Study to assess teenage attitudes to animals
Early experiences are important in determining how a young person will treat animals in adulthood.
Teenagers are being asked to take part in a new study to assess their attitudes to animals and how well they understand their legal duty of care. The findings will be used to create educational materials for UK schools and other groups who work with young people.
Led by Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), the online survey will assess attitudes towards both domestic animals and wildlife in young people aged 13 to 17.
The project has received funding of £479,000 from Defra. It follows a previous Defra-funded study of younger children. Findings suggested the children had positive attitudes towards animals but lacked knowledge of how best to care for them.
It is "incredibly important" to learn more about how teenagers feel about animals, SRUC says, in order to design materials to encourage them to treat them with respect. Researchers believe intervention at this life stage could make a real difference to the way young people treat animals in later life. Early experiences are also important in determining how a young person will treat animals in adulthood.
SRUC researchers will collaborate with the Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and Hertfordshire. The aim is to find out how animals fit in with teenagers' lives, how they interact with them, whether they have a positive effect on their physical or mental health, or whether they help them to empathise.
Researchers will also assess how well the participants understand their legal duty of care to animals under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which states that those responsible for caring for an animal must meet its basic needs, including diet, housing, social needs, ability to express normal behaviour and protection from pain, suffering and disease.
SRUC researcher Melanie Connor says: "This is vital work because it will encourage more responsibility and care among pet owners and those who work with animals, and raise awareness of the importance of ‘duty of care’".
Educating young people about animal welfare is also important for helping them make informed shopping choices in later life, Melanie adds.
'As future consumers, teenagers need to be able to make informed decisions about their shopping habits. But to work out how to encourage them to make ‘good’ or ‘responsible’ food choices, like buying high welfare products, we need to understand what motivates them."
To view the survey visit: https://www.survey.ed.ac.uk/srucanimals
RCVS Knowledge has welcomed Professor Peter Cockcroft as editor-in-chief for Veterinary Evidence. 
