46 Section 2
2.5 Dealing with the Social Implications of Improved
Animal Welfare in Practice
There are now many examples of how multidisciplinary approaches have
helped to deliver effective interventions addressing the connections be-
tween socio-economic aspects, animal welfare and the environment. While
this section does not intend to provide a fully comprehensive summary of
globally available tools, we hope that the basic tools and case studies pre-
sented will help readers to further investigate, develop, enable or improve
collaborative networks and programmes in places where these are not yet
in place.
To support work in this area it is key to engage with owners at the
educational and preventative level, and also with the community to ensure
there is an understanding of the essential value these animals provide. While
owners can have an impact on some factors affecting animal welfare, such as
the way animals are treated and fed, many other factors such as the people
dealing with the animal and the systems in which they both live and work
are outside the direct owner’s control (van Dijk et al., 2011). Developing
One Welfare liaison networks to tackle issues covered in this section should
include a number of stakeholders, such as:
- international development departments and environmental organizations;
- educational centres and schools;
- veterinary and animal welfare professionals and other animal service
providers;
- animal welfare and protection groups;
- local authority and government representatives;
- social services and other human support services.
Interventions underpinning this section should aim to provide, as a min-
imum, a local network of key organizations related to the topic. In addition,
gathering and facilitating information exchange and education on a number
of areas should take place, including:
is now increasing recognition of the linkages between this trade and consumer
protection, large-scale criminal behaviour and loss of income to the exchequer.
As a result, these crimes are now taken more seriously by enforcement agencies
and courts. This inevitably leads to more enforcement effort, a crackdown on
crime, support for better and clearer legislation and ultimately to an improvement
in the welfare of the animals being traded.(^1) TNS 2010. Omnibus Survey for the RSPCA.
Case Study 11. Continued.