Animal welfare in livestock farming and communication with society:  the case of pictures

Gesa Busch

Gesa Busch Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

Keywords: Animal welfare, Communication strategies, Consumer, Picture perception

Abstract

People in the general public are increasingly criticizing the practices applied in livestock farming for reasons of animal welfare in many countries of the world. Furthermore, many people lack direct contact with agriculture. Therefore, the main source of information on food production is the media that uses many images in reports. Until now, little is known about how laymen perceive images of livestock. This document summarizes the results of four studies that have been carried out on the perception of images within the public. Images appear to be a good tool to increase transparency and educate the public about agricultural realities, but they do not increase the acceptance of conventional systems.

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