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Animals
Special Issues
Everlasting Battle against Animal Cruelty: Are We Making Progress?
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Everlasting Battle against Animal Cruelty: Are We Making Progress?

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Ethics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2025) | Viewed by 3442

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Simona Normando

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, Università degli Studi di Padova, Viale dell’Università 16, Agripolis, 35020 Legnaro, PD, Italy
Interests: applied ethology; veterinary behavioural medicine; human–animal relationship; environmental enrichment; animal quality of life; behavioural observations
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Laura Contalbrigo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
National Reference Centre for Animal Assisted Interventions, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale Dell’Università 10, 35020 Legnaro, PD, Italy
Interests: animal assisted interventions; human–animal bond; dog and horse behaviour; dog and horse welfare; dog and horse breeding; shelter medicine
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Animal cruelty is a social phenomenon whose extension and impact are mostly still unknown. Only a few cases are reported even if some countries have adopted animal protection laws and had law enforcement against animal abuse. Pet animals as well as livestock and horses are often the victims but in some countries, even wild animals are the target of cruel actions. Animal cruelty has multiple and developing facets, sometimes not so noticeable because it is driven by excessive anthropomorphization or justified by cultural and economic reasons.

Today, we know that intentional cruelty towards animals is strongly correlated with other crimes including violence against children and women, homicides and drug trade. Sometimes animal abuse is even a sign of mental disorders in humans or it can be the sentinel of social degradation in human contexts.

The aim of this Special Issue is to present recent research about the different shapes of animal cruelty, its change and evolution with human society and the ethical and legislative framework that supports actions against it. Moreover, we aim to collect studies that illustrates strategies adopted to fight this phenomenon with successful or unsuccessful results obtained to oriented the decision making process of public authorities and their actions.

Dr. Simona Normando
Dr. Laura Contalbrigo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

 

Keywords

  • animal cruelty
  • animal welfare
  • human–animal interactions
  • animal abuse
  • animal protection

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 1501 KiB  
Article
Minimum Space When Transporting Pigs: Where Is the “Good” Law?
by Terry L. Whiting
Animals 2024, 14(18), 2732; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14182732 - 21 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1928
Abstract
This paper focuses on the problem of numeracy when writing regulations, specifically how to describe a threshold for crowding of pigs during transport, considering transported pigs range in body mass from 5 to 500 kg. When scientific findings provide the basis for regulation [...] Read more.
This paper focuses on the problem of numeracy when writing regulations, specifically how to describe a threshold for crowding of pigs during transport, considering transported pigs range in body mass from 5 to 500 kg. When scientific findings provide the basis for regulation in the public interest, those findings must be communicated in a consistent way to regulators and policymaking bodies. Numeracy is the ability to understand, reason with, and apply appropriate numerical concepts to real-world questions. Scientific understanding is almost always based on rational understanding of numerical information, numeracy. The threshold of administrative offenses is often a numerical description. Commercial livestock transporters have an interest in loading livestock compartments to the maximum to achieve the largest payload allowed by axle weight laws, as is the case in all bulk commodity transport. Maximizing payload minimizes costs and environmental hazards of fuel exhaust and can benefit the public with lower pork prices, but has a serious animal welfare risk. Livestock production academics, veterinarians, and animal welfare activists have been working for decades to determine the level of livestock crowding in transport containers that would be appropriate for regulatory enforcement. The scientific discourse has been plagued by a lack of numerical standardization when describing results of trials and forming recommendations. Exceeding specific numerical thresholds is the core to implementing enforcement actions. This paper examines the communication and other barriers that have prevented emergence of a consensus on this question and provides a direction toward resolution. Further confirmation of effects of crowding livestock in transit is needed. This paper suggests that articulating an enforceable standard in pig transport is possible. In inspection for compliance, discovering the LP50 (lethal pressure—50) for slaughter-weight pigs is an initial global benchmark goal. The LP50 is the loading floor pressure in a commercial transport compartment, under field conditions, that would result in the death of at least one pig in the group 50% of the time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Everlasting Battle against Animal Cruelty: Are We Making Progress?)
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