AWES holds their 4th Annual Veterinary Welfare and Ethics Conference

The Animal Welfare and Ethics Society (AWES), a student-led society part of the R(D)SVS, have just held their 4th annual conference virtually this year. The topics spanned from ethical dilemmas of treating British Wildlife, pain management in small animal practice, to the role of vets in forensics. 

Below is a reflection by the conference organiser Yuko Okumura: 

The conference started in 2017 with Morgan Brown, a fourth year student, who wanted to provide a platform for active discussion and dialogue around veterinary ethical dilemmas. Her main goal was to better equip students once they were practicing vets and prepare them for the potential challenging welfare issues they would face.  Morgan wanted the conference to be accessible, and from the start, had aimed to keep the conference affordable.  

Whilst the virtual world certainly has its challenges, it also offered AWES an opportunity this year to welcome international speakers for the first time. We were able to reach delegates like never before - from both UK and international vet students, staff, and animal care professionals. Some such speakers were an animal welfare lecturer from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, a dog groomer, and a vet from Australia, to name a few. 

As with our previous conferences, we aimed to cover various species groups (farm, equine, small animals, exotics) and were able to welcome experts of each field. These experts ranged from but were not limited to: the technical director of the Humane Slaughter Association, a board member of the Michigan Horse Welfare Coalition, and the co-director of Human Behaviour Change for Animals. The conference also tried to take on a holistic approach to discuss how society and human attitudes continually shape animal welfare, the importance of the welfare of the vet, and an evaluation on the Scientific Procedures Act from a legislative perspective.  

One of the talks that resonated with me personally was the discussion on farm animal welfare by Dr. Matt Dobbs from the Animal Welfare Foundation. Matt spoke with passion about how as young vets, awareness alone was not enough; that we would have to feel empowered enough to be active drivers of change.

He emphasised our duty to call out and question long-held beliefs within this industry, to constantly challenge our own understanding and knowledge about animal welfare and ethics and doing so through evidence-based research. These sentiments most certainly resonate with the aims and objectives JMICAWE strives to do on a daily basis.

If you would like to watch the recordings from the conference- register here: 

https://forms.gle/NP6r5Eb9cSesnim98

More information about the conference and the AWES society can be found on our website: 

https://www.animalwelfareandethicssociety.com/2021-virtual-conference

Welcome to Dr Kevin McPeake!

Kevin McPeake has recently joined the University of Edinburgh Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies as a Lecturer in Clinical Animal Behaviour. Kevin graduated from the University of Glasgow as a veterinary surgeon in 2005, and has worked in a range of first opinion small animal practices across the UK. 

In 2011, Kevin completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Companion Animal Behaviour Counselling before setting up a behaviour referral clinic in the North East of Scotland until 2014. He then moved to the University of Lincoln to undertake a project researching a novel anti-anxiety medication for dogs and remained there to complete a 5-year post combining a residency in veterinary behavioural medicine and has recently submitted his PhD research on frustration in dogs. 

Five days into his new role with the University of Edinburgh Kevin received the welcome news that he has passed his behavioural medicine board exams and is thus now a Diplomate of the European College of Animal Welfare and Behavioural Medicine. Kevin will be setting up an animal behaviour clinic within the Hospital for Small Animals allowing veterinarians to refer canine and feline behaviour cases for assessment and treatment.

"I am delighted to be starting my new role at the University of Edinburgh. Joining a team of leading experts in animal behaviour and welfare as well as the multi-disciplinary specialists within the Hospital for Small Animals is an exciting prospect and I look forward to working together with colleagues to advance the field of veterinary behavioural medicine. I am keen to share my knowledge through teaching on the MSc in Clinical Animal Behaviour as well as integrate behavioural medicine as a core subject in the undergraduate curriculum.”

Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies wins global animal welfare award!

The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and JMICAWE are delighted to announce that we are the very first recipients of the World Veterinary Association and CEVA veterinary school of the year in the global animal welfare awards for 2020. The WVA and CEVA give annual awards for those in the veterinary profession who have gone above and beyond in animal welfare, and JMICAWE’s very own Heather Bacon and Hayley Walters have been former winners of individual awards. For the first time in 2019 WVA and CEVA also decided to give an award to the veterinary school or college that was working to promote animal welfare, and we won! 

The award is wonderful recognition of the hard work, dedication and commitment of all those in JMICAWE, the wider JMICAWE ‘family’, including our colleagues at SRUC who conduct research in animal welfare, and many, many people in the R(D)SVS who contribute to embedding animal welfare into the veterinary curriculum to give our students the best possible grounding in animal welfare science, ethics and practice. In addition, the award recognises the significant outreach work that JMICAWE and others do to reach out to other veterinary schools globally, and help to promote animal welfare education for all veterinary students.

Edinburgh has a long history of involvement in animal welfare research and teaching. The R(D)SVS was instrumental in setting up the Society for Veterinary Ethology in 1966, which has grown and expanded over the last 50+ years to become the International Society for Applied Ethology, the pre-eminent scientific society for the study of animal welfare science. Edinburgh was also home to the first MSc programme in the world to offer postgraduate education in applied animal behaviour and animal welfare in 1990. The MSc is celebrating its 30th anniversary this month, and now has a network of alumni working to improve animal welfare all over the world.

With the current pandemic we were unable to collect our award in person at the 36th WVA Conference in Auckland, New Zealand in April as planned. However, a virtual awards ceremony was held last week and can be seen by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OhtWyYvGkw 

This also meant that we did not get the opportunity to meet and congratulate the other award winners in person but we are honoured to share the awards ceremony with Prof Paul McGreevy, Paul Oluwadare, Prof Gareth Bath, Maya Cygariska and Dr Tharanga Thoradeniya – many congratulations to you all for your work in improving the lives of animals.

JMICAWE Release of Vet Nursing Skills Resource!

A free online resource has been launched by the University of Edinburgh to mark Veterinary Nurses Day on Friday the 9th October.

Veterinary Nursing Skills provides vital insights into the principles and practice of nursing dogs and cats in a clinic setting. Content is provided by the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education (JMICAWE) at the University’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies.

The new resource, which is aimed at qualified and student veterinary nurses, will provide fresh perspectives on the interactions between nursing care, animal health and patient behaviour. Its content – also a valuable teaching tool for vet nursing lecturers – will highlight how focusing on these vital overlaps can improve patient welfare and clinical outcomes. Vet technicians and veterinary assistants are also expected to benefit from the new material, which includes video tutorials, downloadable fact sheets and interactive quizzes. Topics covered include clinical skills, patient handling and behaviour, wound management and bandaging, animal welfare and inpatient care. Registration is free via the University website. 

Demand for the resource has never been greater. There are some 15,000 registered veterinary nurses in the UK alone and an estimated 400 million cats and 500 million dogs worldwide. The Royal (Dick) School’s Welfare and Anaesthesia Nurse Hayley Walters, who teaches final year vet students, said the role of the veterinary nurse is being increasingly recognised. Ms Walters said the module was an attempt to address the fact that not all para-veterinary professionals have access to the same professional training resources.

This new resource aims to support vet nurses in providing the best clinical care and welfare for their patients no matter where in the world they work.

Knowledge and compassionate veterinary nurses improve patient welfare, so we want to share some of our educational and animal welfare expertise with a global audience, this new resource will help to promote the role of the veterinary nurse as a para-professional who is an essential part of the veterinary team.

Hayley WaltersJMICAWE Welfare and Anaesthesia Nurse

Welcome to our new students coming to Edinburgh!

This week is Welcome Week for all our new students arriving at Edinburgh to begin student life, and an especially warm welcome (and welcome back) to our new and returning veterinary students. We are also delighted to be welcoming our next cohort of Masters students to the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies (R(D)SVS), whether they will be joining us at the Easter Bush campus or online to begin or continue their studies in animal behaviour and welfare.

In these uncertain times Welcome Week, and the first semester will feel a little bit different to usual for all of us, but the education teams have been working really hard to keep the campus secure and to provide a hybrid model of teaching with a blend of online and in person teaching. We are confident that our students will still have a great experience with us, and some of the new ways of teaching may even be an improvement on what we used to do in the past! For our MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare it is a particularly special year since it marks 30 years since the course began, as the oldest MSc programme in animal welfare in world. We will also be planning events to celebrate this special milestone. 

The R(D)SVS is consistently ranked as one of the best veterinary schools in the world (most recently voted top in the UK by Guardian Newspaper: https://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/news-events/news-and-archive/2020-news/guardian-league-table-2021), and is located in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. If you are interested in studying with us as a veterinary student then you can find out more information here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/vet and see a video about student life here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNpX_DV7l4c

Or if you are interested in our postgraduate teaching in animal behaviour and welfare (or other subjects) then you can find out more here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/vet/studying/postgraduate

We hope to be welcoming you to our campus one day too!

A Dog's Perspective

We’re really excited to bring you a new short film, A Dog’s Perspective, on YouTube.

The idea behind this video comes from our undergrad veterinary students at the Royal (Dick) Veterinary School and they shot and directed the video themselves after completing their final year animal welfare elective module.

Our students recognised that the veterinary clinic can sometimes be a frightening and alarming place for our companion animals and wanted to make a video that could highlight some simple and effective changes to the clinic that can improve the experience for our companion animals.

Carrie Aitken, the video’s director, had this to say:

Veterinarians are sworn to protect and uphold the welfare of animals under their care. It is easy to allow the importance of a patient’s physical health overshadow that of their mental and emotional wellbeing. I wanted to make this video to help us see the world through a dogs’ point-of-view so that we may improve the welfare of our pets in veterinary practice.

To do this I have highlighted the key areas of a veterinary practice from the point-of-view of a dog and provided some suggestions as to how to improve the patient experience.

I hope you enjoy the video and take a moment to consider how the world is experienced through the eyes of our canine companions. 

It’s great to see the next generation of veterinarians thinking about the animal’s experience in the clinic and putting animal welfare front and centre. A big thank you to Carrie and her colleagues for sharing this video with us, and congratulations on your graduation! We know you’ll go on to do great things.