Animal behaviour - An indicator for species specific animal husbandry

The german animal welfare law requires housing suitable for the animals behaviour. A housing system is species specific when the animal can express its behaviour in all functional circles so that no pain, suffering or injury results. Therefore when planning housing systems, animal behaviour should be taken into account. If other criteria (economy, safety of the stockmen) are at the forefront then the steering of the behaviour often is over-charged and behavioural disorders emerge. Beside these reactive behavioural disorders however, there are behavioural disturbances of a completely different genesis, apart from disturbed behaviour which bothers humans but which can be very meaningful behaviour for the animal. Examples are provided for, how, through taking normal behaviour into account, and avoiding behavioural disorders, species specific housing systems have been created.