In 1994, Professor David Mellor and Dr Cam Reid proposed a new model to think about animal welfare and its assessment. The model explores animal health with respect to physical/situational factors and an animal’s mental health, acknowledging that for every survival or situational factor affected, there may be an accompanying emotional or subjective outcome that determines an animal’s welfare status.
This approach allows for consideration of both negative and positive experiences that arise from physical and functional factors – such as the presence or absence of injury or disease, and limitations on sleep and rest – and their effect on the mental state and welfare status of an animal. Over the past 20 years, this paradigm has been widely adopted as a tool for assessing the impacts of human intervention in animals’ lives such as research procedures, support services, animal control methods, and more.
The five domains model distinguishes between physical/functional domains and the affective experience domain to provide a comprehensive, structured way to consider an animal’s wellbeing.
The four physical/functional domains consist of three internal survival-related factors (nutrition, environment, and health) and one external situation-related factor (behaviour).
Negative and positive factors within the physical domains are aligned with inferred negative and positive experiences within an animal’s mental state, otherwise known as the affective experience domain. According to the five domains model, an animal’s overall mental experience of their physical and environmental situation will equate to their overall welfare status at any given time.
The Five Domains model provides a comprehensive and structured way of considering the wellbeing of an individual or group of animals in a particular situation, with a strong focus on positive mental experiences. The Five Domains also allows us to extend our thinking beyond the five freedoms of animal welfare to place even greater emphasis on encouraging positive experiences and recognising the emotional needs of individual animals, in addition to minimising negative experiences.
The five domains model revolves around the idea that merely minimising or resolving negative physical or mental states does not necessarily result in positive welfare, but may only provide, at best, a neutral state. To have a good life, one where positive welfare experiences are enjoyed, animals need more than this.
To live healthy, happy lives, animals must have the opportunity to have positive survival and situation-based experiences, such as meaningful social connection, freedom of movement, and satiation. To enable this, we need to provide our animal companions with opportunities for interactions (with their environment, other humans, and even other animals) that encourage animals to make choices and express behaviours that are rewarding to them. This shift in understanding is the basis for the Five Domains model incorporating positive welfare states. You can read about this in detail here.
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