In this blog post, Deputy Director Cameron Meyer Shorb sets out to define welfare as we understand it.
Key takeaways:
Wild Animal Initiative uses “welfare” to refer to the aggregate quality of an individual’s subjective experiences over a given time period.
As we define it, welfare consists solely of mental states. This intentionally differentiates welfare from factors that contribute to mental states, such as physical states or natural behaviors.
We hope research will improve our definition of welfare by clarifying what exactly constitutes subjective experiences, which animals are capable of having them, and how to aggregate and compare those experiences across time, individuals, species, or communities.
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Nice post! It’d be great it if you could copy the summary of the main takeaways, or something like it, in future linkposts :)
It was my first time reading through your website, I loved your research agenda and your post on your project prioritization!
Thanks, Edo! That’s a great suggestion, and we’ve updated the linkpost with the key takeaways. We’re so glad you’re excited about our work. Stay tuned in late January for updates from our 2021 strategic planning sessions!
Great, looking forward!