Five Domains Model in Practice | Animal Welfare Hub

The Five Domains model of animal welfare has become the leading framework for comprehensive welfare assessment. Understanding how it works in practice helps implement it across different contexts.

Key Facts

The Five Domains were originally proposed by David Mellor in New Zealand in the 1990s
The domains are: Nutrition, Physical Environment, Health, Behavioral Interactions, and Mental State
The Mental State domain is the integrating domain - physical states produce mental experiences
The model explicitly includes positive welfare states, not just absence of suffering
The Five Domains has largely superseded the Five Freedoms as the leading welfare framework in research and policy

Welfare Considerations

The Five Domains model improves on the Five Freedoms by explicitly recognizing that animals have positive welfare states worth promoting, not just negative states worth preventing. In practice, applying the model requires assessing welfare across all five domains and understanding how physical conditions in domains 1-4 produce mental experiences in domain 5. The model can be applied at individual animal, group, and population levels. Its integration of mental state as a core domain aligns welfare science with growing evidence of animal sentience.

What You Can Do

Learn about the Five Domains model and how it differs from the Five Freedoms
Advocate for welfare assessments that include positive welfare indicators, not just absence of suffering
Support zoos, farms, and research facilities that have formally adopted the Five Domains framework
Engage with animal welfare science literature to understand evidence-based welfare assessment