Hierarchy of Needs
Another way of considering animal welfare is by adapting Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs, where each ascending layer of the pyramid is laid on a foundation essential to progress up the scale. Without the preceding level present in an animals’ life, it cannot attain the higher level and consequently improve its welfare.
The lower parts pf the pyramid are collectively the Care Zone and cover the basic needs an animal needs to survive. The upper levels make up the Welfare Zone, the place where life transitions from simply being sustained to becoming meaningful, enjoyable and worth living. Social needs are the base level of the Welfare Zone, able to be attained only once all basic Care needs have been met. Mental stimulation (enrichment, training, challenge, problem solving and aesthetic engagement) is built upon this and finally, crowning it off, 'optimization' comes from the autonomy and freedom granted by Choice and Control.
The lower parts pf the pyramid are collectively the Care Zone and cover the basic needs an animal needs to survive. The upper levels make up the Welfare Zone, the place where life transitions from simply being sustained to becoming meaningful, enjoyable and worth living. Social needs are the base level of the Welfare Zone, able to be attained only once all basic Care needs have been met. Mental stimulation (enrichment, training, challenge, problem solving and aesthetic engagement) is built upon this and finally, crowning it off, 'optimization' comes from the autonomy and freedom granted by Choice and Control.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid overlaid with a tree to express the aspiration of the World Zoo and Aquarium Animal Welfare Strategy; that is, to direct animal welfare attention towards the highest categories of Maslow’s pyramid of well-being. The tree’s roots represent the critical foundational requirements for survival, including nutrition systems, understood through experience and science. In the trunk, health care meets the animals’ physical and safety needs. The crown is the site of the most varied and complex welfare-related activities that the best zoo and aquarium design and management would make available to the animals.
~ Caring for Wildlife, The World Zoo and Aquarium Animal Welfare Strategy, 2015.
~ Caring for Wildlife, The World Zoo and Aquarium Animal Welfare Strategy, 2015.