One Welfare
You’ve probably heard of One Health, a concept where both human and animal health is intrinsically linked, but One Welfare is taking this idea one step further.
The premise of One Welfare is that animal welfare, human wellbeing and environmental sustainability are inextricably linked and can be advanced to the benefit of all parties.
Personally, this is a welcome concept. There’s far to much of the ‘promote animal rights because I hate humans’ mindset which neither considers the bigger picture.
And this concept makes sense. A human does not care whether the dog is starving and what’s happening to the environment if the human themselves is starving, we need to elevate all three areas together.
Some of the ways veterinarians can, and do, work within the One Welfare framework include:
Preventative veterinary care, sparing animals humans and the environment the burden of disease and its waste products
Identifying and communicating the economic and environmental benefits of animal welfare improvements
Promoting environmentally sustainable, high welfare farming
Working with communities to implement feasible approaches to improving animal welfare
One of the main concerns raised with this approach is that by focusing on three things (animal welfare, human welfare and the environment) it dilutes out the veterinary perspective and potentially reduces our focus on animal welfare. I think this concern is largely unfounded. We’re reasonably clever human beings, I’m pretty sure we can think about three things at once. Besides if we start with an animal welfare focus and then branch out to consider the other two points, I think this concept will do well.
I think One Health and One Welfare are part of our future, and I hope these models gain more and more consideration.