Preventive culling of livestock in case of a disaster (A last resort)

Abstract

Natural disasters can create such circumstances that it is not possible anymore to house and take care of livestock in an appropriate way. The lack of appropriate management of livestock can result in decreased welfare, sickness and death. Many of these animals will have to cope with extreme stress due to the lack of food, water and/or a bad environment. This has not only a direct effect on the individual animal but also an indirect effect on the flock. The coping with stress many times lead to deviant behaviour, for example feather pecking in chickens or tail biting in pigs, which is aimed at other animals in the flock or herd. A solution is to cull the animals preventively in order to save them from unnecessary suffering. Such a decision is morally difficult to make but can be a last resort. In this paper it is examined whether there are possible parameters which can assess the start of preventive culling and if Dutch veterinary practitioners are capable to make the such decision in the same was as a group of experts.