Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / August 2006

More On The Crating Debate

1 From:  misty -
Date:  Fri, Mar 29 2002 1:51 pm
Email:   Momi...@webtv.net (misty)

Since the other thread quickly deteriorated into a thread about family
lifestyles, I thought that I would start a new thread.

I have multiple websites ( and snippets from each) for people to read
and think about.

Let's try to keep this one on topic <g>

http://www.rtis.com/reg/bcs/pol/touchstone/summer98/degrazia.html

A review on David Degrazia's Taking Animals Seriously.

"Farmers can easily tell if confinement causes physiological damage by
observing if their animals get sick or die. However, farmers may not
have an easy means of determining if confinement causes psychological
damage. To know whether confinement is morally permissible or
impermissible they must have a good understanding of the mental lives
of
their animals.

DeGrazia establishes four different routes towards understanding animal

minds. First, we should investigate human phenomenology. Second,
investigate animal behavior. Third, use functional-evolutionary
arguments to understand animal minds. Fourth and finally, as DeGrazia
says, "look at the hardware." As with functional-evolutionary
arguments, neurological arguments alone are not sufficient to attribute

a mental state to an animal. The arguments are part of a larger set of
arguments that give us at least very good reason to believe that
animals
experience particular mental states.

Following DeGrazia's methodology, we should first look to how
confinement affects human beings. There is plenty of evidence that
prisoners suffer when confined for long periods of time. So there is
at least a rationale for investigating suffering in confined
animals. From the testimony of prisoners themselves, we know that
confinement causes stress, anxiety and boredom (among other
maladies). Can animals experience these three mental states as well?"

To find out the well reasoned answer to that question.. follow the link
;-)

http://www.awionline.org/pubs/cq/dogs.htm

This link is in regard to laboratory dogs and the ideal amount of space

required to keep the dogs mentally and physically healthy.

"Confinement in pens or cages intrinsically restricts the dog's ability

to perform species- typical behaviors, and to adjust social contact
with
other dogs (Bebak and Beck 1993). Small or shallow-depthed pens may
also
not allow the dog to retreat from events that he or she considers
alarming at the front of the pen. If the dog experiences difficulties
in
coping with the kennelling condition he or she may show various
behavioral abnormalities such as locomotory stereotypies or excessive
barking (Luescher et al. 1991). If dogs develop stereotypies there is
good reason to reexamine the particular type of housing and attempt to
improve it.

Stereotypies are not always easy to recognize as they will often cease
when a person enters the room. It can be useful to employ
closed-circuit
television (CCTV) or video techniques to monitor the dogs from another
room. Running a videotape in fast forward will make it easier to detect

abnormally repetitive behavior patterns."

and

"Dogs in too small enclosures simply do not have enough space in which
to run in a dog-specific manner, but we do not know as yet how
important
this might be to them. However, it is known that small enclosures are
associated with a higher prevalence of circling and other stereotypies
than relatively large enclosures (Hubrecht et al. 1992). This indicates

that too small living areas affect the dogs' behavioral health and
hence
their general well-being. It is reasonable to recommend that as an
absolute minimum the enclosure must provide adequate space for a dog to

locomote for more than a few paces in a straight line.

This can be provided through a dimension of the pen that is at least
four times the dog's length."

Most crates are way smaller than the above specifications... pretty sad

when companion animals are treated worse than laboratory animals.

http://www.ivis.org/advances/Behavior_Houpt/luescher/chapter_frm.asp?...

Discusses compulsive behaviors.

"In companion animals, such behaviors have been regarded by many as
seizures, and possibly expressions of other neurological defects such
as
hydrocephalus. Interestingly, in other species such behaviors,
particularly the stereotypic ones, have always been considered to be
confinement-induced conflict behaviors, and have been linked to
specific
husbandry practices [1]. An important break-through in the
understanding
of these abnormal behaviors in companion animals came when the parallel

was drawn between them and the stereotypic behavior of livestock and
zoo
animals."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also found one vet site where crating is contra-indicated for SA.

Let the crating debate resume ...

~misty