Desire, Lara, Alai Boissy, and Isabele Veissier. "Emotions in Farm Animals: A New Approach to Animal

 

               Welfare in Applied Ethology." Elsevier (2002): 165-80. Web. 16 Apr. 2016

 

Lara Desire, Alai Boissy, and Isabele Veissier, researchers at the INRA Clermont-Ferrand in France, use data from the studies of Robert Dantzer and Laus Scherer to help bring light to the emotional capabilities that farm animals have as a result of their cognition that closely resembles the average human child. Their hypothesis that farm animals are capable of registering emotions is supported through their behavioral approach that has its grounds in cognitive psychology. The authors first define the definition of emotion primarily based on the animals' appraisal, or reaction to a stimulus. The researchers noted in the results of the studies done that the biological conditions that arise during a certain treatment were similar in homologies to humans and the later biological responses could be identified as the same emotion that humans experience. This evidence lead to the conclusion of high cognitive abilities.

 

 

Fernandes, Danielle Priscila Bueno, Iran Jose Oliveira Da Silva, Aerica Cirqueira Nazareno, and Ana

 

                Carolina Donofre. "Farm Animal's Cognition and the Tests Used on Its Evaluation." Animal

 

                                       Behavior  Biometeorol 3.1 (2015): 9-19. Web. 16 Apr. 2016

 

Danielle Priscila Bueno Fernandes, Iran Jose Oliveira Da Silva, Aerica Cirqueira Nazareno, and Ana Carolina Donofre, researchers at the University of Sao Paulo at the department of Biosystems Engineering, conducted experiments to test a wide variety of treatments and monitored the effects they had on farm animals. They proposed animals have a highly intelligent cognitive ability and because they are aware of their environment, means should be taken to reduce their suffering. The researchers collected data after testing the animals in their preference, motivation, memory, self-awareness, and learning. They also recognized the animal's potential for sentience, or the ability to have senses. The results indicated that animals could most definitely evaluate an environment and respond in a way that showed they had some manipulation involved.

 

 

 

 

 

Paul, Elizabeth S., Emma J. Harding, and Michael Mendl. "Measuring Emotional Processes in Animals -                    

                  the Utility of a Cognitive Approach."Elsevier (2005): 469-91. Web. 16 Apr. 2016

 

Elizabeth S. Paul, Emma J. Harding, and Michael Mendl, researchers at the University of Bristol at the Center for Behavioural Biology and Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, propose reviewing how emotions are processed in farm animals in examining their cognitive responses. The information that they present also overlap with other studies in examining the appraisal of the animals' as well. This study focused particularly on the process of measuring emotions by examining various types of biases present in previous studies and inferring the best possible ways that cognitive behaviors and functions should be evaluated. These specific proposals include clarifying judgement, memory, and attention biases. The conclusion is that is very possible to evaluate the animal's' cognitive processes more objectively by removing human error and accounting for confounding variables. Overall, the results show that this methodology is more effective in measuring farm animal emotion.

 

 

         C. J. Nicol. "Farm Animal Cognition." Animal Science (1996): 375-391. Web. 20 Apr. 2016

 

C.J. Nicol, researcher at the Department of Clinical Veterinary Science at the University of Bristol, reviews various experiments from animal science disciplines in order to illustrate the fact that there is no general decreased cognitive ability in farm animals. Nicol, like many of the other researchers, provide a definition on what is meant by cognition, but underlines the importance of knowing that the exact definition is debatable. She uses two approaches: examining flexibility and learning. She also utilizes various results from other studies such as generalizations, discrimination, and categorization in order to evaluate the intelligence of farm animals in order to bring light the their overall welfare.

 

Gieling, Elise, et al. "Performance Of Conventional Pigs And Göttingen Miniature Pigs In A Spatial  

 

             Holeboard Task: Effects Of The Putative Muscarinic Cognition Impairer Biperiden." Behavioral

 

                            & Brain Functions 9.1 (2013): 1-10.Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

 

The authors, a diverse group of researchers working at universities in the Netherlands and Denmark, including Utrecht University and the University of Applied Sciences, conducted a study using conventional and Gottingen minipigs to assess their learning and memory using a special equipment called a holeboard.  This explored spatial working memory and reference memory and thus the pigs’ ability to examine the context of a complex problem, figure out the answer to it, and remember the solution after an extended period of time.  Both the conventional and Gottingen minipigs found to complete the holeboard task almost seamlessly because they executed near perfect examples of both types of memory. Their results indicated that the pigs' scores were potentially higher than other animal specimens including rats. This research lies hand in hand with research conducted by prominent scientist Michael Mendl, who also performed experiments investigating pig intelligence.

 

Broom, Donald M., Hilana Sena, and Kiera L. Moynihan. "Pigs Learn What a Mirror Image Represents

         

               and Use It to Obtain Information." Animal Behaviour 8.5 (2009): 1037-041. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

 

In this study, researchers from the University of Cambridge at the Center for Animal Welfare and Anthrozoology and the Department of Veterinary Medicine conducted an experiment to assess where pigs could recognize the concept of a mirror. They created a pen where a mirror was used to reflect a food bowl but created barriers to hide the actual food source. Certain control and treatment groups were created, where a subset of pigs were exposed to a mirror for five hours and a group was not. The study was able to conclude that the pigs had mastered the concept of a mirror as groups who were not mirror naive could identify the food source reflected in the mirror. The pigs demonstrated that their ability to learn how to get past the mirror in five hours that would take a human infant several months to understand. The purpose of this research was to demonstrate the pigs’ ability to acquire skills deemed intelligent by human beings. The researchers noted that, like many others who work in this field, no reliable test of self-awareness had been conducted as of now. Their points about the pigs keen ability to retain abstract information aligns with those who had studied pig intelligence through cognitive tests. Both parties have concluded that there was a strong association between pigs and their potential to learn complex tasks.

 

Singer, Peter and Richard Dawkins. "Vegetarianism, Animal Rights, and Living Ethically." Youtube. 22                  November 2011. Web. 9 May 2016.

 

Peter Singer, an Australian moral philosopher and a professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and Richard Dawkins, a popular biologist and author and fellow at New College have a scholarly debate about the ethics of vegetarianism. Singer heavily appelas to ethical arguments, stating that pain and suffering are more integral in determing the welfare of animals rather than their intelligence.

 

 Anomly, Jonathon. "What's Wrong With Factory Farming?" Public Health Ethics 10.1 (2014): 1-9 Web. 11 May 2016

 

Jonathon Anomaly, a professor at Duke University,  discusses the many problems associated with factory farming, ranging from antibiotics, animal cruelty, and public policy. He discusses several things that are detrimental to the human population and how agricultural industries are inflict harm on uno both humans and animals.  He also discusses the reasons why people still continue to indirectly support the framing indsutry. 

 

Pluhar, Everlyn B. "Meant and Morality: Alternatives to Factory Farming." J. Agric Environ Ethics 23 (2010): 455-468 Web. 11 May 2016.

 

Pluhar, a professor of philospohy at Pen State, argues that vegetarianism and in-vitro meat production are the most morally arguable for the better reatment of animals. She discusses the moral agents at hand that must be considered. She examines the U.S. and European actions that have tkane place in order to better the situation of factory farming.