Human-animal relationships at sheep and cattle abattoirs

Abstract

There are accumulating international data in a number of livestock industries that show that a negative attitude by stockpeople towards interacting with pigs, dairy cattle and poultry is correlated with increased levels of fear and stress in farm animals and in turn reduced animal productivity. While most of this research has been on-farm, one study has shown similar attitude-behaviour correlations in a pig abattoir. The major aim of this research was to examine the stockperson attitude-behaviour at sheep and cattle abattoirs. Twenty-two Australian abattoirs participated in the collection of stockperson attitudes and behaviour (81 stockpeople - 35 cattle stockpeople and 46 sheep stockpeople;..