What does positive animal welfare mean to you? What are animal flourishing and animal happiness, and can we achieve these in current farming systems?

Our first guest is Dr Laura Webb, Assistant Professor at Wageningen University and Vice Chair of the LIFT COST Action.

In this episode, Laura shares insights from her work in using concepts from positive psychology to inform animal welfare, and how working with different species like insects can help us rethink our understanding of other animals.

Timestamps

(00:00:00) Introduction

(00:00:47) LIFT backstory

(00:01:57) Positive animal welfare (PAW) definition and flourishing

(00:04:23) PAW vs animal welfare

(00:06:10) Timescale of PAW

(00:09:43) Affect balance

(00:13:07) Individual differences

(00:14:04) Animal happiness in current farming systems

(00:17:01) Interdisciplinary work

(00:20:49) Suggestions for change in the animal production industry

(00:23:48) What does PAW mean to you?

Laura’s talk on Animal Happiness: Animal Welfare Synergy Series: Dr Laura Webb on animal happiness

Acknowledgement

This podcast is based upon work from COST Action 'LIFT - Lifting Farm Animal Lives - laying the foundations for positive animal welfare', CA21124, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). https://liftanimalwelfare.eu/

COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks. Our Actions help connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers. This boosts their research, career and innovation. www.cost.eu

The introduction to the coming series of the Lifting Animals' Lives podcast.