What is animal welfare and why is it important?

We are an animal welfare organisation but what does that mean and why is the welfare of animals important?

Animal welfare refers to the quality of life experienced by an animal and encompasses how well the animal is coping with his or her current situation and surroundings.  

World Animal Protection believes animal welfare is affected by the relationships human beings have with animals and it is our duty to ensure all animals are treated humanely, responsibly, and with respect.  

This includes consideration for all aspects of animal well-being, such as the Five Domains. Animal welfare should be at the forefront of every human action involving animals.

• Nutrition – factors that involve the animal’s access to sufficient, balanced, varied, and clean food and water. 
• Environment – factors that enable comfort through temperature, substrate, space, air, odour, noise, and predictability. 
• Health – factors that enable good health through the absence of disease, injury, impairment with a good fitness level. 
• Behaviour – factors that provide varied, novel, and engaging environmental challenges through sensory inputs, exploration, foraging, bonding, playing, retreating, and others. 
• Mental State – by presenting positive situations in the previous four functional domains, the mental state of the animal should benefit from predominantly positive states, such as pleasure, comfort, or vitality while reducing negative states such as fear, frustration, hunger, pain, or boredom. 

Evidence shows that animals are sentient beings who think, feel, have personalities and needs and the capacity to suffer.

This means large numbers routinely experience pain and deprivation. Animal welfare is important because billions of animals around the world are exploited for entertainment, food, medicine, fashion, scientific advancement, and as exotic pets. 

Every animal deserves to have a good life where they enjoy the benefits of the Five Domains. By helping people see animals for the individuals they are, we encourage them to consider and change their behaviour to improve the lives of animals in Australia and around the world.  

Across the world, wild and farmed animals are ruthlessly exploited on an industrial scale. This threatens their welfare, our wellbeing and the health of our planet.

World Animal Protection tackles the root causes of their suffering so that we make the biggest difference to their lives. This means radically changing the way the world works, and how wild and farmed animals are viewed and treated.

We work to achieve this change on a local and global scale so that we can end animal cruelty and suffering. Forever.

• We campaign for people to change their habits, and for investors to avoid businesses that support cruelty.
• Our programs include protecting animals in their natural habitats and creating a better quality of life for animals in farming. 
• Around the world, we work with governments and corporations to implement robust animal welfare policies to end the use and abuse of wild and farmed animals.

Under the Australian Constitution, legislative responsibility for animal welfare within Australia is primarily under the responsibility of state and territory governments, which all have animal welfare legislation.

The Australian Government holds responsibility for trade and international agreements, which entails live animal export trade and animals processed at export-registered slaughter establishments. 

With regards to farm animals, the Commonwealth Government developed a series of National Model Codes of Practice for the Welfare of Livestock, providing guidance on various farming activities – from rearing to transport and slaughtering. These Model Codes cover various species – pigs, sheep, cows, poultry and goats – however, they are not legally binding. State and Territories have incorporated most these Codes into their legislation. These Codes leave wide exceptions to basic animal protections, legalising cruel practices such as the use of sow stalls and farrowing crates, piglet mutilations without anaesthesia and stunning is not required prior to slaughter.

At the State and Territory level, animal protection legislations are mostly enforced by state or territory government officers, and through the RSPCA via inspectors authorised by governments.