IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v8y2018i9p136-d167512.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Naturalness” and Its Relation to Animal Welfare from an Ethological Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Lorenz Gygax

    (Animal Husbandry, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10115 Berlin, Germany)

  • Edna Hillmann

    (Animal Husbandry, Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10115 Berlin, Germany)

Abstract

Here we view naturalness from the point of view of proximate behavioural control. The mechanisms of behaviour control have evolved in order that animals reach a specific goal after they have performed motivated behaviour. This goal was closely related to a function at the time when the mechanism evolved. Function and goal may be de-coupled in a novel environment such as artificial housing conditions. We argue that an animal that can perform the behaviour it wants and can reach the goals it likes can behave according to what is “in-its-nature” even under human influenced conditions. We illustrate this argument using abnormal sucking behaviour in calves and piglets as well as dehorning in cattle and goats. We conclude that a minimal welfare standard is ensured for animals that are given the opportunity to behave as is in-their-nature.

Suggested Citation

  • Lorenz Gygax & Edna Hillmann, 2018. "“Naturalness” and Its Relation to Animal Welfare from an Ethological Perspective," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-8, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:8:y:2018:i:9:p:136-:d:167512
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/9/136/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/8/9/136/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:8:y:2018:i:9:p:136-:d:167512. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.