gestating sows must be housed in such a manner that they can lie down, stand up and fully extend their limbs.

With this bill, members of the agricultural community decided, “If we want to have standards of care for animals, we want to have a say in the standards,” Siegford said.

The overall outcome, she said, was positive for animal welfare, and agricultural producers were able to manage the changes by building in some time to fully execute the guidelines set forth by the legislation.

Siegford, whose research examines the impacts of management practices and environment on the behavior and welfare of production animals, also talked about how an animal’s health and welfare is assessed.

“We look at the basic functions of the animal – is it eating well,” she said. “We also look at behavior. Is it doing what it should be doing? Is it showing normal behaviors? Finally, we consider how the animal perceives what is going on and how it is reacting to that.”

Siegford said that stress can impact an animal’s behavior and its emotional health and determining its welfare is based on assessing its quality of life from the animal’s viewpoint.

In doing so, “we look at what is the best combination of factors for the animal to do the best,” she said.

Members of the non-agricultural community often mean well when lobbying for animal welfare.

“People have idyllic notions of animals,” Siegford said. “Sometimes, animals get sick, go off their feed. These are things you cannot control.

“Sometimes people don’t have a frame of reference for what a farm animal is,” she said. “Sometimes people with no connection to agriculture have a hard time relating to what the animal’s need is.”

For example, Siegford related a story about taking a sick child to the doctor and receiving a prescription for antibiotics.

“You wouldn’t want them to not have access to antibiotics – to use antibiotics for therapeutic use,” she said.

However, the therapeutic use of antibiotics in animals is a tender subject for some and meets much opposition from a variety of public groups.

One plus, Siegford said, is that the agriculture community is working together to educate the public about agricultural practices.

“We are starting to talk with a more unified voice about what we are doing everyday to take good care of our animals,” she said.