New Eu Policies Towards Animal Welfare: The Relative Importance Of Pig Castration

Animal welfare is becoming one of the most contentious issues in animal husbandry and meat production industries. We assess the relative importance of animal welfare, with respect to pig castration and the avoidance of boar taint, alongside different attributes of pork meat, amongst consumers in six EU countries. We use the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) as a multi-criteria decision-support method aimed at deconstructing the purchasing decisions of consumers. Our results show that in all surveyed countries, consumers are generally not concerned about the 'gender of the animal' This particular attribute represented approximately 10 per cent or less of the final buying decision, while 'flavour and odour' was the most important attribute, representing approximately 45 per cent of the final buying decision. The results also demonstrated that pig castration is not necessarily perceived as a relevant aspect of animal welfare. However, any future regulation on banning castration to increase pig welfare could undesirably affect the 'flavour and odour' of the meat and thus might negatively impact the most important factor in consumers' purchasing decisions. Thus, effective public awareness campaigns about the relationship between pig welfare and castration and between castration and sensory meat qualities are needed to help policymakers address the true interests of consumers in future food policies.