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Posted: 13th July 2023

Belief in equine capacity for emotion linked to welfare, study finds
Animals whose owners believed they felt emotions or had emotional bonds with them were in significantly better health.
Equids whose owners believe they feel emotion have better health.

A study has found that working horses, mules and donkeys whose owners believe they feel emotion have significantly better health and welfare than those whose owners do not.

The research, by the University of Portsmouth and The Donkey Sanctuary, investigated equid-owning communities in Egypt, Mexico, Pakistan, Senegal, Spain and Portugal.

The researchers carried out welfare assessments, as well as questionnaires of the owners’ beliefs, values and attitudes towards their animals.

This revealed that animals whose owners believed they felt emotions or had emotional bonds with them were in significantly better health and had better body condition scores than those whose owners did not believe they felt emotion, or focused on their usefulness. In addition, animals whose owners believed they could feel pain were much less likely to be lame.

These results were evident across multiple countries, of varying economic income.

Lead author Dr Emily Haddy, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Portsmouth’s Centre of Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology said “We know people’s feelings toward their animals can impact their welfare, but we wanted to know if this differs across cultures. Our research involved equid-owning communities in six countries, whose animals worked in a diverse range of contexts including agriculture, tourism and construction.

“This is the first study to link owner attitudes to the welfare of their working equids across multiple countries and contexts. Our findings highlight the importance of the relationship between owners and their animals, and its significant impact on animal health and welfare.”

Co-author Dr Leanne Proops, associate professor in animal behaviour at the University of Portsmouth’s Department of Psychology added “It’s important to avoid assumptions about the owners of animals who had poorer health and welfare indicators.

“It’s possible these owners simply don’t have the resources to look after their animals as well, and because they don’t like to think of them suffering, they adjust their beliefs to think that their animals don’t feel pain. This is a well-documented psychological technique that people use to minimise psychological distress when their behaviour and beliefs don’t align.”

The study is published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science.



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