Mellorater

Mellorater implements the 2020 Five Domains Model to enable animal guardians to record structured welfare observations and track longitudinal trends through reflective self-reporting.

Key Features:

• Five Domains Assessment: Captures information about an animal's nutrition, environment, health, and behavioural interactions across four of the Five Domains.
• Likert Scale Ratings: Uses 18 statements rated on a five-point Likert scale to quantify guardian agreement with welfare indicators.
• Longitudinal Trend Tracking: Collects repeated measures over time to enable analysis of stability and changes in proxy quality-of-life indicators.
• Anonymous Data Collection: Gathers data without user identification for research on species-specific and context-dependent scale usage.
• Species-Extensible Framework: Supports potential adaptation with scientifically validated, species-specific indicators for trained auditor use.

Scientific Applications:

• Animal Welfare Monitoring: Provides day-to-day comprehensive information about individual animals to inform guardian decision-making in animals' best interests.
• Cross-Species Welfare Research: Enables studies comparing how rating scales perform among guardians of different species and in different contexts.
• Quality-of-Life Proxy Development: Generates longitudinal data that may serve as useful proxies for trends in animal quality of life when user subjectivity remains stable.
• Reflective Self-Reporting Studies: Supports research on subjective welfare assessment methods and their relationship to objective welfare outcomes.

Methodology:

The tool applies the 2020 Five Domains Model through structured guardian self-reporting using 18 Likert-scale statements covering nutrition, environment, health, and behavioural interactions.