Living conditions in Danish agriculture

This report analyses the relationship between serious animal rights cases and risk factors in Danish agriculture.
The report investigates the social consequences of the developments in agriculture over a longer historical period. The objective is to identify and describe those farmers who are able to adapt their farms to the challenges facing agriculture, and those who are not able to cope and therefore risk ending up with psychological and financial problems as well as serious animal rights cases.
The study shows that, even though around 0.05% of Danish farmers per year are convicted in serious animal rights cases, a pattern of problems can be identified. Convicted farmers have a greater risk of also having debt problems, psychological problems or sick family members.
The report is based on an extract from registers of the entire population of farmers in the period from 2000 to 2008. Data from the 2007 agriculture census are also used. The analyses have been supplemented by a qualitative preliminary study which includes reviews of court transcripts of animal rights cases from 2007 to 2008.