PSV-19 Preliminary exploration of caretaker and manager perspectives of on-farm euthanasia on swine operations
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Employees on swine operations have the critical role of ensuring animal health and well-being, which sometimes involves performing euthanasia. This study aimed to understand caretaker and manager involvement and perspectives on performing euthanasia on swine farms. Individuals were recruited through online (newsletters and emails to companies) and in-person (e.g. Pig Welfare Symposium, MN) methods in the fall of 2019. The survey consisted of 61 questions on topics related to training, methods of euthanasia, perspectives about euthanasia and knowledge of available mental health resources. Thirty-nine individuals participated in the survey (18 caretakers, 21 managers). Half of respondents (50%, n = 20) indicated that they were involved with making euthanasia decisions. The vast majority of respondents “believe that euthanasia is a humane way to end animal suffering” (95%; n = 36) and that “the euthanasia process on-farm is necessary” (97%; n = 34). A quarter of individuals (25%, n = 9) “feel emotionally upset after euthanizing a pig” and 84% (n = 26) indicated it is “easier to euthanize a pig the more they do it.” Additionally, 92% (n = 35) of respondents agreed that they have “enough experience and knowledge to know when to euthanize a pig.” Most of survey respondents (n = 34) agreed that they “feel as though I can communicate with my supervisors if I feel uncomfortable performing euthanasia” and that their “supervisors aim to promote a safe and encouraging work environment” (n = 38). Despite this, a small number of respondents (n = 6) did not feel “as though my supervisors acknowledge concerns that they may have” and did not feel that their supervisors take “an interest in my professional development and/or job performance.” Overall, data suggest that caretakers and managers understand the importance of euthanasia regarding animal well-being and generally feel they can communicate their concerns.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.007 | 0.020 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.003 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.007 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".