Investigating Stockmen’s Intention and Behavior regarding Animal Welfare at Dairy Cooperative in Sirjan Township

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate the stockmen’s intention and behavior toward animal welfare in Sirjan Township. The sample was selected through simple random sampling. A survey of stockmen’s (N= 144) was undertaken in Sirjan Township, Kerman province. The reliability and validity of the instrument were examined and approved, and then data was collected. The results of this study revealed that independent variables predicted nearly 0.46 and 0.39 variance of the stockmen’s intentions and behavior regarding animal welfare respectively. Moreover, outcome expectation was the most important variable in predicting the stockmen’s intentions and behavior regarding animal welfare.  Finally, due to the positive effect of stockmen’s attitude on their intention, findings suggested that, by demonstrating educational films, using posters and visiting superlative dairy farms, it was possible to improve their attitude regarding their animal welfare. According to the impact of stockmen’s understanding of self-efficacy on achieving animal welfare, the study also suggested to simplify different aspects of animal welfare from perceptions of stockmen in order to see animal caring as easy. In this respect, Jihad-e-Keshavarzi organization and animal cooperation are two active institutes which can make this possible by providing different facilities and other possibilities for their members