It was a cool October day at the Farm Sanctuary, and inside the little barn the chickens were restless. A rooster, or maybe two, crowed. A giant turkey strutted through an open door. And a flock of white-feathered chickens made tiny, intermittent squeaks.
The chickens were experiencing a chronic respiratory condition, said Sasha Prasad-Shreckengast, the sanctuary’s animal welfare and research manager. She put on gloves, shoe covers, and blue disposable clothing, and then she entered the pen.
Prasad-Shreckengast was investigating whether chickens—animals not often recognized for their brainpower—enjoy learning. Her research was also part of the larger philosophical question driving the new in-house investigative team at Farm Sanctuary, a nonprofit organization that has spent more than 35 years trying to end animal agriculture.
Research suggests that farmed species are intelligent beings: chickens can anticipate the future, goats seem to ask humans for help, and pigs could sense the emotions of others.
The Farm Sanctuary has always held that farm animals are sentient beings, even referring to its four-legged and feathered residents as “people”. Now, the sanctuary is trying to collect enough data to convince the general public of the humanity of the animals.
“Our hope,” said Lauri Torgerson-White, the sanctuary’s director of research, “is that by using really rigorous methodologies, we can uncover pieces of information about the inner lives of farm animals that can be used to really change hearts and minds. minds about how these animals are used by society.
The sanctuary conducts research according to its own strict ethical standards, which include giving animals the right to choose whether or not to participate in the studies. And, researchers have sometimes found themselves grappling with what they’re eager to prove: that animals have minds of their own.
Farm Sanctuary started out not as a home for rescued animals, but as a group of young activists working to speak out against animal cruelty on farms, stockyards and slaughterhouses.
In 2020, the organization, which now houses around 700 animals, began assembling an internal research team, which worked with Lori Gruen, an animal ethicist at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, to create guidelines for conducting research with animals. “without domination, without control, without instrumentalization”.
Among other stipulations, the guidelines prohibit invasive procedures and state that studies must benefit animals.
For researchers at Farm Sanctuary, voluntary participation is a pathway to better science. Many previous studies have been done in settings where stress or fear could affect the animals’ behavior or even impair their cognitive performance, the researchers noted.
They are also investigating whether farm animals can develop symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, and if so, whether spending time in a sanctuary helps them heal.
The study is primarily observational and involves careful analysis of the behavior of new residents, such as Bella, a Holstein cow who arrived at the sanctuary this fall after watching her companion, a steer named Buck, be euthanized.
Changing public attitudes and social practices is a long-term project, Torgerson-White acknowledged. But she and her colleagues are trying to push it from the pastures in Watkins Glen, where animals are people and residents are research partners.
“We are not extracting information or knowledge from them,” Prasad-Shreckengast said. “We are learning together and they are teaching us what they want and what they are capable of.”
By: EMILY ANTHES
WATKINS GLEN, New York
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6491452, IMPORTING DATE: 2022-12-13 06:00:08
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