Advanced examination of welfare assessment and improvement opportunities in ostrich farming — a sector with limited welfare research but significant welfare challenges.
Farmed ostrich welfare is a largely unexplored area of welfare science, with the species farmed at significant scale without species-appropriate welfare assessment tools. The behavioral and physiological characteristics that make ostriches difficult to farm — their extreme flight response, their space requirements, their social complexity — are also the characteristics that make welfare assessment and improvement most important. Research into ostrich cognition, behavior, and stress physiology could generate the knowledge needed for meaningful welfare standards, but this investment has not been made proportionate to the number of animals farmed. The welfare case for ostrich-specific research and regulation is strong given the clear behavioral indicators of distress in commercial production settings.