Effects of Age, Education And Gender of Handlers on Animal Welfare and Ethics in Government Settlements

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted on two farm settlements of Oyo state to assess the effects of some socio- demographic characteristics of animal handlers on the ethical and unethical conduct of handling animals. Farm settlements surveyed were, Akufo farm settlement of Ido Local Government Area and Lalupon farm settlement of Lagelu Local Government Area. The two farm settlements were selected being the two farm settlements set up mainly for livestock farming. A total number of 97 respondents were consulted in the study areas to obtain information on gender, age and level of education of animal handlers. Data generated were analysed using descriptive statistics of SPSS. All handlers (97) irrespective of the socio-demographic characteristics exhibited some elements of ethical and unethical conduct. The study showed that 78.6% of female respondents were more ethical than the males (43.2%) in operational approaches to animal handling. Respondents within the age range of 41 and 60years (73.5%) were more ethical compared to other age ranges while those with tertiary education (78%) were also more ethical than the other educational levels.