Importance of Animal-Human Bond

Importance of Animal-Human Bond

As ranchers are you aware of and comfortable with the increasing number of consumers who are using animal protection organizations as their primary source of information about livestock and poultry welfare. According to a recent survey by Purdue University researchers — that is the case.
Director of Purdue University’s new Center for Animal Welfare Candance Croney shares that there seems to be a link between pet ownership and the growing concern of welfare issues with animal agriculture according to the survey results. She also says that the important animal-human bond that does happen between ranchers and their livestock isn’t always discussed. And it should be.
Croney: “What is troubling is as we spend a lot of time investing in doing research on animal well-being; as the industries invest in that sort of thing as well. As we also invest a lot in social media in getting our story out about animal agriculture and trying to convince people that we care about animals, one of the things that we seem to keep overlooking is that if we are not relating to people in ways that matters to them — we not even using language or terms that are relatable to them — including things like ‘bonds with animals' including things like ‘emotional connections with animals’ — we are probably undermining our own perceptions of care and commitment. And so it is something that we need to pay attention to, because it may seem silly — it may seem less important to the day-to-day business than some the studies that are going on relative to nutrition and production and so on. But at the end of the day if you are doing science in a vacuum that isn’t translating to people who are ultimately your end consumer; what good is the science?”

 

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