A successful 3rd workshop in India

Successful third workshop on Companion Animal Welfare held in India

JMICAWE’s Director, Prof Natalie Waran; Veterinarian and JMICAWE Outreach Manager, Heather Bacon and Welfare Veterinary Nurse, Hayley Walters, have just returned from Kerala after having delivered a week long companion animal welfare workshop for Kerala Veterinary and Animal Science University Faculty members.

This is the last of the three workshops provided by The University of Edinburgh with the support of the British Council’s Knowledge Economy Partnership Scheme.

15 members of the Kerala clinical teaching team from two campuses attended the workshop, during which they learned about how to utilize a problem based learning approach to deliver teaching in the area of companion animal welfare, welfare assessment, shelter medicine and clinical skills development.

The Edinburgh team took a variety of animal alternatives with them, including manikins designed for enabling students to practice their suturing, catheter placement and blood-taking skills as well as on-line teaching resources for teaching physiological, pharmacological and anatomical course content without the need for live animals.

The team was delighted to be accompanied by Ruth DeVere, Head of Education for the World Society for the Protection of  Animals who was keen to learn more about the work of the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education in India, as well as to explore ways to collaborate in future.

The KVASU Vice Chancellor, Dr Ashok and senior colleagues at the University will be hosting the final symposium later this spring to show-case the way in which the programme has helped with capacity building and up-skilling their staff in innovative and student-centred approaches to teaching, as well as embedding animal welfare and ethics into their curriculum.