Animal husbandry affects animal welfare and there have been many scientific studies of different aspects of this. In the KASBAH project, the link between husbandry and welfare of captive wild animals is explored by induction, using Grounded Theory to look for relationships between husbandry and behaviour. Behaviour is used to assess the animal's welfare state rather than, for example, biochemical assays, because it is non-invasive, and makes few demands on the hosting establishment. Those relationships will then be used to build a web-based tool for assessing husbandry regimes, predicting the kind of behaviour resulting, whether this is desirable from a welfare point of view, and suggesting how husbandry could be modified to produce behaviour patterns indicating a better welfare state for the animals. The process is to be carried out using the Asian Small-Clawed Otter (Aonyx cinereus) and the tool built and tested.

If it works and is useful, the process will be repeated for other otter species.

If this goes well, I will extend it to a dissimilar species, possibly the Plains Zebra, Equus burchellii. If it proves successful for this species as well, this may prove to be a generally useful method for objectively assessing the welfare of captive animals.
 

This project is being carried out in collaboration with Professor John Webster and Dr Mike Mendl at Bristol Vet School. It is partly supported by CCLRC (Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils), and by UFAW, the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare.