A CVM study on value estimation of animal welfare in aquarium

As animal welfare in zoos or aquariums has emerged as an important issue, there are debates about treatment and breeding standards for exhibited animals. Since guidelines for species-specific management to zoos and aquariums are not obligatory and therefore should rely on voluntary improvement and investments by individual aquarium businesses. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to estimate the willingness to pay to improve animal welfare in aquariums using the contingent valuation method (CVM). In order to reduce exaggeration bias, known as a traditional threshold, a two-step approach reaffirming respondents’ answers was employed. This study also analyzed whether animal attitudes affected the willingness to pay (WTP) for improvements in animal welfare. To estimate participants’ animal attitudes, we used animal attitude scale with twenty items. Frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and logistic regression are employed to analyze the data. Four factors were extracted including 'Speciesism', 'Using for experiments', 'Using for food' and 'Using for entertainment'. Results show that respondents who visited aquariums would pay 20,483 KRW to improve animal welfare. In animal attitude scale, ‘using for entertainment’ was the only significant factor.