@article{Bock:346989,
      recid = {346989},
      author = {Bock, B.B. and Van Huik, M.M. and Eveillardc, F. Kling and  Dockes, A.},
      title = {Farmers’ Relationship with Different Animals: The  Importance of Getting Close to the Animals - Case Studies  of French, Swedish and Dutch Cattle, Pig and Poultry  Farmers},
      journal = {International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and  Food},
      address = {2007},
      month = {Apr},
      year = {2007},
      abstract = {The article analyses how cattle and poultry farmers in the  Netherlands described their relationship with their farm  animals and explores the factors that influence their level  of attachment to them. The analysis draws upon Willkie’s  (2005) framework of farmer-animal relationship, which  distinguishes between different levels of attachment and  detachment. This framework was useful for explaining why  farmers developed different levels of attachment to  animals, with the species, farm sector and housing system  all playing roles in influencing this. Farmers tended to be  more attached to cows than to chickens and felt more  attachment towards breeding, as opposed to fattening,  animals. Breeding, especially of cows, linked the animal to  the personal histories of farmers, since their ancestors  had often established the bloodlines of dairy cows.  Farmers’ relationships with their animals were also  influenced by the organization of production at the farm:  the number of animals, their length of stay on the farm and  the housing system. These factors all influenced the  visibility of the animal as an individual and as a ‘real’  animal and not a living tool of production. The species and  function of an animal and the organization of production  largely defined the frequency, intensity and intimacy of  farmers’ contact with individual animals. Practically all  farmers (across sectors) perceived taking good care of  animals and avoidance of suffering as a core element of  their job and caring about animals as central to their  definition of a ‘good farmer’. Beyond this, different  groups of farmers showed clear differences in their level  of attachment to their animals. In general dairy farmers  felt more strongly attached to their dairy cows than  farmers to their beef cattle or veal, whereas most poultry  farmers felt rather detached from their chicken, and tended  to perceive them as part of a flock and ‘living production  tools’. These animals were not only de-individualized; at  times and when seen solely as part of a meat and egg  production system they were almost de-animalized.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/346989},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.48416/ijsaf.v15i3.290},
}