Column: Emotion or reason, that’s the question

Quite often, legislation in the field of animal husbandry is based on emotion rather than reason. I have seen many examples where anthropomorphism has taken over when new regulations are drafted. Anthropomorphism is defined as the tendency to attribute human forms, behaviours and emotions to animals or objects. In plain language, it is the Disney approach to portraying animals in an imaginary world. The truth is that this affects not only our society but influences the scientific community, t