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T23 THREE PILE SORTING
T23: Three Pile Sorting
Three pile sorting, use cards to enable a member of an animal owning community to sort and discuss animal management and work practices according to whether they are seen as good, bad, or neutral for animal welfare.
| Tool purpose: | Time needed: |
| • To explore participants’ understanding and perspectives on any animal welfare issue, care and management practices (including harmful practices) and to provide a starting point for problem analysis and action. • To analyse perceptions about animal diseases and their symptoms, causes and prevention. | 1 hour 30 minutes |
| Materials needed: | |
| Chart paper, note cards, markers or other locally available resources, and a set of cards showing animal welfare. |
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase:
Planning Phase, Implementation Phase
Approaches for Working With Communities: Community Development Approach, Community Engagement Approach, Societal Outreach and Campaigns Approach
Stages of Change:
Pre-contemplation Stage, contemplation
Project Support:
Participatory Learning and Action Tools, Needs Assessment
Specific Topics: Animal Husbandry and Management, Animal Handling
| Three pile sorting | |
|---|---|
| Step 1 | For this exercise you need to prepare beforehand. Make a set of cards showing animal welfare or management practices which can be interpreted as good, bad, or in-between (neutral). These should be based on problems previously identified by the community during exercises such as ‘If I were an animal’ (T17), Animal body mapping (T20) or Animal welfare practice gap analysis (T21). Common negative practices which could be illustrated on the cards include beating animals, overloading, not offering water, incorrect feeding, and lack of care for wounds |
| Step 2 | Organize participants into groups of no more than seven and ask each group to form a circle. Give a set of cards to each circle and ask for two or three volunteers to sit in the centre of the circle and sort the cards together. They should place each card in one of three piles: representing good welfare or management practices, bad welfare, or management practices, and in-between or neutral practices (or practices where there is uncertainty or disagreement). |
| Step 3 | After the cards have been sorted, ask the volunteers to arrange them so that each card is visible to the whole group (see figure T23 below- Place holder). Encourage debate between participants to challenge their choices and analyse all aspects of their decision. Enable participants to understand why a particular practice may be better or worse for animal welfare. |
| Step 4 | Ask the group to identify which of the animal welfare issues or management practices are occurring in their own village, especially the ones they have identified as bad. This discussion can be used to enable participants to identify priority welfare problems and to propose potential solutions or action to be taken. |
| Step 5 | Document the discussions and share back with the community. Record the community’s analysis and responses in your project action tracker and follow up with the community later if/when you start action planning together. |
Facilitation Notes
- It is important that you enable the group to bring their own perceptions and use their local terms for management practices, diseases, pain, and animal suffering.
- The game can also be played using photographs representing the existing situations in the village. This needs advance preparation.
- Notice and document why certain practices are said to be harmful or are perceived as positive or neutral while they affect animal welfare. It is important to also note their misconceptions about the practices, diseases, etc. and their stages of change (pre-contemplation – being unaware or contemplation stages – struggling with their decisional balance to determine them as good, bad or neutral) with regard to the different care and management and animal diseases.
- Another variation is to ask participants to sort cards according to different types of animal welfare issue they have experienced, such as i) issues directly related to animals ii) issues related to service providers and other stakeholders and iii) issues related to animal owners, users, and carers.
Tool adapted from [85]