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karol orzechowski

The Faunalytics team shares your heartfelt desire to help animals by finding the best ways for advocates to save lives and reduce suffering. The following articles are written by karol orzechowski for Faunalytics.org.

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Longline Fishing (How What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You)
This article provides a general overview of the subject of longline fishing, including a detailed breakdown of how the practice came to prominence, how it is done, the kind of environmental damage it causes, and what might be done to mitigate or stop that damage. The author compiles global statistics to present a thorough picture of how longline fishing affects many different species (from birds to aquatic mammals), and shows possible solutions in an objective and practical manner. READ MORE

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Effects of Phenotypic Characteristics on the Length of Stay of Dogs at Two No Kill Animal Shelters
In this review of dog populations at two no-kill shelters, researchers looked specifically at how physical traits of dogs, as well as their ages, might affect the length of time they stay at the shelter. Without accounting for any sort of "personality" traits, they found a strong relationship between the size of the dog and their length of stay (LOS), but found only tenuous links between the dog's coat color and their LOS, as well as the type of breed (including "fighting breeds") and their LOS. Researchers hope that their findings will help shelters tailor their adoption efforts to focus on getting LOS down for all dogs, concentrating first on those that might normally stay in the shelter the longest. READ MORE

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Emerging Profiles for Cultured Meat; Ethics through and as Design
As lab-grown, cultured or "in vitro" meat develops further into a viable product fit for human consumption, questions around how we view lab-grown meat and what kind of ethical niche we wish it to fulfill remain up for debate. The authors of this paper consider two dominant profiles in support of cultured meat, one from a standpoint of animal ethics and one from the perspective of environmental sustainability, and offer a third possibility, one that might include real animals as part of the process. In this "third profile," researchers envision a kind of "backyard farming" scenario where farmed animals do not disappear from the process, but are instead kept in small numbers, donating stem cells for meat and also acting as companions. READ MORE

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The Future of Pork Production in the World: Towards Sustainable, Welfare-Positive Systems
This study speculates on forthcoming global trends in pig farming, beginning from the position that as human population grows, so too will "pork" production. The author considers issues of sustainability, defined broadly in terms of environmental sustainability, economic sustainability, and animal welfare. Looking at three animal welfare issues in particular -- "indoor" vs. "outdoor" production, gestation crating vs. pens, and male pig castration, the author outlines what he believes to be important ethical and economic considerations within each. The author takes exponential human population growth as a given, and a clear indicator that our "need" for pork will continue to rise, and always from the bottom line that "if a farming system is not economically competitive, it cannot survive." READ MORE

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Charter Protection for the Great Apes: A Litigation Strategy for Animal Welfare and Animal Rights Activism in Canada
In a paper published on the Social Science Research Network, David Frank Shultz analyzes the possibility of extending legal protection to non-human great apes (orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos) so that they fall within the category of ‘people' under Canadian law. Considering the issue from several different perspectives – animal rights activism, a scientific and philosophical viewpoint, and a legal perspective – Schultz believes that there is sufficient legal room for a plausible claim for great apes to be included within this group. As the law on this point is currently indeterminate, the paper gives animal rights advocates valuable material for litigation of this issue to potentially enact significant social change. READ MORE

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Food-Related Aggression in Shelter Dogs: A Comparison of Behavior Identified by a Behavior Evaluation in the Shelter…
Many shelters consider food aggression (FA+) a dangerous behavior and will either adopt such dogs out with restrictive conditions, or consider them not appropriate for adoption and euthanize them. A 2013 study from Boston asks us to rethink conventional wisdom. In a sample of 97 dogs studied three months after adoption, researchers found that only 55% of dogs who were food aggressive (FA+) in the shelter displayed similar behavior at home. Of the dogs that were FA+ after adoption, almost all (93%) of them displayed the behavior rarely and only 18% displayed more aggressive behavior such as lunges or bites. READ MORE
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