“Provide animals a life enjoyed, not a life endured”
Five Freedoms was a concept developed fifty-five years ago by the UK Farm Animal Welfare Council, after the Brambell Commission Report (1). The goal was to outline domains of animal welfare under human control in order to protect farmed animals from negative experiences. The Five Freedoms are out of date because their goal – complete freedom from negative experiences – cannot be achieved; and because they simply don't go far enough. Not even the most pampered pet is completely free of negative experiences - we can only do our best to minimize negative experiences. Most importantly, the Five Freedoms fail to regard the positive, pleasurable experiences animals deserve.
The admirable goal of the Five Freedoms was to demand that farmed animals have
Freedom from hunger or thirst by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour
Freedom from discomfort by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area
Freedom from pain, injury or disease by prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment
Freedom to express (most) normal behaviour by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal's own kind
Freedom from fear and distress by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering
The Five Freedoms were widely embraced beyond their initial intent (farmed animal welfare), and often modified and promoted to advocate for minimum standards for animal care in many areas of animal welfare. In fact, this was an important construct for the seminal Association of Shelter Veterinarians' publication Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters (2) when we published it a decade ago. Fast forward to 2020, and we recognize the more appropriate paradigm for animal welfare assessment and management is the Five Domains, as described by David Mellor (3).
Rather than focusing on what humans provide, the Five Domains (Nutrition, Environment, Health [the survival related factors], Behavior [situation related factor] and Mental State [the affective experience domain] describe the animal's perspective - their subjective experience. This focus on the presence or absence of various internal functional states and external circumstances give rise to welfare-relevant negative &/or positive mental experiences, known as affects. Once we acknowledge the animal experience, we can go one step further to the Five Provisions (with related Five Welfare Aims). Mellor's model allows for simultaneous assessment of positive and negative contributions to the overall affective experience, known more commonly as Quality of Life.
The Five Provisions and corresponding Animal Welfare Aims encourages the minimization of negative experiences and the promotion of positive experiences for the animal. These provisions & aims are described with practical measures that go beyond sustenance to nurture a "life worth living".
It is past time to put the Five Freedoms to bed. Animal welfare today demands that we provide animals with minimal negative experiences and as much pleasure as is reasonably possible, whether in our homes, in kennel settings or on the farm. Let's do what we can to make sure we are giving animals a life enjoyed, not a life endured.
(1) Brambell, Roger (1965), Report of the Technical Committee to Enquire Into the Welfare of Animals Kept Under Intensive Livestock Husbandry Systems, Cmd. (Great Britain. Parliament), H.M. Stationery Office, pp. 1–84
(2) Newberry S, Blinn MK, Bushby PA, et al. Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters. Association of Shelter Veterinarians; 2010.
(3) Mellor, David J. “Operational Details of the Five Domains Model and Its Key Applications to the Assessment and Management of Animal Welfare.” Animals : an open access journal from MDPI vol. 7,8 60. 9 Aug. 2017.
(4) Provisions and aims diagram from the Albert Schweitzer Foundation website.