Animal welfare not a bigger problem on larger operations, study finds

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Published: March 8, 2018

A post-doctoral researcher at Iowa State University said a study exploring a correlation between farm size and animal welfare found no such link.

“The simplistic formula that big farms are bad for animal welfare isn’t true and, in fact, in many cases, it appears to be quite the opposite” said Jesse Robbins.

Robbins explored farm size and its impact on animal welfare while studying at the University of British Columbia. He earned his PhD in 2017.

The reason larger farms might do better in certain outcomes may be because they are more economically viable, he said.

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“They tend to have more resources and access to those resources to implement the things that lead to better welfare outcomes,” said Robbins.

Although, in some measures, smaller farms can do better, he added.

He said the study conducted a comprehensive literature review for any evidence to support the popular perception that industrialization of farming is bad for animals.

“As large farms get bigger, they tend to do a better job on biosecurity issues, which is usually related to much better animal health.

“But then there were other instances where large farms, depending on your concept of welfare, might do a poorer job.”

He cited pasture access, often regarded as being better for animal welfare, as an example of where large farms do not do as well as small farms in animal welfare.

“For me, the take home was to avoid these oversimplifications that big farms are bad and small farms are good. We found big farms do really good on a lot of things, but also that I think is a bigger problem is the presumption that small farms are doing great.”

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