An Historical Account of the Development of the Animal Needs Index ANI-35L as Part of the Attempt to Promote and Regulate Farm Animal Welfare in Austria: An Example of the Interaction Between Animal Welfare Science and Society

In order to define minimum legal standards of animal protection and lay down welfare-related regulations for livestock products it is important to define standards which meet two conflicting criteria: the standards should be simple, unequivocal and easily applicable, and yet they should match the huge variety of local circumstances and welfare conditions existing at farm level. The approach pursued in Austria to resolve this problem involves the so-called 'animal needs index' ANI-35. (In German this is known as 'Tiergerechtheitsindex' TGI-35.) This is an instrument for assuring defined welfare standards in livestock housing. The scoring of defined conditions leads to a sum total of points. The ANI totals are divided into ascending housing-condition grades. In this paper the historical interaction between the development of the ANI-35 system and various public attempts to regulate and promote farm animal welfare in Austria are described. It is shown how the ANI-system influenced the emergence of animal welfare norms in Austria and, in a process of feedback, how public discussion strongly improved the broad acceptance of the index. Weak points and possible improvements are discussed.