Abstract: Observation of behaviour, especially social behaviour, and experimental studies of learning and brain function give us information about the complexity of concepts that animals have. In order to learn to obtain a resource or carry out an action, domestic animals may: relate stimuli such as human words to the reward, perform sequences of actions including navigation or detours, discriminate amongst other individuals, copy the actions of other individuals, distinguish between individuals who do or do not have information, or communicate so as to cause humans or other animals to carry out actions. Some parrots, that are accustomed to humans but not domesticated, can use words to have specific meanings. In some cases, stimuli, individuals or actions are remembered for days, weeks or years. Events likely to occur in the future may be predicted and changes over time taken into account. Scientific evidence for the needs of animals depends, in part, on studies assessing motivational strength whose methodology depends on the cognitive ability of the animals. Recognition and learning may be associated with changes in physiology, behaviour and positive or negative feelings. Learning and other complex behaviour can result in affect and affect can alter cognition. The demonstration of cognitive bias gives indications about affect and welfare but should be interpreted in the light of other information. All of the information mentioned so far helps to provide evidence about sentience and the level of awareness. The term sentience implies a range of abilities, not just the capacity to have some feelings. The reluctance of scientists to attribute complex abilities and feelings to non-humans has slowed the development of this area of science. Most people consider that they have obligations to some animals. However, they might protect animals because they consider that an animal has an intrinsic value, or because of their concern for its welfare. In social species, there has been selection promoting moral systems that might result in behaviours such as attempts to avoid harm to others, collaboration and other altruistic behaviour. An evaluation of such behaviour may provide one of the criteria for decisions about whether or not to protect animals of a particular species. Other criteria may be: whether or not the animal is known as an individual, similarity to humans, level of awareness, extent of feelings, being large, being rare, being useful or having aesthetic quality for humans. Cognitive ability should also be considered when designing methods of enriching the environments of captive animals.

Abstract: Recent studies raise serious welfare concerns regarding the estimated 93.6 million horses, donkeys and mules in developing countries. Most equids are used for work in poor communities, and are commonly afflicted with wounds, poor body condition, respiratory diseases, parasites, dental problems, and lameness. Non-physical welfare problems, such as fear of humans, are also of concern. Interventions to improve working equine welfare aim to prioritise the conditions that cause the most severe impositions on the animals' subjectively experienced welfare, but data identifying which conditions these may be, are lacking. Here we describe a stage in the validation of behavioural welfare indicators that form part of a working equine welfare assessment protocol. Over 4 years, behavioural and physical data were collected from 5481 donkeys, 4504 horses, and 858 mules across nine developing countries. Behaviours included the animals' general alertness, and their responses to four human-interaction tests, using the unfamiliar observer as the human stimulus. Avoidance behaviours correlated significantly with each other across the human-interaction tests, with 21% of animals avoiding the observer, but they showed no associations with likely anthropogenic injuries. Over 13% of equids appeared [`]apathetic': lethargic rather than alert. Measures of unresponsiveness correlated with each other across the five tests, and were associated with poor body condition, abnormal mucous membrane colour, faecal soiling, eye abnormalities, more severe wounds, and older age, depending on the equine species. This suggests that working equids in poor physical health show an unresponsive behavioural profile, consistent with sickness behaviour, exhaustion, chronic pain, or depression-like states.

Abstract: Unwanted oral investigative in horses has been anecdotally attributed to the practice of hand-feeding. Fears over such behaviour developing as a consequence of using food rewards, for example in clicker training, have been implicated as a common reason for not employing food-based positive reinforcement training techniques. This study used data generated as part of a larger research project, and explored associations between five common oral investigative behaviours and the practices of hand-feeding and clicker training. Data were from a convenience sample of UK leisure horse owners using two self-administered Internet surveys. Ninety-one percent of respondents reported giving their horse food by hand and this practice was significantly associated with three of the five oral investigative behaviours, licking hands (P = 0.006), gently searching clothing (P < 0.001) and roughly searching clothing (P = 0.003). Nipping hands and biting clothes were not associated with hand-feeding, suggesting that risk factors for these behaviours originate outside of this practice. Clicker training techniques were employed by 14% of respondents and their use was not associated with the incidence of any of the five oral investigative behaviours. These findings suggest that horse owners should not be deterred from using food-based positive reinforcement techniques with their horses, as fears that this practice will result in unwanted oral investigative behaviours from their horses appear unfounded.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between age, reproductive status and sire of the mare and the tendency to perform stereotypies. One hundred and fourteen purebred Arab mares, offspring of 39 sires ( offspring per sire) and aged 4-21 years () were observed from the 30th March to the 15th of May 2005 using instantaneous scan sampling. We used a multivariate logistic regression in order to study the relationship between age, reproductive status and sire of the mare and the tendency to perform stereotypies. 28% of the observed mares showed stereotypic behaviour, mostly weaving (22%). Neither age (χ2 Wald = 9.36, p = 0.89) nor sire (χ2 Wald = 4.34, p = 1.0) affected the occurrence of stereotypies whilst the reproductive status of the mare influenced significantly the occurrence (χ2 Wald = 10.75, p = 0.001) but also the type (χ2 = 12.1, p < 0.001) of stereotypic behaviour. Weaving was more frequent in non foaling mares (41.4%) than in foaling mares (1.8%) that performed mostly stall-walking.

Abstract: The left and right sides of the brain are specialised to process information in different ways and to control different categories of behaviour. Research on a range of species has shown that the left hemisphere controls well-established patterns of behaviour performed in non-stressful situations, whereas the right hemisphere responds to unexpected stimuli and controls escape and other emergency responses. The known functions of each hemisphere are summarised in this paper. Then it is hypothesised that stressed animals rely on predominant use of the right hemisphere, and that a bias to use the right or left hemisphere, respectively, may explain the behavioural differences between animals with a negative cognitive bias and those with a positive cognitive bias. In some species of primates it has been shown that the preferred limb used to pick up food when the animal is in a relaxed state reflects the dominant hemisphere and may be an accessible measure indicating susceptibility to stress and tendency towards positive versus negative cognitive bias. Hence, limb preference might be a useful measure of such tendencies in domesticated species. Some difficulties in determining a relevant measure of limb preference in non-primate species are mentioned, followed by the suggestion that eye preferences for viewing certain stimuli may be a useful measure in species with laterally placed eyes. Finally, effects of experience on the development of hemispheric dominance are discussed, leading to a suggestion that the welfare of domestic animals may be enhanced by ensuring development of left hemisphere dominance (e.g. by exposing chick embryos to light) and by shifting right to left hemisphere dominance in animals with negative cognitive bias.