Abstract

Animal welfare is at heart a science of the individual. The propensity of individuals to suffer is central to our understanding and quantification of welfare issues. However, the scales of the systems studied in animal welfare science can be wildly different – from individual dogs presenting with behavioural problems at a clinic, to problems across an entire species, breed, or line that can add up to billions of animals worldwide. How can and should we take these issues of scale into account? What issues do we encounter when we project up from one to a million, and what do we miss by doing so? In this talk, I will discuss the dual philosophy of individuals in groups, the issues and benefits of a multi-scale perspective in animal welfare.