Animal Cognition in Relation to Farm Animal Welfare: The Need for a Different Approach

Reviewing various ideas about animal cognition, including the radically different approach developed by Maturana and Varela (1987), brings to light serious concerns about the ability of the current science of cognitive ethology to address issues of animal welfare or to provide useful interpretations of animal thinking and awareness. The proposition that farm animal welfare will be properly assessed only when much more is known about the cognitive abilities of the animals concerned is critically discussed. This principle is supported, but the current means of achieving it are questioned. It is argued that a broader scientific basis is needed to enhance a cognitive ethology that is merely an additive combination of behavioural observation and information-processing models of cognition.