Cat and dog owners' expectations and attitudes towards advanced veterinary care (AVC) in the UK, Austria and Denmark.

Modern veterinary medicine offers a level of care to cats and dogs similar to that available to their owners, including blood transfusions, chemotherapy and MRI scans. The potential benefits to the animals of owners who can afford such care are obvious, but there can also be negative consequences if owners with strong emotional attachments to their pets pursue treatments that significantly reduce the quality of the animal's life while attempting to prolong it. Moreover, caring for a chronically or seriously ill animal can lead to emotional distress and financial and practical challenges for the pet owner. A questionnaire was used to survey cat and dog owners from representative samples of citizens in the UK, Austria and Denmark, to investigate owners' expectations and attitudes towards advanced veterinary care, and the factors that might influence those views. Overall, 58.4% of the pet owners surveyed believed that their pets should have access to the same treatment options as humans, while 51.5% believed that they should have access to the same diagnostic tests as humans. Owners were most likely to be neutral on the question of whether advanced veterinary care has 'gone too far' (45.3%), and to disagree with the statement that advanced care is 'unnecessary' (40.1%). In all three countries, the level of attachment owners had to their pets was most strongly associated with attitudes towards advanced care, with owners scoring higher on Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS) being more likely to expect advanced care to be available. Other factors such as owner age, living situation (alone or not), income or possession of pet insurance were less consistently with owner attitudes. Our findings will help inform veterinarians and other health care providers about pet owner expectations and attitudes towards advanced veterinary care, and contribute to the debate on increasing specialisation within the profession.

Seeing the benefits, but not taking advantage of them: Dog and cat owners' beliefs about veterinary telemedicine.

BACKGROUND: Telemedicine offers benefits to clients and their animals, but potential disadvantages are also being debated. METHODS: Using a questionnaire, we investigated dog and cat owners' (N = 2117) use of and beliefs about telemedicine and whether beliefs impact past and expected future use. RESULTS: Although the majority of owners are aware that telemedicine can lead to the risk of something being missed, they see great potential in remote consultation in terms of usefulness for follow-up appointments or improving access to a specialist. However, only 12% of dog owners and 6% of cat owners have used telemedicine, and around 25% of owners who have never used it would be willing to use it in the future. Owners with a larger number of recent veterinary visits were more likely to have used telemedicine. LIMITATIONS: Although a definition of 'telemedicine' was provided, respondents may have had different perceptions of what this meant. CONCLUSION: Owners of dogs and cats recognise the potential benefits of telemedicine, but there is a mismatch with the actual uptake. This not only raises questions about the current availability of telemedicine but also should increase veterinary professionals' understanding of its potential benefits in veterinary practice.

Do people really care less about their cats than about their dogs? A comparative study in three European countries.

Previous studies have shown that cat owners seem to care less about their cats than dog owners care about their dogs - both in terms of their emotional state of attachment and in their willingness to pay for services that potentially benefit the animals. One study speculated that this difference is "driven by the behavior of the pet" - that the behavior of dogs encourages care more than the behavior of cats - and therefore is a universal phenomenon. However, previous studies mostly relied on convenience sampling of owners and were undertaken in single countries. Based on responses to a questionnaire from cat and dog owners drawn from representative samples of citizens (18 to 89 years of age) in three different European countries, Denmark, Austria and the United Kingdom, we tested the degree to which owners care about their cats and dogs. We used four different measures: Lexington attachment to pets scale (LAPS), possession of pet health insurance, willingness to pay for life-saving treatment, and expectation of veterinary diagnostic and treatment options. Dog owners had higher LAPS scores in all countries. However, the difference between dog and cat owners was greater in Denmark than in Austria and the United Kingdom. More dogs than cats were insured in all three countries, but the ratio was much less skewed in favor of dogs in the United Kingdom compared to Denmark. In terms of expensive life-saving treatment, in every country, more dog owners than cat owners were willing to spend over a certain amount, but the differences were much more pronounced in Denmark compared to the United Kingdom. In Denmark and Austria, dog owners expected more veterinary treatment options to be available, but species made no difference to the expectations of UK owners. People care more about their dogs than their cats in all countries, but with a clear cross-country variation and a very modest difference in the United Kingdom. Therefore, it does not seem to be a universal phenomenon that people care much less about their cats than their dogs. This finding has practical implications for future efforts to expand the level of veterinary services provided for cat owners.

Exploring everyday life dynamics in meat reduction - A cluster analysis of flexitarians in Denmark.

Exploring everyday life dynamics in meat reduction - a cluster analysis of flexitarians in Denmark. Flexitarians are attracting increasing attention in the research on meat reduction. But there has been limited focus on comprehensive understandings of a broader range of dynamics that can work as barriers and facilitators for meat reduction. In this article, we use social practice theory (SPT) as a comprehensive approach to barriers and facilitators in meat reduction in everyday life. We present an analysis of data from a representative Danish cross-sectional survey. We show, first, that Danish flexitarians can be divided into four distinct clusters (what we will refer to as classes) in accordance with combinations of everyday facilitators and barriers. Second, we show that the prevalence of these classes varies considerably depending on how long people have been flexitarians. We argue that the patterns in this variation indicate that over time people transition to other classes where barriers to plant-rich eating become less significant, and routinization emerges in different ways. Finally, third, we show that flexitarians do report eating less meat than consumers who label themselves as eating meat with no restrictions. But we also highlight that the difference is relatively modest. Indeed, meat intake is still quite common even in classes where routinization is highest. Throughout the paper, we discuss similarities and differences between the SPT framework and another recent framework, the COM-B model, that also provides a comprehensive approach to the understanding of behavioural change.

"The person in power told me to"-European PhD students' perspectives on guest authorship and good authorship practice.

Questionable authorship practices in scientific publishing are detrimental to research quality and management. The existing literature dealing with the prevalence, and perceptions, of such practices has focused on the medical sciences, and on experienced researchers. In contrast, this study investigated how younger researchers (PhD students) from across the faculties view fair authorship attribution, their experience with granting guest authorships to more powerful researchers and their reasons for doing so. Data for the study were collected in a survey of European PhD students. The final dataset included 1,336 participants from five European countries (Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, and Switzerland) representing all major disciplines. Approximately three in ten reported that they had granted at least one guest authorship to "a person in power". Half of these indicated that they had done so because they had been told to do so by the person in power. Participants from the medical, natural and technical sciences were much more likely to state that they had granted a guest authorship than those from other faculties. We identified four general views about what is sufficient for co-authorship. There were two dominant views. The first (inclusive view) considered a broad range of contributions to merit co-authorship. The second (strongly writing-oriented) emphasised that co-authors must have written a piece of the manuscript text. The inclusive view dominated in the natural, technical, and medical sciences. Participants from other faculties were more evenly distributed between the inclusive and writing oriented view. Those with an inclusive view were most likely to indicate that they have granted a guest authorship. According to the experiences of our participants, questionable authorship practices are prevalent among early-career researchers, and they appear to be reinforced through a combination of coercive power relations and dominant norms in some research cultures, particularly in the natural, technical, and medical sciences.

Perceptions of the rabbit as a low investment 'starter pet' lead to negative impacts on its welfare: Results of two Danish surveys.

Concerns over compromised companion rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus) welfare are widespread. The welfare problems have been linked to the perception of rabbits as low investment 'children's pets.' To test this hypothesis and investigate the current conditions for rabbits, data were gathered from two surveys in 2021: a nationally representative survey of Danish companion animal owners (Survey I) and a detailed social media-based survey of Danish rabbit owners (Survey II). Using logistic regression, three owner-related variables (whether a child/adult was responsible for care of the rabbit, owner-opinion on rabbits' suitability as 'starter pets' and willingness-to-pay [WTP] for veterinary treatment) were employed to investigate the effect of rabbit status on owner-provision of selected husbandry conditions. The 76 (Survey I) and 4,335 (Survey II) responses suggested that most rabbits are acquired for children and are solitarily housed, and that many are kept in cages of an unsuitable size and not checked daily. Owners who perceived rabbits as 'starter pets' and with lower WTP were more likely to house rabbits in restricted space and to not provide continuous gnawing opportunities, ad libitum hay or routine healthcare. A child fulfilling the role of the rabbit's main caretaker was also associated with inadequate housing type and fewer gnawing opportunities. Thus, many rabbits live in unsuitable conditions, and owners who perceive rabbits as low investment 'children's pets' are more likely to not provide recommended resources. Changing owners' perceptions of rabbits and promoting suitable husbandry through official education programmes and minimum requirements is important if there are to be improvements made to rabbit welfare.

Compete or Cooperate with 'Dr. Google'? Small Animal Veterinarians' Attitudes towards Clients' Use of Internet Resources-A Comparative Study across Austria, Denmark and the UK.

Veterinary medicine is increasingly affected by animal owners having the opportunity to become better informed on pet health issues by using various internet resources. Using an online questionnaire including a section on clients' use of internet resources to obtain medical information, this study aimed to investigate veterinarians' estimates of the percentage of clients using internet resources, how often clients question veterinarians' professional medical advice based on online information, and veterinarians' attitudes towards clients' use of internet resources, across Austrian, Danish, and UK veterinarians (n = 641). The results show that 48.8% of respondents estimated that 40-79% of their clients use internet resources to find medical information. Further, 70-80% of respondents stated that they are occasionally challenged by clients questioning their advice based on online information. Although veterinarians recognized the potential advantages related to clients' use of internet resources, such as an increased acceptance of advanced diagnostics and treatments, they also highlighted clients' increased expectations or false impressions of small animal practices as potentially negative aspects in this context. As internet use increases, it seems likely that these issues will become increasingly important in the future.

Digital opportunities to connect and complain - the use of Facebook in small animal practice.

BACKGROUND: Social media is increasingly used in small animal practice, enabling veterinarians to connect with clients and promote their business online. It can also be used by clients to quickly distribute complaints via online communities. MATERIAL/METHODS: Using a questionnaire study we investigated Austrian, Danish and UK veterinarians' attitudes towards Facebook, the contents of clients' online complaints and how they were handled by veterinarians (N = 648). RESULTS: In Denmark and the UK, around 90% of practices had a Facebook page, in contrast to 40% of Austrian practices. Most Danish and UK veterinarians agreed that the use of Facebook was relevant and expected by clients. Agreement was lower among Austrian veterinarians, probably reflecting the lower uptake of social media there. In particular, younger veterinarians and those who actively used Facebook for the practice, could see benefits. In all three countries, we found that clients most frequently complained about treatment costs. Most veterinarians preferred to actively deal with clients' complaints, either replying online or discussing them directly. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend future research focusing on veterinarians' personal use of social media and on clients' use of and attitudes towards social media in the veterinary context.

Comparing veterinarians' attitudes to and the potential influence of pet health insurance in Austria, Denmark and the UK.

BACKGROUND: Health insurance offers many benefits to clients and veterinarians, such as the ability to perform necessary and possibly cost-intensive medical interventions without financial constraints, or to potentially prevent euthanasia based on financial challenges. However, concerns about negative consequences, such as the overuse of diagnostic tests or overtreatment, have also been raised. METHODS: Using an online questionnaire distributed via e-mail, which included a section on health insurance, we investigated the relative number of insured dogs and cats treated by Austrian, Danish and UK veterinarians (N = 636) and the attitudes of those veterinarians toward health insurance. Further, using a case vignette, we examined whether coverage by health insurance may influence treatment suggestions. RESULTS: Even though veterinarians in all three countries believe that health insurance reduces stress since clients' financial resources will be less important, we found that Austrian veterinarians are more likely to agree that health insurance is unnecessary compared to Danish and UK veterinarians. Further, many raised the concern that insurance policies influence clinical decisions; and less than half supported the idea of making insurance mandatory. A majority of veterinarians in Austria and the UK thought that insurance can lead to the overuse of diagnostic tests, and in the UK a majority also thought that it can lead to overtreatment. Using case vignettes, we found that veterinarians were significantly more likely to suggest a CT scan to a client with an insured animal, in contrast to a client with stated financial limitations. Further, UK veterinarians were more likely to suggest a CT scan to a client with an insured animal, in contrast to a client without insurance. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, we found that veterinarians, in general, were in favour of health insurance, and that greater coverage may increase more cost-intensive veterinary care. Our findings also raise a potential ethical challenge of health insurance causing differential access to clinical care for patients.

"I am very critical of my body, but I am not a worthless person": A qualitative investigation of internalized weight stigma in Denmark.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore how two of the main dimensions of internalized weight stigma (IWS), namely weight-related self-devaluation and distress, play out in the lives of people with excess weight (EW), and to study whether there are further dimensions of IWS. Method: Ten informants with EW were included in this study. The sample size was determined prior to data collection based on available resources at the time of data collection. All informants both participated in in-depth interviews and responded to the questionnaire WBIS-2F consisting of the two subscales: weight-related self-devaluation and distress. The interview accounts were thematically coded and compared with the informants' scoring on WBIS-2F. Findings: Seven themes were identified from the in-depth interviews: (1) devaluation of competencies, (2) self-blame, (3) bodily devaluation, (4) ambivalence, (5) anticipated stigma, (6) coping strategies, and (7) mental well-being. Overall, the informants scored low on the WBIS-2F subscale weight-related self-devaluation and high on the subscale weight-related distress. The qualitative findings echo the informants' scoring on WBIS-2F. However, novel aspects of IWS not covered by WBIS-2F were also identified. In particular, bodily devaluation presented itself as an integral part of IWS. Conclusion: The two current dimensions of WBIS-2F were retrieved, but important additional aspects of IWS were also identified. Future research is needed to evaluate and test both qualitatively and quantitatively whether the additional aspects of IWS identified in this exploratory examination are separate constructs of IWS.

Is there a potential international market for Danish welfare pork? - A consumer survey from Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.

This cross-country study investigates the potential to improve pig welfare by exploiting consumer demand, domestically and in export markets, for welfare pork produced in indoor production systems. The analysis is based on questionnaire data collected in 2019 focusing on demand for Danish welfare pork both in Denmark and in two nearby export markets, Sweden and Germany. To reduce hypothetical bias, a willingness-to-pay indicator is combined with an indicator of positive interest in buying a fictive Danish welfare labelled pork. We find that the market potential is relatively weak. Our findings indicate that there is some, albeit limited, potential in Denmark and Germany while demand is practically non-existing in Sweden, probably because the pig welfare guaranteed by Swedish legislation is similar to what is provided by the fictive welfare label employed in the study. Hence, consumer demand alone cannot secure enhanced pig welfare. Moreover, we found national differences in the characteristics of consumers who are interested in Danish welfare pork.

Managing conflicting ethical concerns in modern small animal practice-A comparative study of veterinarian's decision ethics in Austria, Denmark and the UK.

Small animal veterinarians frequently have to manage conflicting interests. Beside the key consideration of the patient's interests, small animal veterinarians are often challenged to consider not only client's emotional needs, but also their own personal aspirations to provide quality patient care and to make a good living as a professional. Further, veterinarians have an interest in continuous professional development and the use of the newest treatments, which may influence their decision-making process. Based on published work, we hypothesize the existence of four decision ethics orientations that veterinarians can use to manage potentially conflicting concerns. These are: the patient-focused, the client-empathetic, the client-devolved and the development-oriented decision ethics orientations. We surveyed small animal veterinarians in Austria, Denmark, and the UK using a questionnaire (N = 648), and successfully identified the four decision ethics orientations in all three countries. The patient-focused and client-empathetic decision ethics orientations are salient in all countries, whereas Danish and UK veterinarians are slightly more client-empathetic and client-devolved compared to their Austrian colleagues. Across countries our findings show that experienced and older veterinarians tend to be more client-empathetic. Younger and less experienced professionals are more development-oriented compared to their older and more experienced colleagues. In contrast to other studies investigating ethical issues in small animal practice, we found no evidence that gender plays a decisive role in the tendency towards any decision ethics orientation. We also show that veterinarians with a higher client-empathetic orientation and development-orientation more often discuss the possibility of health insurance with clients who do not have it. The present study provides a first empirical insight into how veterinarians manage challenging expectations and ethical concerns as part of decision making in modern small animal practice.

Good friend or good student? An interview study of perceived conflicts between personal and academic integrity among students in three European countries.

Students are often reluctant to report the academic dishonesty of their peers. Loyalty to friends and classmates has previously been identified as an important reason for this. This paper explores loyalty conflicts among students from upper secondary school, through bachelor's, to Ph.D. level. Drawing on semi-structured qualitative interviews (N = 72) conducted in Denmark, Ireland and Hungary, we show that loyalty considerations among students can be complex and draw on a range of norms including responsibility. The study demonstrates how students are often willing to assume substantial personal responsibility for dealing with the academic dishonesty of a peer, often preferring this to reporting. However, when deciding on the right course of action, they also perceive tensions between the norms of the good researcher and student and their own norms of being a good friend and person. The loyalty considerations and tension were identified in all three countries and across the educational levels, which suggests that this is a cross-cultural challenge. We argue that institutions should formally decide whether they want students to take some degree of responsibility themselves for addressing less serious cases of academic dishonesty and communicate their decision to their students.

Predictors of weight loss after bariatric surgery-a cross-disciplinary approach combining physiological, social, and psychological measures.

BACKGROUND: Bariatric surgery leads to a substantial weight loss (WL), however, a subset of patients undergoing surgery fails to achieve adequate WL. The reason for the individual variation in WL remains unexplained. Using an exploratory cross-disciplinary approach, we aimed to identify preoperative and early postoperative factors explaining the variation in WL after bariatric surgery. METHODS: Sixty-one subjects were recruited. Eighteen subjects did not receive surgery and three subjects dropped out, leaving a total sample of 40 subjects. Physiological, social, and psychological data were collected before and 6 months after surgery. All variables were analyzed in combination using a least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression to explain the variation in WL 18 months after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (n = 30) and sleeve gastrectomy (n = 10). RESULTS: Mean WL was 31% (range: 10-52%). The following preoperative factors predicted 59% of the variation in WL: type of surgery (14%), diabetes status (12%), economic resources (9%), sex (7%), binge eating disorder (7%), degree of depression (5%), household type (3%), and physical activity (1%). Including information on early responses after surgery increased the ability to predict WL to 78% and was explained by early WL (47%), changes in energy density of food consumed from a buffet meal (9%), changes in glicentin (5%), degree of depression (5%), sex (5%), type of surgery (2%), economic resources (2%), and changes in drive for thinness (1%). CONCLUSIONS: Using a cross-disciplinary approach, a substantial part of the individual variation in WL was explained by a combination of basic patient characteristics, psychological profile, and social conditions as well as physiological, psychological and behavioral responses to surgery. These results suggest that patient characteristics collected in a cross-disciplinary approach may help determine predictors for less successful WL after bariatric surgery. If verified in larger cohorts this may form the basis for individualized postoperative support to optimize WL outcome.

A multidimensional measure of animal ethics orientation - Developed and applied to a representative sample of the Danish public.

We present a questionnaire-based measure of four animal ethics orientations. The orientations, which were developed in light of existing empirical studies of attitudes to animal use and ethical theory, are: animal rights, anthropocentrism, lay utilitarianism, and animal protection. The two latter orientations can be viewed as variants of animal welfarism. Three studies were conducted in Denmark in order to identify the hypothesised orientations, evaluate their concurrent validity, and report their prevalence and relevance in animal-related opinion formation and behaviour. Explorative factor analysis (Study 1) and confirmative factor analysis (Study 2) successfully identified the four orientations. Study 2 revealed good measurement invariance, as there was none or very modest differential item functioning across age, gender, living area, and contrasting population segments. Evaluation of concurrent validity in Study 2 found that the orientations are associated with different kinds of behaviour and opinion when the human use of animals is involved in the hypothesised directions. In Study 3, a representative population study, the animal protection orientation proved to be most prevalent in the Danish population, and as in study 2 the four orientations were associated with different behaviours and opinions. Remarkably, the animal protection orientation does not lead to increased animal welfare-friendly meat consumption, the main reason for this being non-concern about the current welfare status of farm animals. We argue that the developed measure covers a wide range of diversity in animal ethics orientations that is likely to exist in a modern society such as Denmark and can be used in future studies to track changes in the orientations and to understand and test hypotheses about the sources and justifications of people's animal-related opinions and behaviours.

Should the Contribution of One Additional Lame Cow Depend on How Many Other Cows on the Farm Are Lame?

Welfare Quality® proposes a system for aggregation according to which the total welfare score for a group of animals is a non-linear effect of the prevalence of welfare scores across the individuals within the group. Three assumptions serve to justify this: (1) experts do not follow a linear reasoning when they assess a welfare problem; (2) it serves to prevent compensation (severe welfare problems hidden by scoring well on other aspects of welfare); (3) experts agree on the weight of different welfare measures. We use two sources of data to examine these assumptions: animal welfare data from 44 Danish dairy farms with Danish Holstein Friesian cows, and data from a questionnaire study with a convenience sample of 307 experts in animal welfare, of which we received responses from over 50%. Our main results were: (1) the total group-level welfare score as assigned by experts is a non-linear function of the individual animal welfare states within the group; (2) the WQ system does not prevent what experts perceive as unacceptable compensation; (3) the level of agreement among experts appears to vary across measures. Our findings give rise to concerns about the proposed aggregation system offered by WQ.

Changes in the social context and conduct of eating in four Nordic countries between 1997 and 2012.

How have eating patterns changed in modern life? In public and academic debate concern has been expressed that the social function of eating may be challenged by de-structuration and the dissolution of traditions. We analyzed changes in the social context and conduct of eating in four Nordic countries over the period 1997-2012. We focused on three interlinked processes often claimed to be distinctive of modern eating: delocalization of eating from private households to commercial settings, individualization in the form of more eating alone, and informalization, implying more casual codes of conduct. We based the analysis on data from two surveys conducted in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1997 and 2012. The surveys reported in detail one day of eating in representative samples of adult populations in the four countries (N = 4823 and N = 8242). We compared data regarding where, with whom, and for how long people ate, and whether parallel activities took place while eating. While Nordic people's primary location for eating remained the home and the workplace, the practices of eating in haste, and while watching television increased and using tablets, computers and smartphones while eating was frequent in 2012. Propensity to eat alone increased slightly in Denmark and Norway, and decreased slightly in Sweden. While such practices vary with socio-economic background, regression analysis showed several changes were common across the Nordic populations. However, the new practice of using tablets, computers, and smartphones while eating was strongly associated with young age. Further, each of the practices appeared to be related to different types of meal. We conclude that while the changes in the social organization of eating were not dramatic, signs of individualization and informalization could be detected.

Destructuration or continuity? The daily rhythm of eating in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in 1997 and 2012.

There is a widely shared belief that contemporary eating culture is undergoing a process of 'destructuration' in which collective norms guiding temporal, social, and spatial aspects of eating as well as cuisine will decline or disappear. From another theoretical perspective one could argue that shared and regular patterns are quite resistant to change because they are functionally necessary for the organization and maintenance of social actions in everyday life. Using questionnaire data from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden from the years 1997 and 2012 we investigate whether culturally shared timing of eating rhythms has disappeared or declined. At the population-wide level, we find clear national peaks (occurring around breakfast, lunch, and to a lesser extent dinner) during which a great number, or even the majority, of people eat. These basic rhythms of eating are nationally specific and clearly identifiable in 1997 and 2012, and only small changes were found to have occurred over the period studied. Subsequent examination of within-country differences in daily eating rhythms identified a specific sub-population with very similar features in all countries. The sub-population deviates temporally from the collective peaks of eating, and in it conventional meal types such as breakfast and lunch are skipped to a higher extent, giving what we call an 'unsynchronized' eating pattern. Interestingly, the pattern has become more common in all countries. While the growth of this sub-population may be a sign of a coming destructuration of meal culture, further analysis suggests this is not the case. Thus, we find clear socio-structural explanations for unsynchronized eating. It is related to the social coordination of work, and unsynchronized eating tends to be abandoned over the life course: with the establishment of a family, and old age, people tend to synchronize their eating habits with collective activities in society. Coupling this with the relatively modest growth of the unsynchronized pattern, and bearing in mind that it is a minority phenomenon, encompassing approximately one quarter of the population in 2012, we argue that an all-encompassing temporal destructuration will not develop. Additional analysis shows that the idea of a simultaneous rupture of eating culture on several dimensions (temporal, social, spatial, manners, cuisine) is doubtful. Thus, although, to a higher extent, individuals with an unsynchronized eating rhythm lack "manners" and eat more unhealthily, they do not display a higher degree of destructuration in the social and spatial dimensions of eating. Indeed, unsynchronized eating leads to fewer daily eating events, which contradicts the 'grazing' theory altogether.

Is it acceptable to use animals to model obese humans? A critical discussion of two arguments against the use of animals in obesity research.

Animal use in medical research is widely accepted on the basis that it may help to save human lives and improve their quality of life. Recently, however, objections have been made specifically to the use of animals in scientific investigation of human obesity. This paper discusses two arguments for the view that this form of animal use, unlike some other forms of animal-based medical research, cannot be defended. The first argument leans heavily on the notion that people themselves are responsible for developing obesity and so-called 'lifestyle' diseases; the second involves the claim that animal studies of obesity's causes and therapies distract attention from preventive efforts. Drawing on both empirical data and moral reasoning, we argue that the relevant attributions of responsibility and claims about distraction are not plausible, and that, therefore, there is no reason to single out the use of animals in obesity research as especially problematic.

Painful dilemmas: A study of the way the public's assessment of animal research balances costs to animals against human benefits.

The conflict between animal costs and human benefits has dominated public as well as academic debates about animal research. However, surveys of public perceptions of animal research rarely focus on this part of attitude formation. This paper traces the prevalence of different attitudes to animal research in the public when people are asked to take benefit and cost considerations into account concurrently. Results from the examination of two representative samples of the Danish public identify three reproducible attitude stances. Approximately 30-35% of people questioned approved of animal research quite strongly, and 15-20% opposed animal research. The remaining 50% were reserved in their views. Further studies will ideally use the measure developed here to make possible relatively fine-grained comparisons and understandings of differences between populations and changes in attitudes over time.