Letters on Animal Welfare from the Road to Eden: (Letters in Animal Welfare and Ethics (CABI Concise))

Over the past 60 years, our understanding of the livestock animals under our care, and our subsequent treatment of them, has progressed from the days of Ruth Harrison's Animal Machines, a time when farmed chickens were excluded from legal protections created for birds. This book takes us through the introduction of considerations of sentience, the ethical matrix and animal autonomy, the Five Freedoms, welfare quality assurance schemes on farms, and our current concerns of the sustainability of the animal agriculture industry. Combining and reflecting on the earlier works of John Webster, an established animal welfare expert who coined the Five Freedoms concept, this book reinspects the extended journey of animal welfare science.

Table of Contents:
1: In the beginning: Animal Machines and Ruth Harrison 2: Sentience and Sentient Minds 3: The ethical matrix: Beneficence, Autonomy and Justice 4: Freedoms and Domains 5: Welfare Quality Assurance: The Virtuous Bicycle 6: Compassionate sustainability: Green milk from Contented Cows.

About the Author :
John Webster (Author) John Webster is a veterinarian and Emeritus Professor of Animal Husbandry at the University of Bristol, UK. His early years were mostly concerned with the nutrition and environmental physiology of ruminants. More recently he took the first steps to establish a group now internationally recognised as the Bristol Centre for Animal Behaviour and Welfare. His most memorable contribution to the animal welfare debate has been the exposition of the concept of the 'Five Freedoms'. Clive J C Phillips (Series Edited By) Professor Clive Phillips studied agriculture at undergraduate level and obtained a PhD in dairy cattle nutrition and behaviour from the University of Glasgow in 1983. He then lectured in farm animal production and medicine at the Universities of Wales and Cambridge, conducting research into cattle and sheep nutrition and welfare. In 2003 he became the inaugural holder of Australia's first Chair in Animal Welfare, at the University of Queensland, and established the Centre for Animal Welfare and Ethics. He is involved in the development and implementation of State and Federal government welfare policies and has published over 400 articles on animal nutrition, welfare and management in scientific journals and has authored or edited 13 books and over 50 book chapters. He also edits a book series for Springer on the welfare of animals and CABI's Animal Behaviour and Welfare Cases. As Australia's first professor of animal welfare, Prof. Phillips devoted his time to developing animal welfare and ethics research and teaching, with a focus on good nutrition. Prior to emigrating to Australia he lectured at the Universities of Cambridge (1995-2003) and Wales (1984-1995) in the United Kingdom. His research is concerned with many different animals: livestock during ship transport, dogs and cats in shelters, racehorses and zoo animals, and also with our ethical responsibilities towards animals. He is particularly interested in understanding and improving animal welfare in Asia and conducts regular workshops and research projects in China and nearby countries. In 2010 he established the on-line journal Animals, which is now one of the leading journals in the field. In 2009 his book The Welfare of Animals: The Silent Majority was shortlisted for an Australian Museum Eureka prize. In 2012 he received the Australian Museum Eureka Award for Scientific Research that contributes to Animal Protection. He currently chairs both the Queensland and Western Australian Governments' Animal Welfare Advisory Boards and previously chaired the UK's Agriculture Ministry Bovine Tuberculosis husbandry review panel. He was the Independent Member of the UK's Milk Development Council and Member of the UK Government's Select Committee to review the zinc-cadmium sulphide dispersion tests conducted by the Ministry of Defence during the Cold War.