Young people and animals

DEFRA, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, have funded project a project to investigate the attitudes of 12 to 17 year olds and their behaviour to animals.

As part of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 the concept of a duty of care to animals was extended to all vertebrates managed, used and cared for by humans.

Children and young people are particularly important target audiences when considering extending a sense of duty to care to animals in society since previous research has suggested that experiences early in life can have long-lasting effects on attitudes and behaviour towards animals, and also because young people’s interactions with animals are particularly meaningful.

The project, a collaboration of the University of St Andrews, the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Agricultural College, aims to better understand the perspectives of 12 to 17 year olds of animals and their welfare in order to design evidence-based education materials to improve attitudes and behaviour towards animals.

In the first phase of the project they will conduct an online survey and interviews with different experimental tasks, which have been designed to understand adolescents’ perceptions, attitudes, and interactions with animals and how animals fit into adolescents’ lives.

On the basis of the findings and other relevant information in the second phase of the project they will develop appropriate educational material in order to enhance a sense of duty to care to animals in adolescents, after which they will implement and evaluate their education method.

Currently they are looking for youth organisations, which they can approach to help them circulate their questionnaire to reach as many young people as possible to be able to develop evidence based interventions.

The survey link to circulate to young people and youth organisations is www.survey.ed.ac.uk/srucanimals.