Bonding practices between farmer and animals : a study in organic and conventional ovine farming systems from the south east of France

Abstract

Today animal welfare is at the centre of many societal interrogations and the place that farm animals hold in our society is under scrutiny. The human-animal relationship is acknowledged to be a major contributor to animal welfare; however, given the difficulty to assess this subjective bond, studying these interactions generally translates into evaluating the animals’ level of stress. The objective of this work is to provide a characterisation of the values underlying the relationship between ovine farmers and their flock. It is argued here that there is a link between the Moral reasoning and the Bonding reasoning of the farmer which constitute Bonding Values. The secondary aim of the study is to assess the impact of an intensification of production on these Bonding Values and check the response of Organic systems. Results are based on a set of 32 interviews with ovine livestock farmers from the South East of France. There are 18 conventional farms, 12 certified Organic farms and 2 in transition. The corpus was analysed with Nvivo 10, a CAQDAS (Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software) and the statistical software R. Two fundamental bonding practices were expressed: observation, to get to know the animals and assess their conditions, and building familiarity with the animals, to handle the flock. The occurrence of these bonding practices cannot be linked to the degree of intensification of the system. It is rather due to the individual himself with his vision of the ideal system and his practices in working with animals.