Thanks so much for sharing this analysis Saulius. I wasn’t familiar with these numbers, and admittedly also weakly held the uninformed view that corporate welfare reforms had limited impact on the welfare of farmed animals. However, I’m curious to know, have any other non-industry aligned animal welfare experts expressed their opinions about the welfare footprint project’s estimates?
Good question. I don’t know. But I can tell that the review process seems to be legitimate. I’ve just googled all the people they thank for comments and suggestions for the laying hen report in the acknowledgements. Some people seem like they should be qualified: Kaitlin Wurtz (PhD in animal science, worked as a farm inspector for laying hens), Ivelisse Robles (PhD in animal behaviour and welfare), Elsa Negro Calduch (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine), maybe Andrew Rowan. I couldn’t find info on some other reviewers. But I don’t know how deeply any of them reviewed it.
Recently, I was managing Michael St. Jules when he was reviewing (for the second time) their book on laying hens and I also expressed some concerns to the Welfare Footprint Project myself. I can say that they were very responsive to our comments, gave comprehensive answers (that convinced me to drop my concerns for whatever that’s worth) and encouraged more comments, despite the fact that they had moved on from focusing on layer hens at that point. I know that they also are keen to get reviews on their broiler work too and were offering to pay certain people for their reviews.
Thanks so much for sharing this analysis Saulius. I wasn’t familiar with these numbers, and admittedly also weakly held the uninformed view that corporate welfare reforms had limited impact on the welfare of farmed animals. However, I’m curious to know, have any other non-industry aligned animal welfare experts expressed their opinions about the welfare footprint project’s estimates?
Good question. I don’t know. But I can tell that the review process seems to be legitimate. I’ve just googled all the people they thank for comments and suggestions for the laying hen report in the acknowledgements. Some people seem like they should be qualified: Kaitlin Wurtz (PhD in animal science, worked as a farm inspector for laying hens), Ivelisse Robles (PhD in animal behaviour and welfare), Elsa Negro Calduch (Doctor of Veterinary Medicine), maybe Andrew Rowan. I couldn’t find info on some other reviewers. But I don’t know how deeply any of them reviewed it.
Recently, I was managing Michael St. Jules when he was reviewing (for the second time) their book on laying hens and I also expressed some concerns to the Welfare Footprint Project myself. I can say that they were very responsive to our comments, gave comprehensive answers (that convinced me to drop my concerns for whatever that’s worth) and encouraged more comments, despite the fact that they had moved on from focusing on layer hens at that point. I know that they also are keen to get reviews on their broiler work too and were offering to pay certain people for their reviews.
This is really great to hear! Thanks for your response and bringing this to our attention.