THE WELL-BEING AND SUFFERING OF ANIMALS

Ethology is expected to provide scientific insights of the welfare sta tus of animals. This involves an assessment of the animals emotions. P sychological research indicates that facial expressions are not reliab le for assessing feelings such as joy, happiness, sadness or disappoin tment, but are useful to determine an emotional dimension such as plea sant/unpleasant. The use of this emotional dimension in animals is dis cussed. The judgement of objects as pleasant or unpleasant is importan t because this emotional reaction results in the objects acquiring a f urther quality and behaviour. The behavioural change has essential fun ctions in that pleasant objects are approached and used and result in a satisfaction of needs which allow the development and maintenance of the individual. Unpleasant objects are avoided such that potential ha rm is minimised. The reaction of animals with respect to safe or unsaf e situations depends on their experience as to whether they cope using normal behaviour or not. The combination of the emotional reactions u npleasant and unsafe results in suffering in the long term. These func tional correlations therefore allow a scientific assessment of well-be ing and suffering in animals through observation of their behaviour ta king account of the species.