SPOTLIGHT: FOCUSING ON THE FIVE FREEDOMS A WORKSHOP TRACK ON THE ESSENTIALS FOR ANIMAL WELL-BEING INTRODUCTION TO THE FIVE FREEDOMS Wednesday, May 10, 9:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m. Everyone involved in animal care—from shelter workers and cruelty investigators to foster families and pet owners—can benefit from understanding the Five Freedoms. “They encompass anything and everything we should know about caring for animals and set the rules that we should be following for good animal caretaking,” says Inga Fricke, director of pet retention programs for The HSUS. This year, for the first time, Animal Care Expo is offering a track of workshops devoted to these principles of animal safety and wellbeing. Expo attendees can choose from among seven sessions: one focused on each freedom, an introductory workshop and a session on best practices for transporting companion animals. The freedoms were created as a framework for evaluating the care of farm animals, but they translate to animals in any setting, including homes, shelters, sanctuaries and commercial establishments, Fricke notes. In 2010, the Association of Shelter Veterinarians incorporated the Five Freedoms into its Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters. Most shelters do a good job addressing the first three freedoms (which deal with hunger and thirst; discomfort; and pain, injury or disease), but are less focused on the other two (which note the importance of animals expressing normal behaviors and being free from fear and distress), says Frances Ho of the San Francisco SPCA, a co-presenter for the introductory workshop. “All these things need to work in conjunction,” Ho says. “… The behavioral needs are just as important as the medical and physical needs of that animal.” Fricke explains, “It’s really easy to focus on, ‘Did they get enough food today? Did they get their pain meds?’ But sometimes it’s 14 �� animalsheltering.org/expo THE FIVE FREEDOMS 1. Freedom from hunger and thirst: ready access to fresh water and an adequate, healthful diet 2. Freedom from discomfort: an appropriate living environment, including protection from the elements and a clean, safe and comfortable resting area 3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease: prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment of injury or illness 4. Freedom to express normal behaviors: sufficient space, exercise and the opportunity to enjoy—or find reprieve from—company of the animal’s own kind 5. Freedom from fear and distress: environment and handling that Through vaccination clinics and other services, the Charleston Animal Society works to avoid mental suffering and stress bring one of the five freedoms—freedom from pain, injury and disease—to pets in underserved neighborhoods.
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