Policy Decision Making Framework for Considering the Economic and Non-Economic Effects of Changing Animal Welfare Regulations

Animal welfare policies are often dealing with complex issues that are value laden and quite complex for New Zealand society to consider and evaluate. As a result, it may be difficult for agencies to converge upon policies that provide equally desirable and universally popular solutions. In some cases, achieving a consensus about what constitutes the most socially desirable course of action to follow may simply not be possible. The 4-Windows strategy originally developed by Bob Flood can provide a systems framework that brings together differing policy paradigms and methodologies. Each window has been further developed in this study for examining a particular type of policy question about the central issue. Economic analyses can be incorporated as a component within these approaches. When applied to farming practices of concern to animal welfare agencies, such as lamb castration, bringing the results from each of the windows can be brought together in a decision matrix can providing new insights into different world views and ways of incorporating a range of world views in the development of new policy.