Abstract:
Animal welfare is an emerging area in whole over the world, and it is not well established in the
current education system in Sri Lanka. Thus, we assume that most people do not have a clear
picture about the welfare of meat producing animals and humane slaughtering. This study was
carried out to assess the awareness and perception of animal welfare related to meat
consumption among the students of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of Sabaragamuwa
University of Sri Lanka in order to get an idea on arranging future awareness programs on food
animal welfare. This questionnaire included two major areas; meat consumption and the
awareness of animal welfare. Surveyed data were descriptively analyzed by using IBM SPSS
statistics. Respondents were randomly selected among the students and the data were gathered
by using Google forms online. This study group comprised of 42 males (21%) and 158 females
(79%). Among the respondents, 88% consumed meat. Most of the respondents’ awared of
different killing methods caused different level of pain and stress (83.0%) in animals, and 82.0%
interested in animal welfare. Also, there was a relationship between the awareness about the
different killing methods caused different level of pain and stress and the type of meat (stunned
or not stunned at the time of killing animals) most prefer to eat (α=0.05, p= 0.020). Also, there
was a relationship between the engaged degree program and the interest for the animal welfare
(α=0.05, p= 0.006), and meat consumption with gender (α=0.05, p=0.031). Majority of the
respondents had a positive perception on food animal welfare. Thus, it is concluded that there is
a good potential to arrange awareness programs on importance of animal welfare in meat
production among the surveyed population.
