Animal Welfare: A Cool Eye Towards Eden

by John Webster

Man controls and dominates the habitat of most animals, both domestic and wild and there is a need for a pragmatic, workable approach to the problem of reconciling animal welfare with economic forces and the needs of man. It is the author's contention that much of the current philosophical discussion of animal welfare is misdirected now that it is possible to measure to some extent what animals think and feel and how much they can appreciate their quality of life. The book deals with farm animals, pets, wild animals and laboratory animals and dicusses their environmental requirements, fear and stress, their response to pain, injury, disease and death, behaviour and aggression, and the implications of biotechnology and genetic engineering. Finally, the book tries to reconcile reverence for life with the inescapability of killing and reviews the prospects of preserving and enhancing quality of life for animals through legislations, education, economic and moral incentives.

Genres: Animals

284 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Webster is an Emeritus Professor in Animal Husbandry at University of Bristol (U.K.)

Reviews

[Heather Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Webster is responsible for one of the most widely-used frameworks in animal welfare - the five freedoms. In this book he looks at the way in which these criteria affect welfare, as well as making some feasible practical suggestions to improve the welfare of captive animals. Animal liberationists may push their agenda as strongly as they like, but it is people like Webster who are making real differences in the lives of captive animals. Some of the material here was quite technical and probably aimed more at farmers and scientists than laypeople, but the ideas are strong and important.