Agricultural Animal Bioethics
Developing an integrated curriculum for agricultural bioethics education
There is a shortage of U.S. faculty with training and expertise in both animal welfare and bioethics. In light of this, it is essential to collaboratively create and disseminate sound, trans-disciplinary curricula in animal bioethics that are consistent in content and delivery across institutions so as to support the goal of promoting and sustaining animal agriculture. This project aims to address the need to develop standardized curriculum, instructional support and resources needed to advance agricultural animal bioethics education.
Project Leaders: Candace Croney (PI)
CO-PI (s):
- Funding Source: USDA Higher Education Challenge Grants Program
- Website: Agricultural Animal Bioethics
Additional bioethics publications:
- Bonding with commodities: Social constructions and implications of human–animal relationships in contemporary livestock production
- The ethics of semantics: do we clarify or obfuscate reality to influence perceptions of farm animal production?
- Board-invited review: the ethical and behavioral bases for farm animal welfare legislation
Related collaborative publications on public perceptions of animal welfare
Project Leaders: Nicole Widmar (PI), Candace Croney (PI)
Funding Sources: IN Pork Board, IN Soybean Alliance
- Exploring Agritourism Experience and Perceptions of Pork Production
- Understanding Consumer Pork Attribute Preferences
Previous Research
Farm Animal Cognition and Welfare
Pig cognition
Cognitive processes such as learning, memory, and problem-solving are critically important for animals to adapt to the environments in which they are kept. Because the pig’s psychological processes may impact its physical well-being in a given environment, they have implications for animal production. For example, a pig’s ability to learn and remember interactions with people raises concerns that if their experiences and memories of those are unpleasant, they may be fearful or distressed and suffer accordingly. Likewise, production environments that are relatively barren may provide pigs with inadequate mental stimulation, which may cause them to experience psychological distress or suffering in the form of boredom, frustration, and other unpleasant emotional states. Our research has focused on the cognitive abilities of pigs and their potential applications to their care and management. We have shown that pigs are capable of fairly complex cognitive processes, such as operant learning, visual and olfactory discriminations and concept formation.
Project Leaders: Candace Croney (PI)
- A note on visual, olfactory and spatial cue use in foraging behavior of pigs: Indirectly assessing cognitive abilities
- C. Croney. 1999. Cognitive abilities of domestic pigs