Subject: Cognition

Animal-Based Indicators for On-Farm Welfare Assessment in Goats

Adrian Minnig, Romane Zufferey, Beat Thomann, Sibylle Zwygart, Nina Keil, Gertraud Schüpbach-Regula, Raymond Miserez, Dimitri Stucki, Patrik Zanolari

Published in 2021

Scientific review article identifying 32 animal-based welfare indicators and 3 assessment protocols to evaluate the welfare of intensively-farmed dairy goats.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: Caprines

Keywords:Animal-based measurements, Human-animal relationships, Welfare indicators

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Donkey behaviour and cognition: a literature review

Marta De Santis, Samanta Seganfreddo, Morgana Galardi, Franco Mutinelli, Simona Normando, Laura Contalbrigo

Published in 2021

Scientific review summarising the areas covered by the scientific literature on donkey behaviour and cognition, and detailing the behavioural tests used for donkeys.

Document Types: Scientific review

Animal categories: Equines

Keywords: Cognitive processes, Human-animal relationships,Welfare indicators

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Repérer les signes de maltraitance chez les animaux et les humains, un guide pour les vétérinaires et leurs équipes

AMAH

Published in 2021

News item on the French translation of the Links Group and Animal Welfare Foundation guide. It provides various tools to distinguish between non-accidental and accidental trauma, including a veterinary certificate with explanatory details. It includes a protocol with a decision-making tree to identify, confirm and report suspected abuse.

Document Types: Good practice guide

Keywords:Societal issues, Risk management, Human-animal relationships

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Benefits of Aquatic Animal Welfare for Sustainability

Aquatic Life Institute

Published in 2021

Presentation of the Aquatic Life Institute's 2021 report, highlighting the strong links between improved aquatic animal welfare and sustainable development. The report calls on policy makers to include aquatic animal welfare in their sustainable development policies.

Document Types: Opinions

Animal categories: Fish

Keywords:Consciousness, Pain, Societal issues, Living environment, Livestock farming system, Welfare indicators

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A network perspective on animal welfare

T. Rowland, T.W. Pike, O.H.P Burman

Published in 2021

Scientific paper postulating that welfare is a network system of causal interactions between and within an animal's behavioural, physiological and cognitive components. It proposes a statistical modelling of this network, which links the response variables related to welfare and uses scenarios to test and demonstrate how this approach can be used and the sorts of fresh ideas it can generate.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Keywords: Welfare indicators, Livestock farming system

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Cognition and the human-animal relationship: a review of the socio-cognitive skills of domestic mammals towards humans

Plotine Jardat, Léa Lansade

Published in 2021

Scientific review of 5 social-cognitive abilities possessed by domestic mammals in relation to humans: ability to distinguish between humans and recognise individuals;  perception of human emotions; interpretation of our attentional states and goals; use of referential communication (recognising human signals or sending signals to humans); and engagement in social learning with humans.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Keywords:Cognitive processes, Human-animal relationships

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Dogs distinguish human intentional and unintentional action

Britta Schünemann, Judith Keller, Hannes Rakoczy, Tanya Behne, Juliane Bräuer

Published in 2021

Scientific article on whether dogs are able to distinguish between situations where a human intentionally withholds a reward and those where the lack of reward is unintentional, resulting either from a mistake or a physical obstacle that prevents the reward being given. The results show that dogs clearly distinguish between intentional and unintentional behaviour.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories:Canine

Keywords:Learning, training, Consciousness, Human-animal relationships

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Automatic Pain Detection on Horse and Donkey Faces

Hilde I. Hummel, Francisca Pessanha, Albert Ali Salah, Thijs J. P.A.M. van Loon, Remco C. Veltkamp

Published in 2021

Summary of a presentation at a conference on the use of automatic facial recognition to develop an automatic pain prediction system for horses, based on grimace scales.

Document Types: Scientific paper

Animal categories: Equines

Keywords:Anxiety, Precision farming, Welfare indicators, Human-animal relationships, Pain, Stress

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Behavioral Biology of Horses

Janne Winther Christensen

Published in 2021

Scientific overview chapter dealing with the behaviour of horses, covering human-horse relationships, especially during dressage and training, social behaviour, effects of environmental restrictions and cognitive abilities

Document Types: Scientific work

Animal categories: Equines

Keywords:Learning, training, Brain integration, Cognitive processes, Human-animal relationships

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