Belief in Animal Sentience and Affective Owner Attitudes are linked to Positive Working Equid Welfare across Six Countries.

This research investigates the correlation between the owner’s understanding of animal sentience and emotions, their attitude towards the animal, and the overall welfare of working equids (horses, donkeys, mules, etc.) across six countries.

Objective and Methodology

• The research aims to study the often overlooked relationship between an animal’s welfare and the owner’s beliefs and emotional connection to the animal.
• This subject was studied by conducting a welfare assessment and administering a questionnaire to examine the attitude of 378 equid owners across four continents and six countries.

Findings

• The study uncovered that owners’ belief in their equids’ capacity to feel emotions and their affective (empathetic and emotional) attitudes, as opposed to instrumental (relating to the animal as a tool or object), have a significant positive impact on the equids’ general health status and body condition.
• The research also discovered that equids whose owners believe they can feel pain were significantly less likely to suffer from lameness, a common problem among working equids.

Implications

• The findings put a spotlight on the importance of the human-equid relationship in influencing the equid’s welfare, emphasizing the positive impact of the belief in equid emotions and the demonstration of affective attitudes by owners.
• This understanding could play a pivotal role in improving equid welfare initiatives by promoting the significance of owners’ beliefs in equid sentience and owners’ attitudes towards their animals.

Limitations and Further Research

• While this study makes a crucial step in identifying the correlation between owner attitudes, belief in animal sentience, and animal welfare, it is primarily observational and does not establish a direct cause-effect relationship.
• Where the research provides groundwork for future studies, there is a need for further research to explore the causal relationships between these factors and to generate theories explaining why such beliefs exist among owners across diverse cultures.