Human-animal interactions and machine-animal interactions in animals under human care: a summary of stakeholder and researcher perceptions and future directions

Williams, E, Sadler, J, Rutter, SM, Mancini, C, Nawroth, C, Neary, JM, Ward, SJ ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5857-1071, Charlton, G and Beaver, A, 2024. Human-animal interactions and machine-animal interactions in animals under human care: a summary of stakeholder and researcher perceptions and future directions. Animal Welfare, 33: e27. ISSN 0962-7286

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Abstract

Animals under human care are exposed to a potentially large range of both familiar and unfamiliar humans. Human-animal interactions vary across settings, and individuals, with the nature of the interaction being affected by a suite of different intrinsic and extrinsic factors. These interactions can be described as positive, negative or neutral. Across some industries, there has been a move towards the development of technologies to support or replace human interaction with animals. Whilst this has many benefits, there can also be challenges associated with increased technology use. A day-long Animal Welfare Research Network workshop was hosted at Harper Adams University, UK, with the aim of bringing together stakeholders and researchers (n = 38) from the companion, farm and zoo animal fields, to discuss benefits, challenges and limitations of human-animal interactions and machine-animal interactions for animals under human care and create a list of future research priorities. The workshop consisted of four talks from experts within these areas, followed by break-out room discussions. This work is the outcome of that workshop. The key recommendations are that approaches to advancing the scientific discipline of machine-animal interactions in animals under human care should focus on: (1) interdisciplinary collaboration; (2) development of validated methods; (3) incorporation of an animal-centred perspective; (4) a focus on promotion of positive animal welfare states (not just avoidance of negative states); and (5) an exploration of ways that machines can support a reduction in the exposure of animals to negative human-animal interactions to reduce negative, and increase positive, experiences for animals.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Animal Welfare
Creators:	Williams, E., Sadler, J., Rutter, S.M., Mancini, C., Nawroth, C., Neary, J.M., Ward, S.J., Charlton, G. and Beaver, A.
Publisher:	Universities Federation for Animal Welfare
Date:	9 May 2024
Volume:	33
ISSN:	0962-7286
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1017/awf.2024.23 DOI 1890245 Other
Rights:	© the author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	22 May 2024 14:26
Last Modified:	22 May 2024 14:26
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/51464

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