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Five Domains model

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The image takes the form of a flowchart diagram. The first segment is titled Physical and Functional Domains and has four boxes below it, labelled 1. Nutrition, food and water quality and quantity. 2. Environment, physical features of the environment, temperature. 3. Health. Diseases, injuries, or other functional imparements. 4. Behaviour. (In)ability to express species specific behaviour. Under these boxes, an arrow points to the next segment, which is labelled Mental Domain and contains only one box, labeled 5. Mental State. Emotional experiences as thirst, hunger, discomfort, pain, anxiety, fear, boredom, etc. Below this an arrow points to a large box containing the text Animal Welfare Status
Diagram of the Five Domains model of animal welfare.

The Five Domains model,[1] sometimes given as Five Domains,[2] is a model for assessing animal welfare. The Five Domains covered by the model are nutrition, environment, health, behaviour, and mental state. The first four domains (the physical domains) directly influence the fifth (the mental domain) which in turn directly impacts the welfare state of the animal. The Five Domains model was developed by David Mellor and Christopher Reid in response to perceived deficiencies with the Five Freedoms model and has since been adopted by a number of leading animal welfare organisations and animal welfare scientists.

Background

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The Five Freedoms model was first introduced by the UK Farm Animal Welfare Council in a 1979 press statement in response to the Brambell Report, a 1965 UK Government report on livestock husbandry.[3] The Five Freedoms were defined as the freedom from hunger or thirst, the freedom from discomfort, the freedom from pain, injury, and disease, the freedom to express natural behaviour, and the freedom from fear and distress.[3] This model was widely adopted and used to inform animal welfare law and welfare assurance schemes.[4]

History

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In 1994, Mellor and Reid proposed that animal welfare is better modeled through the wider measurement of the animal's situation, as opposed to simply analysing the presence or lack thereof of hunger, fear, pain, discomfort, and natural behaviours.[5] The negative experiences described in the Five Freedoms are inherently unavoidable and are natural biological responses to stimuli, and the minimisation or elimination of these experiences does not inherently prove good welfare. It is more important when promoting animal welfare to attempt to elicit positive responses such as comfort and pleasure in animals.[6] Allowing animals to still experience a tolerable level of negative affects such as hunger ensures they continue to exhibit rewarding natural behaviours such as foraging.[6]

The Five Domains model consists of the domains of nutrition (such as the presence and quality of food and water), environment (the animal's habitat and surroundings), health (disease, injury, and other impairments such as age), behaviour (the animal's ability to express natural, specific behaviours such as scent-marking or foraging), and mental state (the emotional experience of the animal). The initial four domains are measured and this information is used to determine the overall mental state of the animal, which in turn is used to measure its overall welfare[7][8] The model is designed to help ensure that animals have a "life [that is] worth living", and are not simply having their basic survival needs met.[6]

The Five Domains model is used to evaluate the welfare of animals in a number of situations, such as zoos, farms, in research, and in animal shelters.[2] The model has further been utilised in the development of measurements of an animal's quality of life, which is especially useful when making decisions around euthanasia.[9][1] The Five Domains model is supported by numerous major animal welfare organisations such as the RSPCA[10] and World Animal Protection.[11] In zoos and aquaria the model has been used to measure the overall welfare of capture wildlife and to improve their conditions,[12] and is recommended by the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums to be used in assessing welfare.[13] It has been used to assess the welfare impacts of various forms of pest control in wild animals,[14] and for assessing suffering in animal cruelty investigations in companion animals.[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b Mellor, David (9 August 2017). "Operational Details of the Five Domains Model and Its Key Applications to the Assessment and Management of Animal Welfare". Animals. 7 (8): 60. doi:10.3390/ani7080060. PMC 5575572. PMID 28792485.
  2. ^ a b Hampton, Jordan O; Hemsworth, Lauren M; Hemsworth, Paul H; Hyndman, Timothy H; Sandøe, Peter (2023). "Rethinking the utility of the Five Domains model". Animal Welfare. 32: e62. doi:10.1017/awf.2023.84. PMC 10936274. PMID 38487458.
  3. ^ a b "Five Freedoms". Farm Animal Welfare Council / Farm Animal Welfare Committee. Archived from the original on 7 October 2012.
  4. ^ McCulloch, Steven P. (October 2013). "A Critique of FAWC's Five Freedoms as a Framework for the Analysis of Animal Welfare". Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 26 (5): 959–975. doi:10.1007/s10806-012-9434-7.
  5. ^ Mellor, D.; Reid, C. S. W. (1 January 1994). "Concepts of animal well-being and predicting the impact of procedures on experimental animals". Experimental Research and Animal Welfare Collection. 7: 3–18. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  6. ^ a b c Mellor, David (14 March 2016). "Updating Animal Welfare Thinking: Moving beyond the "Five Freedoms" towards "A Life Worth Living"". Animals. 6 (3): 21. doi:10.3390/ani6030021. PMC 4810049. PMID 27102171.
  7. ^ Voogt, Annika M.; Ursinus, Winanda W.; Sijm, Dick T. H. M.; Bongers, Johan H. (18 April 2023). "From the Five Freedoms to a more holistic perspective on animal welfare in the Dutch Animals Act". Frontiers in Animal Science. 4. doi:10.3389/fanim.2023.1026224.
  8. ^ Littlewood, Katherine E.; Heslop, Morgan V.; Cobb, Mia L. (2 November 2023). "The agency domain and behavioral interactions: assessing positive animal welfare using the Five Domains Model". Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 10. doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1284869. PMC 10656766. PMID 38026638.
  9. ^ Green, TC; Mellor, DJ (November 2011). "Extending ideas about animal welfare assessment to include 'quality of life' and related concepts". New Zealand Veterinary Journal. 59 (6): 263–271. doi:10.1080/00480169.2011.610283. PMID 22040330.
  10. ^ "Rescue and Care - RSPCA - rspca.org.uk". RSPCA. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  11. ^ Williamson, Ben (24 June 2021). "Five Domains vs. Five Freedoms of Animal Welfare". World Animal Protection US. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  12. ^ Clegg, Ilk; Borger-Turner, Jl; Eskelinen, Hc (August 2015). "C-Well: The development of a welfare assessment index for captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)". Animal Welfare. 24 (3): 267–282. doi:10.7120/09627286.24.3.267.
  13. ^ Mellor, David J. "Caring for Wildlife" (PDF). World Association for Zoos and Aquaria. Retrieved 26 May 2025.
  14. ^ Baker, Sandra E.; Sharp, Trudy M.; Macdonald, David W. (4 January 2016). "Assessing Animal Welfare Impacts in the Management of European Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), European Moles (Talpa europaea) and Carrion Crows (Corvus corone)". PLOS ONE. 11 (1): e0146298. Bibcode:2016PLoSO..1146298B. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0146298. PMC 4699632. PMID 26726808.
  15. ^ Ledger, Rebecca A.; Mellor, David J. (25 June 2018). "Forensic Use of the Five Domains Model for Assessing Suffering in Cases of Animal Cruelty". Animals. 8 (7): 101. doi:10.3390/ani8070101.
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