History and Future of Animal Welfare Science.

It is suggested that Mench give credit to the books that started the farm animal welfare movement--Harrison' s (1964) Animal Machines and, arriving 1 year later, Huxley's (1965) Brave New Victuals. Huxley covered the use of chemicals on the land and "factory fanning," a phrase coined by Harrison. They both discussed the rearing of animals indoors in huge numbers, closely confined, artificially lit, mechanically supplied with food, and treated with drugs and hormones to prevent disease and to speed growth. Are intensive methods necessarily cruel to animals? Are agricultural and industrial chemical residues contaminating the environment? What is the influence of new methods on the quality of food and what are the effects on the human organism? These were relevant questions back then, and almost 30 years later Harrison (1988, 1993) wondered how much real progress has been made in answering them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]