Humaneness Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pest animals such as rabbits, feral pigs, foxes, wild dogs and feral cats continue to cause significant environmental damage and agricultural losses in Australia despite improvements in control methods and the development of new techniques. Each year hundreds of thousands of pest animals are trapped, poisoned, shot or otherwise destroyed because of the harm they cause (Olsen 1998). Historically, pest animal control has focussed on killing as many pests as cheaply as possible. For most people in today’s society the management of pest animals is acceptable provided that such management is humane (Mellor and Littin 2004) and justified. However, many of the methods used to control pest animals in Australia are far from being humane. There is a pressing need to improve the humaneness of control programs and to develop a process that enables the most humane methods to be identified.
The ‘humaneness’ of a pest animal control method refers to the overall welfare impact that the method has on an individual animal. A relatively more humane method will have less impact than a relatively less humane method. The development of a system to assess the relative humaneness of control techniques was identified as a priority at a joint workshop held by RSPCA Australia, the Animal Welfare Science Centre and the Vertebrate Pests Committee in 2003 (Humane Vertebrate Pest Control Working Group 2004). Information from such a system could be used to assist decision makers in the development, planning and implementation stages of pest animal control programs along with other factors such as efficacy, cost-effectiveness, practicality, target specificity and operator safety.
Included in this report is a review of current information relating to the assessment of humaneness and welfare impact. It examines the assessment of welfare in laboratory animals, production animals and wild animals and also summarises methods used to determine the welfare impact of some pest animal control methods. Based on this review, it was apparent that although there are some systems for assessing humaneness for specific classes of control methods (i.e. injury scoring for restraining traps, comparison of poisons), there are none that could be applied to the full range of pest animal control techniques used in Australia. A model was therefore developed to achieve this aim.
The model presented in this report examines the negative impacts that a control method has on an animal’s welfare and, if a lethal method, how the animal is killed. There are two parts: Part A examines the impact of a method on overall welfare and the duration of this impact; Part B examines the intensity of suffering and duration of suffering of the killing technique. In Part A, overall welfare impact is assessed by looking at the impact in each of five ‘domains’, originally described by Mellor and Reid (1994) to examine the impact of scientific procedures on experimental animals. Domain 1 is water deprivation, food deprivation and malnutrition; Domain 2 is environmental challenge; Domain 3 is injury, disease, functional impairment; Domain 4 is behavioural, interactive restriction; and Domain 5 is anxiety, fear, pain and distress. The degree of impact in each domain is rated on a five-step scale – no impact, mild, moderate, severe or extreme impact. The overall impact is the rating given to Domain 5 since this represents the outcome of the impacts in the other four domains (and also includes external influences, such as the presence of humans). In Part B, the killing method is assessed by examining the level of suffering and the duration of suffering based on the time to insensibility base on the criteria described by Broom (1999). Matrices are used to determine the score for each part and then the two scores are combined to obtain the overall humaneness score.
The main advantage of this model is that it provides a systematic, comprehensive and transparent process that helps to generate consensus among diverse stakeholders regarding the humaneness of control methods. Also, the relative humaneness of different techniques can be compared based on the score obtained. Although it cannot achieve a purely objective and precise assessment, this model allows us to grade humaneness using the available scientific information and informed judgement
The humaneness model has received widespread support with the majority of stakeholders indicating that it is effective and practical. Consultation with relevant stakeholders has also indicated that they support the application of the model by an expert panel to currently used control techniques and that the assessments be disseminated to a wider audience.
Membership of the project steering group
The project steering group included representatives from the AAWS Animals in the Wild Working Group:
- Bidda Jones, RSPCA Australia
- Chris Buller, Invasive Animals CRC
- Frank Keenan, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Queensland
- Maxine Cooper, Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Government
- Kristy McPhillips, Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)
- Tony Peacock, Invasive Animals CRC
- Quentin Hart, Bureau of Rural Sciences
And also:
- Kate Littin, New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
Scope and approach
The objectives of this project were to:
Phase 1:
- Undertake a desktop review and evaluation of existing literature (i.e. studies, articles, documents, codes of practice, standard operating procedures etc.) relating to the assessment of humaneness of pest animal control methods. Information obtained from this review will be used to develop a humaneness ranking model that contains key welfare assessment principles. The purpose of the model is to allow the relative humaneness of control methods to be taken into consideration during the development, planning and implementation stages of pest animal control programs.
- Submit the draft model via a scoping document to the steering group for approval.
Phase 2:
- With the assistance of the steering group, identify key stakeholders with an interest or involvement in the use of pest animal control techniques (i.e. APVMA; farmers; animal welfare organisations; land managers - government and non-government; and the community).
- Circulate the scoping document to identified stakeholders to obtain feedback.
- Collate all comments received from stakeholders and incorporate these comments into a new draft of the scoping document. Submit new draft of scoping document to the steering group for approval.
Phase 3:
- Circulate the second draft of the scoping document to stakeholders.
- Identify main points of agreement/difference and prepare agenda for stakeholder meeting based on these points.
- Organise a face-to-face meeting of key stakeholders with the aim to reach consensus on the proposed ranking of humaneness model.
- Prepare a report of the meeting and prepare a final version of the ranking of humaneness model. Submit final report to steering group, who will submit to high level stakeholders e.g. National Resource Management Ministerial Council (NRMMC), Primary Industries Ministerial Council (PIMC), Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) for endorsement.
The outcomes of the project were:
- A teleconference involving members of the steering group and consultant was held on 31 May, 2007. The aim was to discuss the proposed approach and to receive some initial feed back on the consultancy.
- A desktop review of literature relating to the assessment of humaneness and a draft humaneness ranking model was prepared and circulated to members of the steering group on 10 August, 2007. Comments and suggestions were incorporated into a second draft and this was circulated to stakeholders with an interest or involvement in pest animal control on 22 November, 2007
- A discussion paper was prepared which included a summary of the 36 comments received from stakeholders and also formed the basis of the agenda for a workshop to discuss and refine the proposed humaneness model.
- A workshop to discuss the proposed model for assessing the relative humaneness of pest animal control methods was held on Wednesday 9th April, 2008. Twenty-seven invited participants, including members of the project steering group, attended the workshop including representatives from State/Territory and Commonwealth governments (except ACT) as well as the CSIRO, Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority (APVMA), Animals Australia, NSW Farmers, Australian Veterinary Association and Massey University, New Zealand. A report summarising the outcomes of the workshop was prepared and comments and suggestions were incorporated into a final version of the humaneness model.
- A final report that incorporates the literature review and the model for assessing humaneness was submitted.