This is the last issue of Animal Welfare to be produced from start to finish by the present editorial team. The Assistant Editor is leaving us to return to Australia and I retire this autumn from both the Editorship of the Journal and the Directorship of UFAW.

Four aspects of lighting which may influence the behaviour and physiology of housed poultry are light intensity, photoperiod, light source and wavelength. These factors are frequently manipulated in an attempt to improve productivity and to facilitate management practices. This review examines the effects of such manipulation upon the welfare of the birds. The majority of papers on lighting in poultry houses deal with their effects upon performance, rather than on factors associated with behaviour and health which may impinge upon welfare. Data about the preferences of birds for different lighting conditions are almost entirely lacking, but the practice of housing birds in relatively low light intensity is considered likely to lead to sensory deprivation in species where vision is important. Tentative recommendations are given pending the results of future research as to appropriate light intensity, photoperiod and light sources for domestic poultry.

Cage space requirements for non-human primates in the United States of America are less than those in European countries. Studies in support of the assumption that the US legal minimum cage size provides adequate space have limited value because they only tested cages without structural enhancement. It is not surprising that non-human primates cannot be animated to be more active or to behave in more species-typical manners by only providing them with extra barren space. Explicitly stipulating that all cages have to be equipped with properly installed, elevated structures appropriate to each species and age category would make the US standards more adequate. Such structures would no longer restrict the caged primate to an unnatural, permanent terrestrial lifestyle but would allow the animal to make use of the arboreal, ‘safe’ dimension to which she/he is biologically adapted. Minimal height requirements will have to be upgraded in the US to accommodate these ethological considerations.

Despite the number of dolphins that have been kept in dolphinaria, and the many behavioural studies that have been conducted on captive dolphins, few have focused on their welfare. Some behaviours have been described in detail, but insufficient attention has been paid to the diurnal variations in their occurrence.

Behavioural observations were conducted upon two groups (two and six individuals each) of captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) over a period of six weeks. Behavioural descriptions were produced and the amount of time the animals spent engaged in different behaviours was sampled. General trends of both groups and differences in patterns of variation throughout the day were also analysed. The use of area by the dolphins and their degrees of association were recorded. Considerable individual variation and differences between the two groups were observed.

In comparing the behaviour of different dolphins and in considering their welfare it is necessary to take into account their marked degree of individuality. The observations have shown that behavioural data such as variability of behaviour patterns, spontaneous variations in the daily activities and frequency of playing and exploration may constitute good welfare indicators. It is argued that social diversity, appropriate physical characteristics of the pools, existence of play objects in the pools, easy access to visual contact with people, and frequent interactions with the trainers throughout the day at unscheduled times may be important ways of improving environmental stimulation.

Ethological observations of the introduction of new charges into a large mixed-sex group in a dog shelter, and the later behaviour of the dogs in the run, were used to investigate a method of early assessment of the dogs’ reactions to the new situation. Subjects were divided qualitatively into four categories according to their interactional behaviour during the first two days (‘dog-oriented’, ‘human-oriented’, ‘dog & human friendly’, ‘asocial’). This classification was compared to an independent division resulting from statistical analysis of the dogs ‘ entry-sequences, and was found to be consistent for 80 per cent of dogs. One week after entry, both female and male dogs received distinctively fewer social interactions by conspecifics and tended to direct more interaction-initiating behaviour towards the keeper, thus demonstrating an integration process; females became more physically active and initiated significantly more interactions with other dogs; for males, the contrary was found. Qualitative comparison between first visitors and regular guests suggest that experienced dogs integrate faster, showing fewer behavioural signs of distress and engaging more often in investigatory behaviour. Results indicate that the assessment of dogs from their behaviour during the entry-sequence is a valid method to predict later tendencies. Males and females should be handled differently during introduction. The stress of entry into an existing group can therefore be reduced, improving the animals’ welfare.

The scientific study of animal welfare has generated a welter of complex, equivocal and often contradictory results. Consequently, there is little agreement about how impairment of welfare should be measured. While some solutions to this have been suggested, these have usually relied on more sophisticated versions of, or more control over, existing measures. However, we argue that the difficulties arise because of questionable assumptions in the definition and measurement of welfare, in particular the measurement of suffering and the assumed importance of individual well-being. We contend that welfare can be interpreted only in terms of what natural selection has designed an organism to do and how circumstances impinge on its functional design. Organisms are designed for self-expenditure and the relative importance of self-preservation and survival, and the concomitant investment of time and resources in different activities, varies with life history strategy. The traditional notions of coping and stress are anthropomorphisms based on homeostatic mechanisms of self-preservation in a long-lived species. Suffering-like states are viewed as generalized subjective states that are geared to avoiding deleterious circumstances with which the organism does not have specific adaptive mechanisms to deal. Attempts to measure suffering-like states directly are likely to remain inconclusive, at least for the foreseeable future, because such states are private and subjective, may take many forms fundamentally different from our own and are likely to depend on the operation of phenotype-limited priorities and decision rules. However, measuring the impact of circumstances on functional design via the organism ‘s decision rules provides a practicable means of giving benefit of the doubt by indicating when suffering, or an analogous subjective state, is likely.

The question of whether witnessing slaughter of conspecifics is distressing was investigated in sheep. Previously catheterized sheep were allowed to see the stunning and sticking (exsanguination) of other sheep. Heart rate was monitored and serial blood samples were taken to assess stress responses. Although the measurable parameter levels were generally high due to human contact and handling, there were no specific increases in response to witnessing stunning and slaughter. This work failed to produce any evidence to suggest that sheep are distressed by witnessing the slaughter act.

This booklet is aimed at school heads and governors and explains why the RSPCA considers that there is a need for all schools to have, or to develop as part of their overall plan, a policy on animals and education. It also provides guidance on what the policy should cover and how it can be established. A key component of the suggested programme is the undertaking of an animal welfare audit of the school and its activities. This includes, not only an assessment of standards of management of any animals kept at the school but also the animal welfare implications of maintaining the school grounds and of catering, cleaning and waste disposal. It is suggested that much of the audit and follow-up activities can be undertaken by pupils in a way that can fulfil key requirements of the National Curriculum in core and foundation subjects.

The UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has produced a short guide to the legislation relating to the welfare of animals on the farm. It covers the 11 main Acts of Parliament which are of importance in this area. There is a summary of the statutory provisions of each of these Acts and, where appropriate, of the Orders and Regulations made under the Acts. It is pointed out that while every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the summaries: they are only summaries and the actual legislation should be consulted and legal advice sought when particular points in the law need to be considered.

Early in 1995 the Department of Animal Hygiene of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine carried out a survey of postgraduate teaching in farm animal welfare and ethics. Some 60 university-based persons in 12 countries, known to be interested and working in this area, were contacted and asked to fill in a straightforward two-page questionnaire. All but 4 responded. The results were correlated and have now been published in booklet form. There are some 10 pages of text, 22 pages of tables and, in an Appendix, a copy of the actual questionnaire.

In April 1995 a public conference entitled In the Company of Animals was held in New York under the auspices of the international quarterly journal of social science, Social Research. This meeting was set up to examine man's relationship with animals, over time and in different cultures. The printed proceedings of this conference have now been produced as a single whole issue of Volume 62 of Social Research. There are 14 full papers, an Editor's Introduction, 4 Section Introductions, a Keynote Address by Stephen Jay Gould and 8 shorter contributions to a panel discussion. The ‘book’ has been edited by Arien Mack. The whole is, in effect, a most interesting, scholarly and wide-ranging coverage of the biological, historical, social and ethical aspects of man's relationship with animals. Animal welfarists, scientists, sociologists and historians will all benefit from browsing through and hopefully reading much of the material in this modestly priced but extremely valuable volume.

It has been estimated that each year some 4.7 million Americans - 2.8 million of them children - are dog bite victims. To help deal with this problem June 10th to the 15th 1996 was designated National Dog Bite Prevention Week. In dealing with this initiative the United States (HSUS) prepared a Postmaster's Dog Bite Prevention Week Kit. This kit is made up of a well-produced, glossy 23-page brochure produced by the United States Postal Service (USPS) and two factual leaflets and a poster produced by the HSUS.

The eleventh and twelfth additions to the ANZCCART Facts Sheet series on biology and management of species used in biomedical research are: The Domestic Chicken (1996, by Philip Glatz, Kim Critchley and Christine Lunam), and Restraint and Handling of Captive Wildlife (1996, by Andrew Tribe and Derek Spielman). The leaflet on the domestic chicken provides brief introductions to the history of the chicken in captivity, its housing, husbandry, major diseases, and techniques of blood sampling and anaesthesia. That on restraint and handling of wildlife includes sections on remote drug administration systems and drugs used, and on restraint of a few selected groups or taxa: medium-sized and large primates, medium-sized carnivores and ungulates, and reptiles (not birds). Like others in the series, these are useful introductory leaflets for trainee animal technicians, veterinary nurses and others, and they provide references to some of the more substantial publications that personnel planning to work in these fields would certainly need to be familiar with.