Celebrating a busy and productive year for Animal Welfare Education from the JMICAWE team

As we race towards the end of 2014 we wanted to wish all our followers, contacts, colleagues and friends our warmest wishes of the season.

Looking back, we have had a tremendous year working towards improving animal welfare through education.  The team has partnered with various NGOs, Universities and Government depts. To deliver a wide variety of workshops in a number of countries such as China, Vietnam and India as well as closer to home in Europe and the UK.   In addition we have engaged with various animal welfare groups to develop robust measures for assessing the effectiveness and welfare issues related to dog and cat population management, and have worked in Bosnia, Botswana and India to deliver valuable Trap-Neuter –Return  (TNR) training and research.

Over the summer we ran what turned out to be a highly successful MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) reaching 33500 people from 163 countries. For those who haven’t yet had the chance to participate, we will be running the course again in February 2015 and will be sending out details about this in the New Year- so watch this space! (https://www.coursera.org/course/animal)

We have collaborated and worked with some wonderful organisations s developing online courses and capacity building and our work with these will continue into 2015 as we expand our animal welfare capacity building work.

Conferences have also featured well this last year- starting with the 5 day conference in February held in Bangalore in collaboration with the Commonwealth Veterinary Association Including a day on Advances in Animal Welfare’, working with the WPA team in Asia for their key Driver programme held in Taiwan, partnering with The Animals Asia Foundation team in Vietnam and China on veterinary educator capacity building workshops, initiating the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Science University’s three day workshop on developing veterinary nursing in India and providing animal welfare education and research contributions in conference sessions at meetings related to; horses, captive wildlife and companion animal conferences. We have quite a number of events lined up for next year and look forward to meeting some of you on our travels. Closer to home here at the Vet School, we started the year with a successful International seminar series that was very well attended by our veterinary undergraduates in fourth and final year.  Our online and on-campus Masters Programmes continue to grow and we welcomed many new students in the new academic year.  Our Animal Welfare and Behaviour final year Elective course proved popular as an option for  our Undergraduates, and we are running it next year with an extra week and for a larger cohort.

We have some exciting plans for 2015 as we continue with our animal welfare work, so please keep reading our Blog and Twitter feeds for the latest news about our activities.

Meanwhile we would like to wish you all a very peaceful and happy Christmas holiday period and all the best for 2015

The JMICAWE Team

Edinburgh, Scotland

 

 

“Vets for Animal Welfare” Workshop

Titus Alexander, who has worked internationally on veterinary education in animal welfare with World Animal Protection, recently visited the students at the Royal (Dick) Vet School with a workshop of Animal Advocacy for student vets.

 

The JMICAWE team had seen this workshop in action in Taiwan, back in August, and it was very exciting to see it happen again. The Edinburgh students said they found the workshop very useful. The workshop focussed on how vets can be advocates for animal welfare as the main point of contact for the public in dealing with most animal species. What is the veterinarian’s role in animal welfare, especially when they are presented with cases which can sometimes be challenging or distressing?

 

Our students found the workshop very interesting and useful with one student saying they learned: ‘That as a vet I have the opportunity to influence changes” and another saying 'I would highly recommend [the course]. It complements our veterinary curriculum quite well.’

 
It’s great to see the next generation of vets engaging with animal welfare advocacy early in their careers and we thank Titus for the opportunity.

2nd Global Webinar on Animal Welfare, a success for the World Veterinary Association

 

This week, JMICAWE Director, Prof Nat Waran, was invited to give the main presentation for the first session of the WVA global webinar, on the use of the MOOC for assisting education and training. With 11 eminent presenters and panel members from organisations including; the European commission, OIE, FVE, WAVMA, FAO,AVMA IVSA and various national governments as well as around 65 invited participants, this was a truly international affair.

The animal behaviour and welfare MOOC accessed by more than 34,000 people from 163 countries, was used as one example of creating accessible animal welfare education using new technology, and discussion centred around the way in which this sort of approach could be tailored for specific audiences, and how we can use this sort of platform for creating credible relevant learning material for people from diverse backgrounds. Other presenters provided some interesting insights into the online training resources developed for veterinary students and practitioners, and it was concluded that there is a wealth of material available and new technology can play an important role in helping with accessibility. But there was recognition that we now need to get together to prevent wasteful duplication of effort, ensure that there was some consistency in the message regarding welfare and assessment, and to avoid audience confusion.   

This was a really interesting event, and a recorded version of the afternoon’s talks and discussion can be accessed online through the FVE and WVA websites.

http://www.worldvet.org/events.php?item=81&view=item

 

 

Prof Nat Waran at the Webinar

 

Animal Welfare on the Agenda in India – Maneka Gandhi meeting

Last week saw the JMICAWE director Nat Waran meet with Indian Government Minister, Maneka Gandhi, for a discussion about the work Edinburgh is involved with in relation to veterinary education in India, as well as discussing future plans and shared interests.

Although Maneka is currently the Indian Union Cabinet Minister for Women & Child Development in the Government of new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she is well known for her passion for animal welfare; she was instrumental in creating India’s Animal Welfare Ministry—a first in the world, and serving as its first Minister. As Minister for Animal Welfare, she banned the use of bears, primates and big cats in public performances, developed and championed a National Animal Welfare Institute to impart training in the field, and she has published many books and magazines for all audiences about animal welfare. Maneka remains committed to helping to support activities aimed at education especially for women in rural areas, where animals play such an important part of lives.

Discussions were far ranging and positive, and it was clear that many of the JMICAWE ambitions for improving the lives of animals in India through empowering the veterinary profession with the knowledge and skills they need to be advocates for animal welfare, are shared with her. We look forward to further positive interactions in the future. 

 

Maneka Gandhi
(Image courtesy of: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maneka_Gandhi.jpg)

 

 

 

Promoting Best Practise Animal Care in Veterinary Clinics in India

 

The emerging role of Veterinary nursing for providing high quality management of the care and welfare of patients in animal clinics in India, was discussed by the Jeanne Marchig Centre animal welfare team working alongside colleagues from the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Science University, at the KVASU Pookode campus last week. Presentations covering subjects such as: effective pain management, assessing welfare in a clinical setting and the work of the veterinary nurse, were provided to staff and final year students from both of the KVASU campuses. The outcome of the meeting was a commitment from accompanying colleagues from Edinburgh Napier University to work closely with Edinburgh University’s JMICAWE animal welfare nurse, Hayley Walters, to develop a veterinary nursing exchange project involving Napier veterinary nurse degree students, to work with small animal veterinary teams in Kerala to demonstrate the way in which veterinary nursing improves the care and welfare of animals before, during and after surgery or treatment.

Hayley Walters – Welfare veterinary nurse said:

‘We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to work collaboratively with our Edinburgh and Kerala colleagues to develop the field of veterinary nursing in India, and to demonstrate the important role well educated veterinary nurses can have in improving the animal’s experience within the veterinary clinic’.

 

WORKSHOPS IN INDIA PROMOTING WELFARE AND CONSERVATION

The JMICAWE team and colleagues have just returned from delivering successful workshops at Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) in India. Workshops ran for 4 days, starting with a day focussing on developing and promoting best practise for high welfare within veterinary clinics in India, and followed by workshops focussing on  wildlife conservation.

 

In the era where conservation science is emerging as one of the research priorities across the Globe, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University is planning to identify the research priorities in this sector. The  International workshop on “Identifying Priority Areas in Wildlife Conservation and the Role of KVASU” began on 25th November 2014 at its Pookode Campus. Faculty and students of KVASU attended the Workshop, which was part of three years of multidisciplinary National and International collaborative ventures developed by KVASU in various areas including Wildlife science. Further collaborations and projects are now being planned in relation to improving animal welfare in the future.

KVASU has already established MoUs for collaboration with the Kerala Forest Research Institute, Kerala State Forest Department and the University of Edinburgh and has completed a collaborative student research project involving faculty of University of Calgary, Canada.

 

Read more about it here

 

http://www.kvasu.ac.in/news/readmore/830

 

Equine farriery buddy enhancing equine welfare

October 2014 saw the first use of the 'Blacksmith Buddy' in veterinary student practical farrier classes.  This Blacksmith Buddy was developed by a Farrier to help train Farriers for preparing the hoof, shoeing and removing shoes from horses.  It was developed to give Farriers early in their training more practice without involving a live horse or cadaver leg.   Many vets in practice will come across lame horses that need shoes removed, often in an emergency.  This is a skill that many student vets don't get the opportunity to practice often in their veterinary training, but it is an important and required skill.  By using the Blacksmith Buddy not only can we teach students about correct positioning of the horses leg for removal of shoes and the techniques involved, but the Blacksmith Buddy is useful for teaching students about the correct positioning of the equine limb for applying nerve blocks .

 

The purchase of the Blacksmith Buddy was made possible by funding from The Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education. The JMICAWE are leaders in the field of equine welfare and by providing the Blacksmith Buddy, they ensure improved welfare of horses as generations of students benefit from this important learning tool.

 

We’ve already had some fantastic student comments about Blacksmith Buddy:

 

"I thought the blacksmith buddy was very helpful to give us opportunities to take off shoes without having to put horses through this themselves."

"Just wanted to say I found that practical class and especially the blacksmith buddy very useful, especially as a non-horsey student who is actually petrified of horses!"

"I thought the 'blacksmith buddy' used in the farriery practical was really good - it enhanced the demonstration by the farrier on the live horse really well, gave good practice at a useful skill we will need when we graduate,  and was also fun! "

"I really enjoyed the farriery practical and getting a chance to remove a shoe from the blacksmith buddy. I defiantly think it's a great practical to include in the curriculum."

Students can practice valuable skills using the buddy

 

Improving veterinary management of Pain and Welfare in Kerala

Improving veterinary management of Pain and Welfare in Kerala

Professor Natalie Waran and her Edinburgh team will be working with veterinary colleagues from the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Science University to address the need for improved education for vets in the area of best practice management of companion animals in the veterinary clinic including superior evidence based methods for improved animal pain recognition at a special workshop taking place on November 24th.  

 

Over recent years we have increasingly looked to our nation’s veterinarians to ensure that the animals used for food, companionship or research are not only productive and healthy but are also managed humanely. It is becoming increasingly emphasised that international standards of animal welfare are vital not only for animal disease management, but also for sustainable productivity, food safety and public health, and there is an expectation that the veterinary profession take a leading role in promoting respect for animals in a progressive society.

Dogs and humans have been closely associated for many thousands of years with advantages for both species. However with an expanding population of free-roaming dogs especially in certain parts of the world such as India, and concerns about public health issues associated with unmanaged dog populations, there is increasing recognition of the need to control dog populations without causing unnecessary or avoidable pain or suffering. 

Interestingly, pet dog ownership has risen dramatically over recent years. In Europe where there is a long tradition of keeping a wide variety of pet animals, there are now an estimated 100 million dogs and cats kept as pets. Although cats being smaller and easier to manage in more confined homes, are being more frequently kept than dogs, but there are also rises in the keeping of small mammals such as rabbits, mice and rats. With changing lifestyles and an increased number of double income households, there has been a growth in pet ownership particularly in urban areas of India. Increasingly, pets are being looked upon as companions and members of the family rather than for utility such as  guard dogs. A recent survey concluded that there are at least 3.6 million pet dogs in the six major cities alone. Pet owners have started to take an interest in their pets wellbeing leading to an increase in demand for well -qualified small animal veterinarians equipped with the skills and knowledge to ensure the highest standards of animal health and welfare, and an increasing recognition of the importance of properly assessing and managing animal stress and pain.

There has until recently been little research into the best way to tell if an animal is in pain. This is of concern because without reliable ways to recognise and record pain in our pets, there is every chance that they may not be provided with the painkillers they need to help their recovery from illness or operations, and to ensure they do not suffer. Because animals cannot speak, they are reliant upon human carers and their veterinarians for their wellbeing. Increasingly it is becoming recognized that animals being non-verbal, express their experience of painful conditions and procedures through their behaviour, and that there are certain postures, sounds and actions that are extremely reliable when it comes to being able to tell if the animal is in pain.  In humans, pain is what the patient says it is, and we know that the patient’s subjective experience varies from individual to individual. Indeed the negative experience of being in pain doesn’t necessarily relate to the size or seriousness of the wound of illness, nor to the severity of the condition. In animals, because they have no way to speak to us, pain is what we humans say it is. In some cases this has led to concern about whether there exists a wide variation in pain assessment and therefore pain management. For example, recent research into the way that cats and dogs are managed for the same condition, suggest that our pet cats have been under-provisioned. The reasons for the difference between species are probably due to our familiarity with some animals and not with others. Detecting pain behaviour in some species is difficult due to their nature. Prey animals such as sheep and goats are less likely to express their pain in obvious behaviours because this makes them vulnerable to predation. This doesn’t mean they don’t feel painful rather that they have been shaped through evolution to show only subtle responses – often overlooked or ignored by humans. Because good pain management relies on good recognition of pain, it is essential that research to identify reliable indicators of a painful experience be carried out and the results properly disseminated and used in veterinary practice.

A recent development in the field of animal welfare science is the recognition that animals are sentient and therefore have the ability to feel things that are both negative and positive for them. As with humans, their emotional health is central to their well-being and for good welfare scientists have agreed that there should be an absence of strong negative feelings, such as pain, stress and fear, and the presence of positive feelings, like pleasure.

'this recognition of animal emotions, marks a significant change is the way science has traditionally viewed animals – and has led to raised international standards for welfare, increased demand for research addressing the needs of all animals and a need for improved education for future as well as existing veterinarians’. Prof Natalie Waran

 

 

 

 

 

What is the Value of Horses? World Horse Welfare Annual Conference Thursday 13th November

World Horse Welfare conference  focussing on What is the value of horses?

The 2014 Conference will take place on Thursday, 13 November at the Royal Geographical Society, London.  

The day promises to be a fascinating insight into the real and perceived value of horses. Various notions of the value of horses periodically hit the headlines and spark debate. Is a horse ‘just a horse’? Would the world economy collapse without them? Do governments recognise the billions that the horse sector contributes to their national economies? What price would a parent pay for a pony that changes the life of their child struggling with a disability? Is it worse to treat live horses like rubbish or send them for a price for meat? To date we have secured a varied range of influential presenters to help us explore this fundamental and emotive topic.
 
JMICAWE Director, Prof Nat Waran is attending by special invitation and participating in the debating panel with topics including contrasting views on the role of horse slaughter in welfare and what is really essential for good horsemanship.  The discussion will be chaired by TV commentator Philip Ghazala and on the panel with Natalie will be Richard Davison, international dressage rider and trainer; Liz Jones, Daily Mail journalist; and Peter Webbon, former chief executive of the Animal Health Trust.
 

There will   be live streaming of the event on YouTube at www.worldhorsewelfare.org/Conference.  You will also be able to catch up on the presentations and debates through our YouTube channel during the week after the Conference.

See more at: http://www.worldhorsewelfare.org/Conference

Tweet: @HorseCharity

 

MSc AABAW student wins Dissertation prize

JMICAWE is delighted that one of our MSc AABAW 2013-14 students, Kathryn, has been awarded the UFAW Best Dissertation prize for the Programme.

Kathryn said ‘I feel very honoured to receive the UFAW award. I feel very fortunate that I was able to participate in a ...unique research opportunity with Dr Würbel's research group in Bern, Switzerland. The search for positive facial expressions in rats required dedication and while this project was often challenging, I enjoyed learning to work with the animals and explore this distinctive area of animal welfare science. I was thrilled to find results which indicated that during the positive "tickling" treatment, the rats' ears changed colour, becoming more pink, and the rats also had a more relaxed ear position. However, my findings would not have been possible without the immense support of the research group in Bern. My supervisor, Dr Luca Melotti, provided excellent guidance and advice throughout the project. The AABAW Masters program, and my time in Switzerland working with laboratory rats, have both been incredible experiences. I am very glad to have had this opportunity to learn and grow as a scientist.’

Many Congratulations to Kathryn, and thank you to UFAW (www.ufaw.org.uk) for their support of the MSc programme.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Universities-Federation-for-Animal-Welfare/1389320027991335

 

 

JMICAWE team strengthens links with Veterinary schools in Asia

This week sees Heather Bacon and Hayley Walters from the JMICAWE returning to Edinburgh after a successful series of Veterinary welfare education events.

Heather started in Lyon, France, continuing the JMICAWE’s existing relationship with the Federation of Vets of Europe and DG Sanco to deliver regional CPD on welfare assessment for the veterinary practitioner. Then it was on to Vietnam to present a paper on captive wildlife welfare at the Association of Asian Zoo and wildlife Veterinarian’s Annual conference, held at the Animals Asia Foundation’s Vietnam bear rescue centre. Heather was also able to visit the Hanoi National University of Agriculture to advise on development of their animal welfare curriculum and deliver a presentation on international veterinary education to a number of lecturers at the university. The HNUA has a strong existing research team focussing on animal welfare projects and is committed to leading the development of animal welfare science within Vietnam. HNAU will be collaborating with JMICAWE to translate welfare education materials into Vietnamese.

Hayley then joined Heather in Nanjing, China to meet with senior clinical staff from the small animal hospital at Nanjing Agricultural University and to discuss proposed collaborative activities, including student exchanges, and integration of pain management and hospital care skills into the curriculum at NJAU. These proposed activities were also supported by the Dean of Nanjing Agricultural University. Heather and Hayley also delivered interactive seminars on animal behaviour, animal welfare and humane education to approximately 150 students at NJAU.

From Nanjing it was on to Qingdao in Nanjing to present at the 5^th National China Veterinary conference. The University of Edinburgh signed an MOU with the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association in 2013 and has since been cooperating with them to raise awareness of an evidence-based approach to welfare science, humane education, and integration of animal welfare into the curriculum. This year, experts from Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) and the Humane Slaughter Association were able to present at the CVC conference on a range of animal welfare issues thanks to sponsorship by Animals Asia. The CVMA also launched their first national Animal welfare textbook, sponsored by World Animal Protection (see Blog: http://jmicaweactivities.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/introduction-to-animal-welfare-textbook.html)

In addition Heather met with members of the Zoetis International Veterinary Collaboration for China at the International Symposium on Veterinary Education. Presentations were delivered by Deans of key Universities in China, the UK and the USA on international cooperation to support veterinary education.

Commenting on the trip, Heather said ‘It’s been a long trip but very worthwhile – it is incredibly encouraging to see the strength of international partnerships between Western veterinary schools and Asian veterinary schools. The rate of development of animal welfare in the Asian Veterinary Profession is very fast and international collaboration is supporting the development of skilled veterinarians and good animal welfare standards.’

 

Group Photo from the 5th CVC

Heather demonstrating suturing  using suture pads as an alternative to  live animals, at a workshop in Nanjing

New Dick Vet Animal Behaviour Society

The JMICAWE team  have been very interested to hear about  a new society  recently launched at the R(D)SVS and look forward to hearing more about their activities

 

The Dick Vet Animal Behaviour Society is a newly formed society at the Dick Vet. Animal behaviour is an important aspect of veterinary medicine, contributing to animal health, welfare, and the human-animal bond. Good application of animal behaviour can have significant impact on the lives of animals, however, it can often be an overlooked or neglected aspect of animal care.

The ultimate goal for DVABS is to increase awareness and knowledge of animal behaviour. The society is planning to host talks and practical sessions on various topics of animal behaviour, from companion animals to zoo animals and everything in between, as well as distributing information about modern behaviour knowledge and research. The society hopes to increase interest in animal behaviour and promote behaviour as an integral part of veterinary medicine.  They are also preparing a website with useful links and resources on animal behaviour, and a regular newsletter.

 

For more information about the society, how to join, and upcoming announcements, please go to their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/967177286631329/

 

 

 

Animal welfare education – can MOOCs contribute?

Please see the link below to an article published by our MOOC team here in the JMICAWE.

Jill MacKay, Fritha Langford and Natalie Waran were three of the lecturers on the University of Edinburgh's massive open online course (MOOC) on animal behaviour and welfare that began in July. Here, they assess its global appeal and judge its success.

TO effectively improve animal welfare worldwide, we believe there is a need to use a range of educational tools, including free online courses, to provide credible and accessible education resources to present the case for an evidence-based approach to improving welfare standards. The ‘Animal behaviour and welfare’ MOOC (www.coursera.org/course/animal) was developed through the University of Edinburgh's Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education in partnership with animal welfare researchers at Scotland's Rural College.



http://vetrecordjobs.com/vetrecordjobs/advice/view-article.html?id=2521

 

 

Introduction to Animal Welfare textbook now launched in China

The JMICAWE has been involved with the CVMA and working with WAP colleagues towards the development of teaching materials including professional development to ensure that veterinary schools in China are equipped to be able to deliver quality animal welfare education to their veterinary undergraduates. To this end, we are extremely pleased with the news of the release of the Introduction to Animal Welfare textbook by the CVMA during the recent Chinese veterinary Conference.

Heather Bacon- the Centre's Veterinary Animal Welfare Education Manager, who was invited to speak at the book launch said  'Its extremely pleasing to see the progress that has been made with introducing animal welfare science into the new Chinese veterinary curriculum, along with the veterinary profession's growing commitment to ensuring that there are qualified people to teach the subject, as well as provide invaluable comment and information to aid in the improvement of the welfare of animals in China'.

 

Heather Bacon and Hayley Walters, are now returning from successfully collaborating with the CVMAs animal health and welfare subdivision, in co-organising the animal welfare session that forms part of the annual Chinese veterinary conference. Whilst there they provided the Chinese veterinarians with a translated version of the Animal Welfare MOOC ( Massive Open Online Course) produced and run for the first time earlier this year, attracting more than 33,000 people worldwide.

 Read more about the textbook here:

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-10/28/content_18813534.htm

 

 

LATEST ANIMAL WELFARE NEWSLETTER - HOT OFF THE PRESS

Read  about the latest animal welfare news and activities by our dedicated team

Our Autumn newsletter is now available to download.

Stories include:

*WELFARE AWARD NEWS

*MOOC and CPD COURSES

*IMPROVING DOG WELFARE THROUGH RESEARH

download your copy here- and please  forward to friends and colleagues

http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.153111!/fileManager/JMICAWE-Newsletter-issue6.pdf

Animal welfare and ethics education to zoo experts

 

The use of animals in zoos around the world is a source of concern in some areas. The modern zoo is committed to education, conservation and research, activities which must be underpinned by robust animal welfare standards.

 

Recently Heather Bacon of the JMICAWE has contributed to delivering animal welfare and ethics education to zoo experts from around Europe at the annual conference of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, attended by approximately 700 zoo professionals from around Europe. This is the first time the animal welfare session at the conference has been led by an independent academic. In addition Heather presented her ongoing research examining the gaps in knowledge of zoo animal welfare within the zoo community, and regional variations in attitudes.

 

Heather has worked with EAZA on a number of collaborations including training of Chinese zoo vets to improve welfare standards, a project funded by Animals Asia. She has also been working with the European Commission and FVE since 2011 on delivering regional animal welfare workshops to veterinary practitioners around Europe.

 

'Zoo animal welfare science is increasingly important for good zoo animal welfare, the research into this area at JMICAWE is supporting the development of improved zoo animal welfare educational initiatives'  Heather Bacon

 

 

The other side of Equine Welfare: Can too much misplaced love lead to obesity and health problems?

When thinking about equine welfare issues, the usual image of neglect or poor condition is  that of the underweight and overworked horse or donkey.  However there is another side to equine health and welfare that may not be so obvious. Studies show that horses are facing disability and life-threatening illnesses in an equine obesity epidemic mirroring the expanding waistlines of humans in ­affluent nations. Are we killing them with kindness?  

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) has organised a series of equine obesity workshops after studies found that up to half the horses and ponies in Scotland are overweight.  Excessive weight can lead to a range of serious diseases that can be disabling and potentially fatal, including crippling hoof disease, hormonal dysfunction and weight-linked Type 2 diabetes. Horse owners are being warned to slim down their animals following growing evidence of an obesity epidemic that is threatening their health.

Professor Nat Waran, of the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare
Education at the University of Edinburgh’s Royal Dick School of Veterinary Studies, said: “There is no doubt the majority of owners want to provide the best for their animals, but sometimes too much misplaced love can lead to welfare problems because it may not be what their horse needs.

Following these studies, two articles in the news have highlighted these issues:

http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/scottish-horses-in-obesity-epidemic-1-3548042
and
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/scotland/article4214092.ece

 




Welfare and health issues of the working equine are often highlighted



But studies show that equines can face  severe health issues if they are overweight  (Photo by Sannse)



Animal Welfare MOOC: Second Running Coming Soon!

The JMICAWE team have been humbled by the overwhelming positive feedback received about our MOOC course that we ran in July  this year.   The level of engagement was superb and we would like to thank all our hardworking students for making it such a positive and fantastic experience.

We will be running the course again in early February 2015.  If you would like to be part of this you can sign up here for future alerts:

 www.coursera.org/course/animal

Tweet: @JMICAWE
#EdAniWelf

Don't forget we will also soon have options in Mandarin and Spanish

Here are just a few out of the hundreds of positive comments and feedback we received:

Fabulous course, I learned so much and find my discussions about animals are so much more balanced, the scientific approach is a great balance for the ethical and emotional response we have with our animals. It has made me better appreciate the welfare and best practises with my animals.

This course was absolutely fantastic! I have a PhD in Psychology so have spent a lot of time within the University environment, and can honestly say that the calibre of teaching and production in this course is the best I've ever encountered.

Easy and intuitive navigation through course-info. Video's + accompanying notes (with complete text of the video), helped me to better understand the lecture (I'm not a native English speaker), the interactive presentations helped me to put newly gained insights and learning into practice. The enthusiasm displayed by almost all lecturers kept me zoomed in and focussed during the video’s. I especially enjoyed the lecturers that included your own pets/horses in the video. The video of nesting behaviour of a female pig, sometime before giving birth, had a huge impact on my view on pigs and the meat-industry.

As a result of the course, I feel I am better equipped to undertake my animal welfare work. I now have an understanding of the need for evidence-based application and acknowledging the limitation of my knowledge, for further enquiry into research by acknowledged institutions like yours. I hope that some of my colleagues will take advantage of your 2015 course and be similarly enlightened.

 

 

MSc in Applied Animal Welfare and Animal Behaviour: A brilliant start to the new term

Our on-campus MSc programme has got off to a brilliant start this term, and we are delighted to welcome our new and returning students to the new academic year.  We now have 35 students enrolled from all corners of the world. Teaching officially started two weeks ago, following a very successful induction and welcome session.   We are now looking forward to an exciting year ahead.

'We are delighted to welcome our new students to the programme and look forward to helping them learn about Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare over the coming year. 

We’ve already had a great overnight trip to the North of Scotland to visit the Highland Wildlife Park.  It allowed us to all get to know each other a bit better, and also to learn about welfare implications of keeping animals in captivity.  The Highland Wildlife Park arranged for the students to do a Welfare Assessment of certain enclosures and to discuss their recommendations with the keepers – really great experience!

The students have already started their Zoo Research Project at Edinburgh Zoo.  They are working in groups and learning about carrying out behavioural observations of, for example, Gelada Baboons, Gentoo Penguins, Otters and Darwin’s Rhea.'                       Dr Susan Jarvis, Programme Director

 

 

The MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare is an on-campus, research-based programme run in collaboration with SRUC. Teaching is mainly based at the Easter Bush campus, a state-of-the-art facility.

For more information about the programme please go to this link:

 http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/vet/studying/postgraduate/taught-programmes/applied-animal-behaviour-welfare/home

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MScAABAW?fref=ts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take part in Sentience Mosaic online discussion with JMICAWE team members, 6th October

 

Considering animal sentience in developing countries: Where are we?

Join us on the 6th October 2014 at 11am (UK time)

Heather Bacon, Veterinary Welfare Education and Outreach Manager and Hayley Walters, Anaesthesia and Welfare Veterinary Nurse, The University of Edinburgh will share their views on animal welfare in developing countries. They will also discuss their work with the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education (JMICAWE). 

For further information  and to sign up please go to this link:

http://www.animalmosaic.org/sentience/Debates/upcoming-debates/default.aspx?page=0&debate=tcm:46-42066

 

Animal welfare and animal welfare education varies considerably across the globe. In many instances animal welfare and the importance of animal sentience is rarely included in veterinary education. Quite often animals are used inhumanely during veterinary training, and as a result experience pain and compromised welfare. Furthermore, the needs and welfare of animals are sometimes lost in communities that experience high levels of poverty. Amongst such communities, what is currently being done to make animal welfare and the consideration of animal sentience a priority? And what needs to be done in the future? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

.