Two Domains to Five: Advancing Veterinary Duty of Care to Fulfil Public Expectations of Animal Welfare Expertise

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Veterinarians are animal health experts. More recently, explicit references to veterinarians as animal welfare experts have proliferated. Veterinarians are ideally situated to act as animal welfare experts by virtue of their core work with animals, influence over owners, their roles in policy development, compliance, and monitoring, and as educators of future veterinary professionals. However, the discipline of animal welfare science has moved beyond a focus on nutrition and health towards an acceptance that the mental experiences of animals are the focus of welfare consideration. The Five Domains Model is a framework for assessing animal welfare and focuses on mental experiences arising from a broad range of impacts or opportunities. The Model can be used as a framework to integrate contemporary understanding of animal welfare science in veterinary curricula and improve welfare literacy within the veterinary profession. ABSTRACT: Veterinarians are animal health experts. More recently, they have been conferred a leading role as experts in animal welfare. This expectation of veterinarians as welfare experts appears to stem from their training in veterinary medicine as well as professional contributions to welfare-relevant policy and law. Veterinarians are ideally situated to act as animal welfare experts by virtue of their core work with animals and potential influence over owners, their roles in policy development, compliance, and monitoring, and as educators of future veterinarians. However, since its inception as a discipline over 70 years ago, animal welfare science has moved beyond a two-dimensional focus on nutrition and health (biological functioning) towards an understanding that the mental experiences of animals are the focus of welfare consideration. The Five Domains Model is a structured and systematic framework for more holistically considering conditions that contribute to the animal’s internal state and its perception of its external situation, and the resultant mental experiences. The Model can be used to better align veterinary animal welfare expertise with contemporary understanding of animal welfare science and improve welfare literacy within the veterinary profession. Improved understanding of animal welfare science is likely to lead to increased confidence, competence, and empowerment to act as experts in their daily lives.