Institut für Sozialwissenschaften des Agrarbereichs

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Browsing Institut für Sozialwissenschaften des Agrarbereichs by Person "Kromka, Franz"

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    Die Mensch-Nutztier-Beziehung - Dimensionen, Einflussfaktoren und Auswirkungen am Beispiel der Schweinehaltung in Hohenlohe
    (2009) Skipiol, Annette; Kromka, Franz
    The relationship between farmers and their animals in modern agriculture is often seen as a problem concerning the whole society and a new ethics is demanded. Modern livestock husbandry is seen to consider the animals only as a capital equipment. The relationship between the farmer and his animals is seen as dominated by economic interests. This accusation points to the ambiguous relationship between man and livestock: on the one hand the animal is an object of value, on the other hand it´s a living individual with own needs which can be accepted as a ?you?. In modern livestock husbandries, with high numbers of animals, a collective relationship between the farmer and his stock is quite probable and the animal is seen as a anonymous specimen of the whole bulk. Current papers concerned with this matter, nevertheless provide inconsistent conclusions. Furthermore it is not clear, what is meant by the complex ?man - farm animal relationship?. Different terms such as empathy, attitude and communication are partly used as synonyms, partly however they´re understood as different dimensions of the construct. In this paper therefore at first the complex man - farm animal relationship was described in all its dimensions. Furthermore it was investigated how this relationship turns out to be in fact in modern livestock production and what the influencing factors are. A survey was conducted with farmers from an agricultural association for producing rearing pigs and piglets in the area of Hohenlohe. Pig production provides the possibility to analyse the relationship between farmers and their animals within different production lines and therefore variably intensive processes (concerning expenditure of time and contact to the individual animal). The questionnaire was based on a collection of items especially composed for this survey. It contained elements both from the relevant literature and from results of interviews with pig production experts. The data evaluation concentrated on the lines rearing pig production an piglet production. The analysis showed that in piglet production the farmers had a significantly closer relation to their animals than the rearing pig farmers, in fact the piglet producers had the closest relationship to their animals of all respondents. In rearing pig production the man-farm animal relationship was least developed of all production lines. The connection between man - farm animal relationship and the size of the stock, which is mentioned in other studies, could also be attested in the sample, both with rearing pig producers and piglet producers. The statement of Kather (1999), that even in a large livestock a close relationship between farmer and animal is possible, therefore couldn´t be confirmed. Furthermore a link between the period of time a farmer spent in the stable and his relationship to the animals couldn´t be found. This supports the assumption, that the strength of this relationship rather depends on the form of communication between farmer and animals, that takes places within this time. Personal factors of the farmer influenced the relationship to the animals less than expected. The gender of the farmer or a possible parenthood also didn?t show an influence on the man - farm animal relationship. Also the religious confession of the farmers didn´t influence their relationship to their animals, which differs from the findings of Porcher et al. (2004). However the data analyses showed that the age of the farmers affected their relationship to the animals. Elder farmers had a closer relationship than younger ones. The man - farm animal relationship was also affected by the professionalism of the interviewees: the better educated the farmers were, the less strong their relationship to the animals. This coincided with the results of Porcher et al. (2004). To give a complete review about the complex man - animal relationship its effects on animal and man were also analysed. It was shown that bad handling causes fear and stress in animals, thus well-being and performance of the animals are suffering. The relationship between farmers and their animals therefore not only concerns animal protection and ethics, but also affects economic parameters. Accordingly the man - farm animal relationship can be considered as an important quality factor in livestock production.