From animal personality to animal individuality in farm animals – a review

Abstract As a result of the domestication process and systematic breeding, livestock species have been shaped as donors of animal goods for humans. The animals’ role so defined, which has remained unchanged for millennia, now faces criticism from intellectuals (posthumanism), pro-animal activists, and increasingly often, postmodern societies. The core aspect of this growing conflict can be described as a relationship between the personality/individuality of farm animals, animals as persons/nonpersons, and animals as moral subjects/agents. This review aims to discuss these relationships in the context of the current state of ethical reflection and knowledge, and in relation to the future of livestock production. It presents problems of definition and research methodology in the field of animal personality, with particular reference to farm animals, characterises the dilemmas of the moral status of animals in the personality/individuality of farm animals – animals as persons/nonpersons – animals as moral subjects/agents, and discusses the relationship between farm animal personality and animal individuality; moreover, it undertakes to analyse the possibilities of individualised treatment of farm animals at the level of future livestock production. It concludes, among other things, that the concept of “animal personality” in relation to farm animals remains undefined in both research and social spaces. While livestock animals remain moral subjects, some ethical concepts attribute to them a wider range of rights intended for personal moral agents. At the same time, it was noted that an individualised approach to animals appears to be one of the most important directions for sourcing food of animal origin in the future, in line with a systematically increasing level of animal welfare.