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Chinese Public Attitudes towards, and Knowledge of, Animal Welfare

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Most of our current understanding of attitudes to animals comes from studies conducted in Western countries. China, however, is the world’s biggest producer of farm animals for consumption and has one of the worlds’ largest populations of humans. We conducted a survey of public opini...

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Autores principales: Carnovale, Francesca, Jin, Xiao, Arney, David, Descovich, Kris, Guo, Wenliang, Shi, Binlin, Phillips, Clive J. C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8003013/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33803067
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11030855
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author Carnovale, Francesca
Jin, Xiao
Arney, David
Descovich, Kris
Guo, Wenliang
Shi, Binlin
Phillips, Clive J. C.
author_facet Carnovale, Francesca
Jin, Xiao
Arney, David
Descovich, Kris
Guo, Wenliang
Shi, Binlin
Phillips, Clive J. C.
author_sort Carnovale, Francesca
collection PubMed
description SIMPLE SUMMARY: Most of our current understanding of attitudes to animals comes from studies conducted in Western countries. China, however, is the world’s biggest producer of farm animals for consumption and has one of the worlds’ largest populations of humans. We conducted a survey of public opinion, in order to better understand Chinese people’s knowledge of animal welfare and their attitudes towards measures to adopt to improve it. Most respondents were unaware of the meaning of animal welfare, but it appears that awareness has increased in recent years. The welfare of wild animals was considered particularly important. The effects of good welfare on the taste and safety of food were highlighted and respondents were willing to pay more for food from animals raised in good welfare conditions. ABSTRACT: Food-producing animals make up the majority of animals that humans manage globally, and China has been a major producer and exporter of animal products since the late 1990s. The opinions of the population in China regarding animal welfare are not as well understood as those in Europe. In China, animal welfare as a societal concern is still at an early stage of development. This survey of Chinese attitudes aimed to understand consumer knowledge of and behaviour towards animal welfare, and to determine whether harnessing consumer interests may be a potential future influence on the development of high-welfare agricultural production. Most participants were not aware of the meaning of animal welfare, but the number of those that were aware was higher than reported previously. The welfare of wild animals was rated particularly important compared to other animals. The links between welfare and the taste and/or safety of food were considered to be important, and Chinese consumers reported a willingness to pay more for food from animals produced in good welfare conditions, although the quality of the food was considered more important than the animal suffering. A large majority of the respondents reported that there should be legislation protecting animals and certification of welfare on farms, that animals on farms should be provided with enjoyable experiences and that transportation times should be minimised. Furthermore, most respondents reported that animals should be stunned before slaughter. We conclude that animal welfare is of importance to the Chinese consumer, in particular because of its connection to food quality.
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spelling pubmed-80030132021-03-28 Chinese Public Attitudes towards, and Knowledge of, Animal Welfare Carnovale, Francesca Jin, Xiao Arney, David Descovich, Kris Guo, Wenliang Shi, Binlin Phillips, Clive J. C. Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: Most of our current understanding of attitudes to animals comes from studies conducted in Western countries. China, however, is the world’s biggest producer of farm animals for consumption and has one of the worlds’ largest populations of humans. We conducted a survey of public opinion, in order to better understand Chinese people’s knowledge of animal welfare and their attitudes towards measures to adopt to improve it. Most respondents were unaware of the meaning of animal welfare, but it appears that awareness has increased in recent years. The welfare of wild animals was considered particularly important. The effects of good welfare on the taste and safety of food were highlighted and respondents were willing to pay more for food from animals raised in good welfare conditions. ABSTRACT: Food-producing animals make up the majority of animals that humans manage globally, and China has been a major producer and exporter of animal products since the late 1990s. The opinions of the population in China regarding animal welfare are not as well understood as those in Europe. In China, animal welfare as a societal concern is still at an early stage of development. This survey of Chinese attitudes aimed to understand consumer knowledge of and behaviour towards animal welfare, and to determine whether harnessing consumer interests may be a potential future influence on the development of high-welfare agricultural production. Most participants were not aware of the meaning of animal welfare, but the number of those that were aware was higher than reported previously. The welfare of wild animals was rated particularly important compared to other animals. The links between welfare and the taste and/or safety of food were considered to be important, and Chinese consumers reported a willingness to pay more for food from animals produced in good welfare conditions, although the quality of the food was considered more important than the animal suffering. A large majority of the respondents reported that there should be legislation protecting animals and certification of welfare on farms, that animals on farms should be provided with enjoyable experiences and that transportation times should be minimised. Furthermore, most respondents reported that animals should be stunned before slaughter. We conclude that animal welfare is of importance to the Chinese consumer, in particular because of its connection to food quality. MDPI 2021-03-17 /pmc/articles/PMC8003013/ /pubmed/33803067 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11030855 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) ).
spellingShingle Article
Carnovale, Francesca
Jin, Xiao
Arney, David
Descovich, Kris
Guo, Wenliang
Shi, Binlin
Phillips, Clive J. C.
Chinese Public Attitudes towards, and Knowledge of, Animal Welfare
title Chinese Public Attitudes towards, and Knowledge of, Animal Welfare
title_full Chinese Public Attitudes towards, and Knowledge of, Animal Welfare
title_fullStr Chinese Public Attitudes towards, and Knowledge of, Animal Welfare
title_full_unstemmed Chinese Public Attitudes towards, and Knowledge of, Animal Welfare
title_short Chinese Public Attitudes towards, and Knowledge of, Animal Welfare
title_sort chinese public attitudes towards, and knowledge of, animal welfare
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8003013/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33803067
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani11030855
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