Attitudes On Animal Welfare And The Origins Of Meat
This article briefly summarizes a number of surveys conducted in the United Kingdom and Australia covering attitudes toward meat consumption. It also summarizes Stephen Kellert’s 1988 discussion of the cultural differences in attitudes to animals and animal welfare.
One survey compared the responses of 3,000 residents of the United Kingdom to the responses of 500 members of the Vegetarian Society. It found that, among the general population, the major negative beliefs concerning beef consumption were that it will increase one’s cholesterol level and that it involves eating hormones. No negatives were associated with chicken consumption. On the other hand, vegetarians linked both beef and chicken consumption to animal cruelty.
In another survey involving 174 vegetarian females age 15 to 30 years, animal welfare was the dominant reason for becoming vegetarian. 81% of respondents claimed animal welfare was of “great” importance, while 24% said that health reasons were of “great” importance.
An Australian study showed that up to one third of teenage women have difficulty separating the imagery of the living animal and its production and slaughter from meat. Half also said that they felt that raising animals to be killed was “cruel” or “wrong.” Also, about one-third of these women were in some way vegetarian, but only 21% labeled themselves as vegetarian or semi-vegetarian, indicating they did not like the label.
When the interviewees were asked how strongly they agreed or disagreed with the statement “eating meat and animal cruelty are separate issues in my mind”, 52% of the teenage non-vegetarian women agreed, while 54% of the female semi-vegetarians and vegetarians disagreed. This finding suggests that about half of the young women who reduce their meat consumption believe that there are animal welfare problems in meat production.