WORKSHOP 7: Suzanne Held: Pig Cognition and Why It Matters
My Session Status
What:
Workshop
When:
7:30 PM, Tuesday 3 Jul 2018
(2 hours)
Where:
Université du Québec à Montréal
- DS-R510
Our main purpose here is to introduce what is known about the cognitive abilities that facilitate natural pig behaviour. Commercial pigs released into natural conditions show many of the behavioural characteristics of their wild ancestors: they will form family groups with differentiated rank relationships, forage together, build nests for giving birth and rearing their neonates, the sexes mingle mainly for mating. However, most commercial pigs are kept in conditions very different from those in which their species evolved. This creates a potential mismatch between motivation and expectation on the one hand, and reality on the other. Our other aim, therefore, is to explore how we might assess scientifically how such a mismatch might make the pigs feel.
van Nieuwamerongen, S. E., Mendl, M., Held, S., Soede, N. M., & Bolhuis, J. E. (2017). Post-weaning social and cognitive performance of piglets raised pre-weaning either in a complex multi-suckling group housing system or in a conventional system with a crated sow. Animal cognition, 20(5), 907-921.
Piazza, J., & Loughnan, S. (2016). When Meat Gets Personal, Animals’ Minds Matter Less: Motivated Use of Intelligence Information in Judgments of Moral Standing. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(8), 867-874.
Suzanne Held (Speaker)
Bristol Veterinary School (University of Bristol)
Bristol Veterinary School (University of Bristol)
Riana Topan (Discussant)
Humane Society International/Canada
Humane Society International/Canada
Abby McCuaig (Discussant)
Worldwide Save Movemen
Worldwide Save Movemen
Arthur Reber (Moderator)
Adjunct Professor University of British Columbia
Adjunct Professor University of British Columbia
