Opportunities and challenges to enhance the welfare of livestock through positive human-animal relationships

A negative human-animal relationship from the farm animal’s perspective can, mainly through fear and stress, compromise the animal’s welfare, health and productivity. Studies particularly in the dairy and pig industries demonstrate a causal link between stockperson attitudes, stockperson behaviour, animal fear and stress and animal welfare. Equally, a positive relationship can improve these outcomes for the animal. Furthermore, since stockperson attitudes and behaviour are amenable to change, they can be improved by appropriate training. Indeed, cognitive behavioural training has been shown to improve stockperson attitudes and behaviour towards animals, with consequent reductions in animal fear and improvements in animal productivity. While our understanding of the implications of the human-animal relationship in other livestock industries is relatively poor, there is limited evidence of relationships between stockperson attitudes, stockperson behaviour and animal fear responses in other livestock industries, such as the goat, poultry and sheep industries. There is a clear need for the livestock industries to train their personnel to care for and handle their animals effectively and humanely.