Boredom
Hello people who read this, hope you enjoy this short blog, I was reading the news and I noticed an article about boredom and the how it relates to animal welfare, also I'm going to give you an update on my life as always, I'll put that bit at the end so you don't have to read that bit if you don't want to.
So this article I read, well firstly I am very interested in animal welfare I think that it is one of the most important things in the veterinary profession, when a vet is working on a patient the main reason for treatment is the animals welfare. So that's why this article caught my eye. The article was about boredom in animals, initially it was thought that only humans could show boredom however boredom is just the avoidance of monotony, and Dr Burn has suggested that animals can in a sense show boredom too, for example some in order to avoid monotony will eat a food they dislike that makes them sick. This suggests that the animals are willing to go to extreme lengths. These are only suggestions however because the three common ways that boredom can be measured; avoidance on monotony, inability to stay awake and a trained behaviour to show time is 'dragging', can be hard to measure and correctly identify. This issue is much like the issue that I raised in my EPQ on human animal interactions as the testing is very hard to carry out and prove due to so many factors affecting the experiment. If you would like to read my EPQ the title is ' how dogs effect us socially, psychologically and physically' I have a link to it in a previous blog post from last year called My EPQ. I hope you find it an interesting read. Anyway so on with this point about little evidence as there is little scientific evidence it can be hard to conclude things. Dr Burn says that “Vets are very much trained not to be sentimental and avoid anthropomorphism. Without evidence, these sorts of concepts can seem to be that way, but it risks dismissing important welfare issues. There is a precautionary principle that even when there’s no evidence, you can’t rule out the problem.”
I believe that this claim should be looked upon very seriously for the wellbeing of the animals, as boredom can cause great suffering day to day. I agree with what Dr Burn says that he hopes these claims will cause researchers to look further into this issue that in the past has been overlooked.
I hope that was a good read, so on with my update. Well this week I have 3 job interviews coming up which I'm very excited about so hopefully I will be up and working soon so that I don't get bored like so many animals, also along with that I found out that I couldn't reapply to Edinburgh University for Veterinary again, now this was a blow because it would have been one of my choices again, however onwards and upwards I know that this year is going to make me a better person, I'm going to mature and experience a bit more life which can only improve me in the long run. I want to wish everyone reading this who is going to university the best of luck well done you deserve it. And to anyone reading this who is at work or just coming back from their summer break, I hope it was restful and you are ready for this exciting new year, and again people at work, I hope that it's going well and you're happy. So thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed reading it and I'll see you next week.
So this article I read, well firstly I am very interested in animal welfare I think that it is one of the most important things in the veterinary profession, when a vet is working on a patient the main reason for treatment is the animals welfare. So that's why this article caught my eye. The article was about boredom in animals, initially it was thought that only humans could show boredom however boredom is just the avoidance of monotony, and Dr Burn has suggested that animals can in a sense show boredom too, for example some in order to avoid monotony will eat a food they dislike that makes them sick. This suggests that the animals are willing to go to extreme lengths. These are only suggestions however because the three common ways that boredom can be measured; avoidance on monotony, inability to stay awake and a trained behaviour to show time is 'dragging', can be hard to measure and correctly identify. This issue is much like the issue that I raised in my EPQ on human animal interactions as the testing is very hard to carry out and prove due to so many factors affecting the experiment. If you would like to read my EPQ the title is ' how dogs effect us socially, psychologically and physically' I have a link to it in a previous blog post from last year called My EPQ. I hope you find it an interesting read. Anyway so on with this point about little evidence as there is little scientific evidence it can be hard to conclude things. Dr Burn says that “Vets are very much trained not to be sentimental and avoid anthropomorphism. Without evidence, these sorts of concepts can seem to be that way, but it risks dismissing important welfare issues. There is a precautionary principle that even when there’s no evidence, you can’t rule out the problem.”
I believe that this claim should be looked upon very seriously for the wellbeing of the animals, as boredom can cause great suffering day to day. I agree with what Dr Burn says that he hopes these claims will cause researchers to look further into this issue that in the past has been overlooked.
I hope that was a good read, so on with my update. Well this week I have 3 job interviews coming up which I'm very excited about so hopefully I will be up and working soon so that I don't get bored like so many animals, also along with that I found out that I couldn't reapply to Edinburgh University for Veterinary again, now this was a blow because it would have been one of my choices again, however onwards and upwards I know that this year is going to make me a better person, I'm going to mature and experience a bit more life which can only improve me in the long run. I want to wish everyone reading this who is going to university the best of luck well done you deserve it. And to anyone reading this who is at work or just coming back from their summer break, I hope it was restful and you are ready for this exciting new year, and again people at work, I hope that it's going well and you're happy. So thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed reading it and I'll see you next week.
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