This, the second issue of the new UFAW journal continues to extend the range of published material that is intended to have direct benefit on the welfare of animals used or managed by man. Conformity of layout has been maintained apart from the welcome addition of a correspondence page. This sort of positive response is to be encouraged, and should cover informed comment, constructive criticism and, if possible, ideas or suggestions for new material. It is recognized that lively correspondence adds value to the general debate and understanding of animal welfare issues.

When assessing discomfort in animals analogous reasoning is often used, namely, that the causes or symptoms of discomfort in people will also apply to animals. This practical rule of thumb can be based on an ‘analogy-postulate’. This postulate takes into account the anatomical and physiological similarities of vertebrate nervous systems and the comparability and homology in the behavioural and physiological responses to discomfort of humans and other vertebrates in similar situations. There are theoretical and practical problems with this analogous reasoning. Theoretical objections include claims that feelings do not exist, are irrelevant or that scientific knowledge is not necessary to recognize feelings. Practical problems will occur when assessing the discomfort of animals without proper knowledge of the relevant species-specific information. Nevertheless, we think that there are two equivalent sound reasons for accepting the analogy-postulate. First, there is more evidence in favour of acceptance of the postulate than of its rejection. Secondly, the negative moral consequences of erroneously rejecting the postulate are far greater than those of mistakenly accepting it.

Proper design of restraint equipment is essential to prevent stress on animals during handling, stunning and slaughter. A small design mistake which may appear to be insignificant to the engineer can be extremely detrimental to animal welfare. Operators of restraint equipment must be properly trained. Cattle will place their heads into stanchion (yoke) or chin-lift types of head-restrainers if they are gently moved forward by a rear pusher gate. Cattle confined in an upright ASPCA pen for religious slaughter will remain calmer if the apparatus is gently closed around them. The vertical travel of the belly lift should be restricted to 71 cm (28 in) — it should not lift the animals off the floor. The rear pusher gates should be equipped with a separate regulator to prevent excessive pressure from being applied. Stunning or ritual slaughter should be carried out within 10 seconds of the animal's head being restrained. The modified ASPCA pen described in the paper was seemingly humane when operated by people concerned about animal welfare.

Differential leucocyte counts and plasma activities of the muscle enzyme, creatine kinase, have been determined in blood samples obtained from broiler chickens, immediately prior to and following road transportation from farm to processing plant for slaughter. These parameters are proposed as indicators of physiological stress based on previous findings.

Heterophil:lymphocyte ratios and plasma creatine kinase activities increased and eosinophil counts were decreased during the journey in birds tranported in both July and October when the curtain sides of the vehicles were open or closed respectively.

These findings are consistent with the presence of physiological stress during road transportation. The thermal microenvironments to which birds are exposed in transit are thought to represent one of the sources of this ‘transportation stress’.

The commercial breeding of rabbits in individual cages presents a number of problems with respect to animal protection legislation. These problems are first presented in an overview of the subject. Starting from the behaviour shown by domestic rabbits in a richly structured near-to-nature enclosure, a new concept for keeping breeding groups is presented. In the housing system for breeding groups (4-5 does, 1 buck, plus young until weaned) which is then developed, the main characteristics of near-to-nature surroundings required for normal behaviour are replaced by manageable artificial substitutes. The individual components of the housing system and the spatial arrangements are described and discussed. Ethological examination of group breeding has shown that this housing system is both more suitable to the requirements of the rabbits themselves and more in the interest of breeders than the present commercial cage system. However, since cages will certainly remain the most important means of housing laboratory and fattening rabbits in the medium term, the ethological requirements for keeping domestic rabbits in cages will be also be discussed.

This study compared the effectiveness of kraft wrapping paper and rubber toys as enrichment for 22 chimpanzees group-housed in conventional indoor/outdoor runs. Objects were tested separately during 67 hours of data collection using a group scan sampling technique. Paper was used a mean 27 per cent of the available time, while the Kong Toys™ were used a mean 10 per cent of the available time. The degree of object manipulation and object contact was higher with the paper, but the level of social play and solitary play with the object was not differentially affected by the two objects. The objects had differing effects on the subjects’ levels of grooming, but affiliation, agonism, inactivity and sexual behaviour did not vary according to the object being used. A gender-by-age interaction was found, with immature males exhibiting the highest levels of solitary play with objects. Object use steadily declined over the first hour of exposure, showing evidence of habituation. Object use when the Kong Toy™ was present declined over the course of the study, but use of the paper remained consistent. Texture, destructibility, portability, complexity and adaptability may be important in determining the object's value as effective enrichment. The destructible wrapping paper was a more worthwhile enrichment object than the indestructible Kong Toy™ for the captive chimpanzees in this study.

Many of the improvements in the welfare of laboratory animals over the last 10 or so years have come about through the application of the principles of the 3 Rs: replacement, reduction and refinement, originally put forward in 1959 by Russell and Burch. More recently the term alternatives is being used to mean, in a precise sense, replacement and less precisely all three of the Rs. Application of these principles has resulted in a decrease in the number of animals used and a lessening of the amount of suffering. These developments have been welcomed by the scientific community and the legislators as well as by animal welfarists.

There has been considerable consultative and committee work in the UK over the last 3 years on the transport of animals. Most of this was related to a draft Regulation issued by the Commission in June 1989 and circulated for comment to over 80 interested organizations, by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in 1989 and subsequently in 1990. Earlier in April 1990, the House of Commons Agriculture Committee started an independent inquiry on this subject and in November 1990 the Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) set up a working group to look at the EC proposals.

There has long been recognition of the hazards to wildlife wherever the cutting of crops for silage or hay coincides with the nesting and rearing of game birds and the perinatal period of roe and fallow deer.

Conservationists are anxious to re-establish populations of endangered species in the wild whenever suitable habitat becomes available. Many zoos, worldwide, are committed to breeding and maintaining viable stocks of endangered animals to ensure that species which are becoming increasingly rare in the wild have a residual population in captivity. The logic underlying this approach is that captive bred stocks can be re-introduced to supplement wild stock or, in the worst case, actually to form a new population in the wild.

Sir, I write in response to the article in the first issue of your journal. I was pleased to note that the welfare advantages of improved accuracy of shooting that can be expected from the restraint of bovine heads prior to stunning have been recognised. Earlier research work, commissioned by the MAFF, had indicated that deficiencies existed in the accuracy of captive bolt positioning in cattle whose heads had not been restrained. Clearly the distress experienced by an animal that has been mis-stunned would be very considerable, and would outweigh the stress associated with temporary head-restraint.

Sir, In welcoming the first number of Animal Welfare, I am glad to note that the contents cover a wide subject range, which is a good augury of the journal's breadth of interest. In particular Professor Odberg's paper was very well-balanced, knowledgeable and thoughtful, but also unequivocal in pointing the way forward in controlling the welfare of the corrida.