John Webster is Emeritus Professor of Animal Husbandry, University of Bristol School of Veterinary Science and founder of the internationally recognised Bristol Centre for Animal Behaviour and Welfare Science. His previous books include Animal Welfare: A Cool Eye towards Eden, Limping towards Eden and Animal Husbandry Regained.
Preface
This is the third Animal Welfare book that I have written in a series published by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW). Each book has been designed to reflect stages on a journey. The first in the series, ‘A Cool Eye towards Eden’ (1994) imagined an ideal world for all sentient animals defined by a perfect expression of the five freedoms, acknowledged that while this was unachievable, it was the right way to travel and outlined the path. It posed two questions: ‘How is it for them?’ and ‘What can we do for them?’ It addressed the physiological and psychological (body and mind) determinants of animal welfare and outlined an approach to promoting their wellbeing on the farm, in the laboratory and in the home. It closed with a restatement of the view of Eden in the words of Albert Schweitzer ‘Until he extends his circle of compassion to all living things, man himself will not find peace.’
My second book, ‘Limping towards Eden’ (2005), was written at a time of intensive activity in animal welfare science and sought to incorporate this new knowledge into good practice in regard to our approach to, and treatment of, animals in our care. Its closing words were more downbeat. We are on an endless journey towards an impossible dream but ‘the path of duty lies in what is near. We may never expect to see our final destination but, for those who are prepared to open their eyes, the immediate horizon is full of promise.’
What these first two books had in common is that both were primarily concerned with practical solutions to problems of animal welfare based on better understanding of their physical and behavioural needs. While this latest book is based on the same principles of respect for animals‐ my views haven’t changed – the subject matter is very different. It is a very different journey: a voyage of exploration into the animal mind, the nature and extent of sentience and consciousness in different species and how these have been shaped by the challenges of their environment. In Part 1, I set out the operation manual and toolbox of special senses, physical and mental faculties available to all sentient animals as their instinctive birth‐right and explore how animals with the properties of a sentient mind are able to build on this birth‐right and develop survival and social strategies to promote their wellbeing and perfect their use of the tools available to them at birth. In Part 2 I review how sentient minds have been shaped through adaptation to their natural environments. I consider first animals of the waters and the air; least subject to interference from that most invasive of terrestrial species, mankind. Terrestrial mammals are considered in two groups, first the herbivores, carnivores and omnivores of the open plains, then the animals of the forests and jungles, with special attention to the physical and social skills needed for life in the three dimensions of the tree canopy. In this section there is some repetition of the themes introduced in Part 1. This is necessary to put these properties of sentience into their environmental context and (under pressure) I have tried to keep them as brief as possible. The last chapter in this section considers how the finely tuned balance between inherited and acquired senses and skills in different natural environments has been affected by domestication, giving special concern to those animals whose behaviour has been most affected by human interference, dogs, pigs and horses. Since my aim is to look at animals through their eyes, not ours, human attitudes are kept, wherever possible, off the page. However, in the final chapter, ‘Our duty of care’, I address the second clause in my title. I examine human attitudes and actions in regard to other animals on the basis that animals with sentient minds have feelings that matter to them, so they should matter to us too. I review how we can apply our understanding of the sentient mind to meet our responsibilities and govern our approach to animals in the home, on farms, in sport and entertainment, in laboratories and in the wild. This brief voyage into the animal mind is based, wherever possible on evidence from science and sound practice. However, it regularly ventures into uncharted waters so contains almost as much speculation as hard evidence and makes no claim to be definitive. It has not been my aim to present a comprehensive, balanced review of existing knowledge and understanding in relation to animal minds but to stimulate the desire in your mind to learn more. The better we understand our fellow mortals, the more likely it is that we can be good neighbours.
Acknowledgements and Apologies
The aim of all educational books is to contribute to knowledge and understanding. My book is addressed to all who care for sentient animals, which is a much broader reading public than just academics and students diligently studying animal welfare as a part of their formal education. However, it must carry the authority that comes from diligent research. Just as the animals acquire different skills to meet different challenges, being expert in some things, ignorant of others, so too the academics. With this I mind, I must acknowledge at the outset that this book is crazily ambitious in scope. It carries the scent of ‘life, the universe and everything’ in that it seeks to embrace the full extent of our knowledge and understanding of the sentient minds of animals in the context of the full range of challenges and opportunities presented by life on earth. Moreover, I acknowledge, it abounds in speculation. Many millions of words have been written by scientists, philosophers and fellow travellers seeking to understand the minds of animals, how they are shaped by their environments and how these are linked to the workings of the brain. My reading of this is wide but, inevitably less wide than it could be. If I were to attempt to acknowledge the sources of every assertion made in this book, the list of references would be longer than the book itself and even then, I would be guilty of omitting at least as many seminal references as I included. Moreover, a comprehensive list of references intended to direct a library search no longer carries the importance it once had. In recent years, my research, like that of everybody else, has been made so much quicker and more comprehensive by the reading and careful interpretation of on‐line information from sources such as Google Scholar and Wikipedia. Readers wishing to confirm or contest my assertions in regard to well‐documented issues, or simply seek further and better particulars, should be able to get access to almost all my sources in two to three clicks. In the section ‘Further Reading’, I list a number of good books that expand on some of the big topics presented here in brief. Most of the specific references listed under further reading deal with material taken from a specific scientific communication. When I speculate beyond the constraints of the literature and cannot therefore stand on the shoulders of others, I strive always to conform to first principles of science that apply across a broad spectrum so do not need the support of written evidence relating to every possible circumstance. Water runs downhill, wherever one happens to be.
I have spent over 60 years working with animals, thinking about animals, discussing animals with wise colleagues, writing and teaching about animals. I cannot possibly acknowledge by name all those who have guided and developed my thoughts: distinguished colleagues who have enriched my understanding; razor‐sharp students who have challenged my convictions. I have therefore taken the easy option and never (well, almost never) named names. Those of you who read this book and recognise that I am talking about you, please accept my heartfelt thanks. I would make one exception to my policy of not naming names. I am deeply indebted to Birte Nielsen of UFAW, who has conscientiously and wisely helped to knock this manuscript into shape, purged me of repetitions and reined me in whenever my imagination was getting out of hand.
