Empathy towards animals: Perspectives of veterinary students and faculty in Haryana

Abstract

Empathy for animals has positively related to concern for animal well-being and humane behavior toward them. In recent years people are becoming more aware about animal rights, welfare. Further the veterinarians are increasingly expected to be informed about animal welfare in a broader sense than health alone. There is a lack of empirical information about the level of empathy towards the animals. So current study was conducted was conducted on 50 veterinary students and 50 faculty members in Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences located in Hisar to assess the extent of empathy with animals. A Nine point Likert scale covered judgments ranging from ‘Very strongly agree’ to ‘Very strongly disagree.’ developed by Paul (2000) was used for measurement of level of empathy. Surprisingly it was found that majority of respondents were having low extent of empathy with animals. Students were having higher extent of empathy towards animals as compared to scientists. This study suggested that further investigation into the extent to which veterinary education influences empathy among veterinary students and veterinary faculty members is needed.