Performance Indicates Animal State of Being: A Cinderella Axiom?1

How should animal state of being (ASB) be assessed in production settings today? Some would base ASB assessment mostly on animal feelings. Although perhaps ideal in the ultimate, we cannot now objectively measure an animal's feelings in the laboratory, let alone in a production setting. It is the interpretation of such observations of behavior patterns putatively indicative of negative feelings where the feelings approach is still wanting as to its practical usefulness on farms and ranches. Therefore, others advocate more objectively measurable animal-performance traits as more valid indicators of ASB today. The reasons for this are the following: what cannot be measured cannot be managed; we can directly, objectively measure productive and reproductive performance but not feelings (e.g., suffering); and performance reductions are early, sensitive indicators that ASB is being compromised. It is proposed to emphasize animal performance more, and a performance axiom is proposed: For a constitutionally fit animal of any kind, in the continuing absence of an adequate scientifically informed understanding of its conscious feelings, the best single set of measurable-hence, manageable-indicators of that animal's state of being will be its rates of productive and reproductive performance relative to its predicted potential to perform. Feed-conversion efficiency, interindividual variation in performance, body condition index, and rates of culling, morbidity, and mortality also will provide valuable information on animal state of being. To strengthen ASB assessment, the community of animal-welfare scientists should be affirmatively enlarged to include more people specializing in state-indicative animal traits in addition to behavioral and cognitive ones.