Farm animal welfare: A survey of the opinion of farmers and consumers in Sardinia

Abstract

Animal welfare in the European Union is strictly regulated and has the highest standards in the field. It is also present in the CAP in both the first and second pillars. In Sardinia, animal welfare has taken on greater importance since it was introduced via the Rural Development Plan (RDP) in 2005. The context in which the animal welfare programme was initiated was that of a rural setting that had never before followed such projects and to which even the word welfare aimed at animals was alien. The welfare plan was geared hygiene in milking and housing, and the fight against foot problems and stress for primiparous ewes during the first week of milking. After 15 years of implementing animal welfare support interventions from public funds, this work aimed to investigate the perception of animal welfare among both beneficiary farmers and citizen-consumers. The data were collected in a linked survey on both farmers and consumers who are involved in the profound social and economic implications for the Island. On the one hand, 98% of breeders consider animal welfare to be important for the health and productivity of their animals, even though 59% also claim to have changed little or nothing in their farm management following the introduction of RDP measures, partially because the animal welfare measures were already being practised. On the other hand, public respondents’ willingness to pay more when it comes to purchase decisions can be considered as interesting evidence of a possible collective understanding which deserves further investigation. The results highlight the fact that animal welfare is undoubtedly a well-known and topical issue which has gained widespread attention and a broad agreement on its relevance and priority. Nonetheless, a shared vision on the meaning of welfare is lacking, even within regional policies that appear to be strongly segmented.