Dataset Information

Perceptions of Prominent Animal Welfare and Veterinary Care Organizations in the United States.

ABSTRACT: U.S. residents' perceptions of the impact of prominent animal welfare and veterinary care organizations on pet animal well-being and health care may not be linked to the organization's stated mission and effectiveness in advancing it, but to the level of recognition people have for the groups. An online survey of 1000 U.S. residents was used to understand the perceived impact of organizations with self-stated dedication to pet animal well-being. Using a Likert-scale, respondents ranked 13 prominent organizations as having a low to high impact on pet animal well-being and health care. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) had the highest perceived average impact, while People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had the lowest. A best-worst scaling (BWS) choice experiment was conducted with 7 of the initial 13 organizations to elicit relative rankings by forcing tradeoffs by respondents. Consistent with the Likert-scale results, the ASPCA was ranked as the most impactful organization. The ASPCA's perceived impact on pet animal well-being and health care may be linked to their high level of recognition among respondents, as this was the organization that respondents most frequently reported having seen/heard stories related to animal well-being and health care.

SUBMITTER: Ortez M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7143340 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Perceptions of Prominent Animal Welfare and Veterinary Care Organizations in the United States.

Ortez Mario M Bir Courtney C Widmar Nicole Olynk NO Wolf Christopher A CA

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI 20200312 3

U.S. residents' perceptions of the impact of prominent animal welfare and veterinary care organizations on pet animal well-being and health care may not be linked to the organization's stated mission and effectiveness in advancing it, but to the level of recognition people have for the groups. An online survey of 1000 U.S. residents was used to understand the perceived impact of organizations with self-stated dedication to pet animal well-being. Using a Likert-scale, respondents ranked 13 promin ...[more]

PMID: 32178242

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Project description:While perceptions of animal welfare have been assessed in veterinary students and students internationally, there remains a gap in research concerning undergraduate and graduate student perspectives of animal welfare in animal science programs at colleges and universities across the United States. A survey was developed to assess current animal science student perspectives of the importance of animal welfare as part of their education, their knowledge of available educational opportunities, and resources they think should be included in animal welfare curricula. An online survey was distributed to a national listserv of university administrators of animal science programs in the United States. A total of 624 survey responses were statistically summarized. Most respondents were undergraduate students (78.0%, n = 487), between the ages of 18 and 24 (85.9%, n = 536), and female (86.1%, n = 537). Results indicated that despite most respondents not taking an animal welfare course previously (60.7%, n = 379), most students strongly agreed that the inclusion of an animal welfare course is an important part of the animal science curriculum (72.0%, n = 449), that animal welfare is an important component of their education (63.1%, n = 394), and that animal welfare courses would be helpful for their future careers (70.0%, n = 437). When asked what attributes would be most important in an animal welfare class, students identified many different types of information and resources. The majority of respondents answered that discussing current hot topics in animal welfare (76.1%, n = 475), ethical discussions (76.0%, n = 474), and practical, applied questions (75.3%, n = 470) were important course components. Suggestions for future research include investigating how animal science student perceptions change before and after taking an animal welfare course and exploring opportunities to expand formal welfare education in animal science departments. Inclusion of animal welfare into the curriculum is critical as many of the students currently enrolled in animal science departments will become the future stakeholders in animal-focused industries.

Project description:Meat consumption and public concern for farm animal welfare are increasing, despite limited public understanding of agriculture and animal welfare. Turkey is important in U.S. holiday meal traditions and turkey meat is a frequently consumed processed product (i.e., lunchmeat). However, little is known about public perceptions and knowledge of commercial turkeys. An online survey was administered to 1,695 respondents in November 2018 to examine U.S. (1) demographic factors affecting meat consumption, selection of labeled meat products, and concern for animal welfare, (2) public knowledge of turkeys, and (3) concerns regarding the welfare of turkeys and other species. A total of 95% of respondents consumed meat and 10% hunted for some of the meat they consumed. Meat consumption frequency depended on region of residence, income level, gender, age, and whether respondents hunted. Of the meat consumers, 86% purchased turkey products. More meat consumers looked for the USDA organic label (39%) and the Non Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) project label (38%) than animal-welfare food labels (14%) when buying meat products. More pet owners (39%) than non-pet owners (25%) looked for animal welfare food labels. Being a pet owner increased the probability of being concerned about farm animal welfare. Concern for the commercial turkey was similar to concern for other farm animal species; self-reported knowledge of turkey production was low (mean score 2.64; scale of 1 to 7, 7 = highest). Turkey welfare concerns (mean score; rank from 1 to 5; 5 = least concerning) included poor nutrition (2.471) and illness (2.508), followed by housing (2.732), hot or cold weather (3.308) and transportation (3.981). Turkey welfare attributes that respondents cared the most about (mean score; scale of 1-5, 5 = cared the least) included space to move around (2.366), followed by veterinary health and wellness (2.680), ability to perform natural behavior (2.812), no feather loss or visible injuries (3.304), and decreased aggression (3.837). Demographic factors are important determinants of meat consumption and animal welfare concern. Public knowledge of turkey production is limited, despite a large percentage of the population purchasing turkey products.

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Project description:BackgroundThe privately owned companion dog is an emerging model in comparative medicine, notably because it shares the human environment including its risk factors, is affected by many analogous age-related diseases, receives comparable medical care, and has excellent veterinary medical data available.Past studies of dog lifespan have used academic, corporate or insurance data. While independent primary care data exist for the UK, none have as of yet been published for the US. This study analyzed data from three independent primary care US veterinary hospitals and identified factors that influence lifespan and mortality in a cohort of n = 20,970 privately owned dogs using Kaplan-Meier survival estimators and Cox Proportional Hazards modelling, including body size as a covariate.ResultsAs previously reported, body size was negatively correlated with lifespan. Gonadectomy was associated with a longer lifespan, with the effect being stronger in females than in males. This lifespan advantage was conserved in gonadectomized female dogs that lived to at least ages 5 and 8 years. We did not find significant differences in lifespan between purebred and mixed breed dogs; however, breeds with larger effective population sizes and/or lower inbreeding coefficients had median survival times 3-6 months longer than breeds with smaller effective population sizes or higher inbreeding coefficients, indicating that these measures of genetic diversity may be affecting breed lifespans. We also found that dog breeds belonging to the "Mountain" ancestral group had median survival times that were 3.5-4.6 years shorter than other purebred dog groups, which remained significant even when correcting for body size.ConclusionsOur findings show that it is possible to obtain and analyze data from independent veterinary clinics in the US, an approach that could be useful for studies of comparative epidemiology under the One Health and One Welfare paradigms. We also show that the lifespan effects of gonadectomy are not identical between the sexes and should be investigated separately by sex in future analyses. More research is needed to further clarify the influence of age at gonadectomy, as well as the factors leading to the observed differences in lifespan in the "Mountain" ancestral group and in dog breeds of varying inbreeding coefficients and effective population sizes.

Dataset Information

Perceptions of Prominent Animal Welfare and Veterinary Care Organizations in the United States.

Publications

Perceptions of Prominent Animal Welfare and Veterinary Care Organizations in the United States.

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