Animal welfare: perception of scientists and students
Abstract
The study was conducted in Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences,
Hisar, Haryana to assess the attitude favourableness and empathy with animals among the
scientists and students. The veterinarians are increasingly expected to be taking a lead about
animal welfare issues in a broader sense than health alone. There is a lack of empirical
information about the attitude of scientist towards the animal welfare. Therefore, this study
was conducted on veterinary students and faculty members in the university. A sample of 50
members was chosen using simple lottery method. Similarly a random sample of ten students
from each class of B.V.Sc & AH programme was drawn. The attitude of veterinary students
and scientists towards animal welfare and their level of empathy with animals were assessed.
The attitude was measured using Animal Attitude Scale developed by Herzog et al. (1991),
and the animal empathy scale developed by Paul (2000) was used in the study. Mean score of
respondents indicated neutral to favourable attitude towards animal welfare. Gender,
vegetarianism, economic motivation was found significantly correlated with the attitude
formation.. The respondents’ score indicated moderate empathy with animals. Variables like
belief in animal mind, gender were positively and significantly correlated empathy scores.
Overall economic motivation and year of study for students was negatively and significantly
correlated. Students in later years showed lower level of empathy. It further argued that that
the respondents’ belief about the animal welfare ‘stems from the cultural roots given the
degree of uniformity. Further, the veterinary education per se does not seemingly affect the
empathy and attitude of respondents.