Cultivating more-than-animal welfare within the animal research facility

Abstract

Scientific research involving animals is a popular means of cultivating knowledge within the modern day and is increasingly being recognised as a fertile space for exploring the complexities of human – animal interactions. In this thesis, emphasis is placed on exploring experiences of wellbeing which exist within animal technician – laboratory animal relations, as found within UK research facilities. In order to explore these relations, this thesis starts by emphasising the value in cultivating a multidisciplinary approach within the laboratory, by drawing on both the animal studies and welfare science literature in turn. These literary explorations conclude that insights should be drawn from the animal studies literature in order to explore human – animal relations, however considerable value is also recognised in the frameworks of the welfare science discipline, particularly the Five Freedoms framework . Ethnographic and Interview data collected in three UK research facilities, was analysed by drawing on two of the freedoms (Discomfort, Fear and Distress) from the Five Freedoms Framework, using it as a novel multidisciplinary tool for exploring human – animal wellbeing. Emphasis is placed in particular on practices of animal research, including enrichment provision and euthanasia. This thesis also applies ‘Freedom from Discomfort’ and ‘Freedom from Fear and Distress’ to my own experiences during data collection, recognising the need for an ethic of care to be extended to researchers who collect data in animal production spaces. Ultimately, the use of the Freedoms framework within this thesis provides an important steppingstone towards a more relational and multidisciplinary understanding of both human and animal within the laboratory, as well as recognising the implicit harms which can be found within the research landscape.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Rebecca Claire Thomas: orcid.org/0000-0002-4061-9727

ORCID for Emma Roe: orcid.org/0000-0003-4674-2133

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