University Links, News & Events

University Links

‘University Links’ is a network of UFAW Links people, members and supporters at universities and colleges around the UK and overseas, reflecting both UFAW’s origins and the tremendous growth in interest in animal welfare science within these institutions.

The aims of the University Links scheme are to promote animal welfare science and the objectives of UFAW while providing a forum for the involvement of members and supporters.

For contact details, news and events for each institution, click on the institution’s name below

At present 36 academic institutions have UFAW Links:

 

Anglia Ruskin University
Contact: Dr Charlotte Nevison, Dept of Life Sciences
Email: charlotte.nevison@anglia.ac.uk

 

ARU uses part of their link monies to support the 'The UFAW prize for the best undergraduate thesis on an animal welfare topic'’.

 

 

University of Bristol
Contact: Dr David Main, Dept of Clinical Veterinary Science
Email: D.C.J.Main@bristol.ac.uk
Or Professor Mike Mendl, Dept of Clinical Veterinary Science
Email: Mike.Mendl@bristol.ac.uk

See http://www.vetschool.bris.ac.uk/research/abw/ for further details.

The UFAW Links at Bristol, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities have joined forces and agreed to use some of their link monies to support an away ‘Walk and Talk’ weekend for their post-graduate students. During this weekend they will present their animal welfare work to their peers and discuss issues arising from it, get to know each other better and develop new contacts and collaborations. UFAW was happy to support this initiative because a trial last year, organised by the University of Bristol, had proved to be very successful and resulted in a fruitful exchange of ideas and techniques.

Bristol also uses part of their link monies to award prizes to undergraduates on the their BVSc and Animal Behaviour and Welfare BSC courses in recognition of the individual students achievements in the field of animal welfare science. Specifically, these are: the UFAW prize for best 1st year BVSc welfare & ethics group project, the UFAW prize for best 3rd Year VNPA welfare & ethics individual project and the UFAW prize for best dissertation on Animal Behaviour & Welfare degree.

 

Congratulations are extended to this year’s prize winners:

Andre Kortum (BVSc, year 1) Eleanor Haskey (BSc (Hons) Veterinary Nursing, year 3) and Peter Hiscox (BSc (Hons) Behaviour and Welfare).

 

 

University of British Columbia

Contact: Professor David Fraser, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Centre for Applied Ethics

Email: dfraser@interchange.ubc.ca

 

 

 

 

University of Cambridge

Contact: Dr David Williams, Veterinary Medicine and Pathology

Email: doctordlwilliams@aol.com

 

 

Cambridge has for many years had an Animal Welfare and Anthrozoology group which meets for a seminar each week and comprises staff members, postgraduate students and ourside interested parties. Our undergraduate welfare lectures are given by a number of staff members across the disciplines, showing how animal welfare aims to integrate into the clinical services covering large and small animal medicine and surgery as well as laboratory and exotic species. UFAW funds are used to aid funding of lectures outside the curriculum for undergraduate students as well as provide a book prize for the best essay on an animal welfare subject.

 

 

Cardiff University

Contact: Dr Rob Thomas

Email: ThomasRJ@cardiff.ac.uk

 

University of Chester
 Contact:

Email:

 

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

Contact: Professor Cristian Bonacic, Dept de Ciencas Forestales

Email: faunaaustralis@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

University College Dublin

Contact: Dr Alison Hanlon, Veterinary Sciences Centre

Email: alison.hanlon@ucd.ie

The 42nd Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE) will be held at O'Reilly Hall, University College Dublin (UCD) from 5 to 9 August 2008. The key theme is 'Applied Ethology: Addressing Future Challenges in Animal Agriculture'. The overall aim of the ISAE 2008 is to provide behavioural solutions to the challenges facing animal agriculture.  In essence, such solutions are more ethical, less costly, less reliant on drugs and fossil fuels and therefore more sustainable than other forms of intervention.  In addition there are six sub themes in the scientific programme:
- Applied ethology in organic and pasture-based production systems
- Novel indicators of animal welfare
- Applied ethology and animal breeding
- Automated data collections systems
- Behavioural problems of domestic animals
For those who enjoy a more interactive experience, six workshops have been introduced for ISAE 2008:
1. Usefulness of resting behaviour as a tool for assessing the welfare of farm animals
2. Environmental enrichment: a valuable tool to improve the welfare of zoo animals?
3. Promoting Applied Ethology Worldwide
4. The influence of genetics and breeding on farm animal welfare
5. Mother-offspring behaviour in polytocous animals
6. Intra- and inter-specific acoustic communication of farm animals

For more information and to register go to www.isae2008.com
We look forward to welcoming you to Dublin!
Alison Hanlon
UCD UFAW University Links person

 

University of Edinburgh
Contact: Dr Christine Moinard, Easter Bush Veterinary Centre
Email: christine.moinard@sac.ac.uk

http://www.vet.ed.ac.uk/animalbehaviour/

 

Through the links scheme, UFAW is supporting a workshop organised by the Scottish Centre for Animal Welfare Sciences (SCAWS) on ‘Animal Athletes:

Welfare of Animals in Sport’, which has a particular emphasis on racehorses and greyhounds. The meeting will be held at The Moredun Research Institute Edinburgh on Wednesday 24th September 2008. Contact Lauren Kelly for further details (Laura.kelly@sac.ac.uk). A flyer can be found here.

 

The UFAW Links at Bristol, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities joined forces and agreed to use some of their link monies to support an away ‘Walk and Talk’ weekend for their post-graduate students. During this weekend they will present their animal welfare work to their peers and discuss issues arising from it, get to know each other better and develop new contacts and collaborations. UFAW was happy to support this initiative because a trial last year, organised by the University of Bristol, had proved to be very successful and resulted in a fruitful exchange of ideas and techniques.

 

 

Professor Peter Sandøe, Professor in Bioethics at The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, was invited by UFAW link universities Edinburgh and Glasgow to give a seminar at the University of Glasgow on 25th April 2007. Professor Sandøe presented an animated and interesting talk on: ‘Veterinary treatment of companion animals – What are the ethical limits?’ There are many issues involved in this often difficult area and this informative presentation prompted a period of lively debate amongst students, lecturers and other interested parties who attended.

Professor Sandøe is Chairman of the Danish Ethical Council for Animals and president of The European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics and since 1990 the major part of his research has been within bioethics with particular emphasis on ethical issues related to animals, biotechnology and food production. He is committed to interdisciplinary work combining perspectives from natural science, social sciences and philosophy.

 

 

Estonian University of Life Sciences

Contact: Dr David Arney, Institute of Veterinary Medicine & Animal Sciences

Email: david.arney@emu.ee

 

 

 

Student from Estonian University of Life Science will visit Sri Lanka to cure dogs.

Finnish third course veterinary student, Saara Hiippala, has received a stipend from Great Britain to cure homeless dogs in Sri Lanka.

 

I have been in Asia several times and wanted already, before going to study in Tartu, to go there to study homeless dogs, “ said Saara Hiippala. As there was a possibility to apply for this stipend, the young lady seized this.

At first she was looking for suitable clinic from Thailand and then from Bali, but finally she found in Sri Lanka a rescue centre, where homeless dogs with the parasitic disease ehrlichiosis were cured.

Dogs can acquire this disease from ticks, and if this disease is diagnosed at an early stage, it is curable with antibiotics during first month. If it is discovered later, the disease will usually end in death.

“In western countries it is possible to perform all necessary laboratory analyses to detect this disease, but in Sri Lanka it is difficult to diagnose, because it is possible there to use only microscope examination,” said Hiippala.

“I want to study possibilities for easier and more reliable diagnosis,” said Hiippala.

She was awarded a scholarship worth 1600 € from the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare for this project.

The purpose of this scholarship is to encourage students to develop their skills in animal welfare research, explained David Arney, who is Associate Professor in the Estonian University of Life Sciences, in the Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences.

“It is the second time that a student from the Estonian University of Life Sciences has received this scholarship. This indicates high level of our students and increases our international reputation,” said Arney.

 

On 8th November, Prof. Hannu Saloniemi was invited to the Estonian University of Life Sciences, to give a talk entitled: Animal Welfare - from Science to Practice. This event was also a promotion of the UFAW link scheme to members of the university. An audience of over 70 students and staff attended the lecture which covered a history of animal science and welfare, particularly in Finland, and a report of the Research Centre for Animal Welfare at the University of Helsinki.

At the end of the talk there was an introduction to UFAW, and a discussion of the opportunities this opens up to students and staff to collaborate in both science and education, and promote animal welfare both in their own country and elsewhere.

 

 

University of Glasgow
Contact: Dr Dorothy McKeegan, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Email: d.mckeegan@vet.gla.ac.uk

 

The UFAW Links at Bristol, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities have joined forces and agreed to use some of their link monies to support an away ‘Walk and Talk’ weekend for their post-graduate students. During this weekend they will present their animal welfare work to their peers and discuss issues arising from it, get to know each other better and develop new contacts and collaborations. UFAW was happy to support this initiative because a trial last year, organised by the University of Bristol, had proved to be very successful and resulted in a fruitful exchange of ideas and techniques.

 

Professor Peter Sandøe, Professor in Bioethics at The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen, was invited by UFAW link universities Edinburgh and Glasgow to give a seminar at the University of Glasgow on 25th April 2007. Professor Sandøe presented an animated and interesting talk on: ‘Veterinary treatment of companion animals – What are the ethical limits?’ There are many issues involved in this often difficult area and this informative presentation prompted a period of lively debate amongst students, lecturers and other interested parties who attended.

Professor Sandøe is Chairman of the Danish Ethical Council for Animals and president of The European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics and since 1990 the major part of his research has been within bioethics with particular emphasis on ethical issues related to animals, biotechnology and food production. He is committed to interdisciplinary work combining perspectives from natural science, social sciences and philosophy.

 

University of Guelph

Contact: Dr Georgia Mason, Animal Sciences Department

Email: gmason@uoguelph.ca

 

On the 28th April, the inaugural Campbell Centre for Animal Welfare 'Research Day’ will be held (http://www.uoguelph.ca/csaw/index.htm). Talking at this meeting, with the support of the UFAW link scheme, will be Dr Ron Swaisgood (UCLA / San Diego Zoo) whose keynote speech will explore the role of stress reduction in the successful breeding of captive endangered species (esp. giant pandas in China). Anyone wishing to contribute an abstract to this meeting should contact Dr Georgia Mason. Click here for further details on submitting a manuscript.

Ron Swaisgood's is also talking at the OEEC 28-30th April 2008 ( http://www.uoguelph.ca/~oeec2008/)

 

 

 

Harper Adams University
Contact: Stephen Baugh, Animal Health & Welfare
Email: 00699580@harper-adams.ac.uk

 

 

Hartpury College

Contact: Dr Mary Farrell, Animal Behaviour and Welfare

Email: mary.farrell@hartpury.ac.uk

 

Hartpury hosted the 5th Student Animal Welfare Conference on Wednesday 28th of April 2010. Final year undergraduate students from Hartpury, Moulton and Writtle Colleges presented the findings of their undergraduate dissertation research on animal welfare. The Conference which was sponsored by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare and Hartpury College was a great success, and the talks and posters presented were of a very high standard. The prize for the best talk was won by a Hartpury Equine Science student Caroline Hughes and Amie Reid from Moulton College won the prize for the best poster.

 

Hartpury’s level 1 FdSc and BSc (Hons) Animal Behaviour and Welfare students visit Bristol Zoo using UFAW funding

 

Students enrolled on Animal Behaviour and Welfare programmes at Hartpury visited Bristol Zoo during induction week. This visit was sponsored by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare as part of the “link college” programme. UFAW is an independent registered charity that works to develop and promote improvements in the welfare of all animals through scientific and educational activity worldwide. The students toured the zoo and also had an education session on animal welfare at the Education Centre. They found the visit to be very beneficial and commented that it had enhanced their understanding of the welfare issues surrounding captive animals.

 

Iowa State University

Contact: Dr Suzanne Millman, College of Veterinary Medicine

Email: smillman@iastate.edu

 

 

 

 

King's College London

Contact: Mrs Barbara Holgate

Email: barbara.holgate@kcl.ac.uk

 

University of Lincoln
Contact: Professor Daniel Mills, Dept of Biological Sciences.
Email: dmills@lincoln.ac.uk

OR Sarah Ellis

Email: sellis@lincoln.ac.uk

 

 

Link monies help support Lincoln’s regular Behaviour and Evolution Research Group seminar series, which are open to all undergrads, research,academic staff and when applicable members of the public. Further details of these can be obtained here: http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/dbs/seminars.htm

 

 

University of Liverpool

Contact:Dr Carol Gray, School of Biological Sciences

Email: cagray@liverpool.ac.uk

 

 

 

Massey University

Contact: Dr Ngaio Beausoleil, Institute of Veterinary, Animal & Biomedical Sciences

Email: N.J.Beausoleil@massey.ac.nz

 

 

 

University of Newcastle

Contact: Dr Melissa Bateson, Institute of Neuroscience

Email: Melissa.Bateson@newcastle.ac.uk

The UFAW Links at Bristol, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities have joined forces and agreed to use some of their link monies to support an away ‘Walk and Talk’ weekend for their post-graduate students. During this weekend they will present their animal welfare work to their peers and discuss issues arising from it, get to know each other better and develop new contacts and collaborations. UFAW was happy to support this initiative because a trial last year, organised by the University of Bristol, had proved to be very successful and resulted in a fruitful exchange of ideas and techniques.

UFAW Link monies are also being used to support an Animal Health student conference run by the Agriculture Department for their third years students.

 

UNESP

Contact: Dr Mateus da Costa/Aline Sant'Anna

Email: mpcosta@fcav.unesp.br/ac_santanna@yahoo.com.br

 

 

 

 

 

University of Nottingham
Contact: Dr Jon Huxley, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science
Email: jon.huxley@nottingham.ac.uk

 

 

 

Nottingham Trent University

Contact: Dr Carol Hall, School of Animal, Rural & Environmental Sciences

Email: carol.hall@ntu.ac.uk

 

 

 

University of Plymouth
Contact: Dr John Eddison, School of Biological Sciences.
Email: J.Eddison@plymouth.ac.uk

 

Some UFAW link universities use part of their link monies to award prizes to undergraduates in recognition of their achievements in the field of animal welfare science. Congratulations are therefore extended to

 

James Kidd BSc Animal Science (Behaviour & Welfare). Achieved the highest aggregate mark across all modules.

Queen Mary University of London

Contact: Dr Alan McElligott, School of Biological & Chemical Sciences

Email: a.g.mcelligott@qmul.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Queensland University

Contact: Dr Andrew Tribe, School of Veterinary Sciences

Email: a.tribe@uq.edu.au

 

 

 

 

 

Queen's University Belfast

Contact: Dr Deborah Wells, School of Psychology

Email: d.wells@qub.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

University of Reading

Contact: Dr Jennie Litten-Brown, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development

Email: j.c.litten-brown@reading.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reaseheath College

Contact: Emily Jewell

Email: emilyj@reaseheath.ac.uk

 

 

 

Royal Veterinary College (RVC)
Contact: Dr Siobhan Abeyesinghe, Dept of Clinical Veterinary Sciences
Email: sabeyesinghe@rvc.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Southampton University
Contact: Dr Debbie Goodwin, School of Psychology
Email: D.Goodwin@soton.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

University of St Andrews

Contact: Dr Sue Healy, Schools of Biology and Pathology

Email: susan.healy@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

University of Stirling
Contact: Professor Hannah Buchanan-Smith, Dept of Psychology
Email: h.m.buchanan-smith@stir.ac.uk

 

1) Support the Behaviour and Evolution Research Group (BERG) seminar series. Once again this seminar series has been enormously successful and with the UFAW sponsorship we were able to invite a number of outside speakers (Universities of St. Andrews, Edinburgh, Aberdeen). Funds are also used to provide refreshments, encouraging longer discussion time! These seminars attract colleagues from Blair Drummond Safari Park, and Edinburgh Zoo, as well as staff, post-graduates and undergraduate students from several Scottish Universities. Due to our success, numbers attending our BERG meetings have grown considerably!

2) Award an undergraduate prize of £100 to Rebecca Leonardi to reflect her sustained and important contribution to BERG meetings and her contribution to animal welfare through her research entitled “Living Together: Behaviour and welfare in single and mixed species groups of capuchin and squirrel monkeys”, conducted during her Psychology honours degree at the University of Stirling, Scotland. I am delighted to say that this work has now been accepted for publication in American Journal of Primatology.

 

In addition, 10 students from Stirling led by Caroline Ogden very kindly undertook varied fund raising activities at the university and donated the monies raised to UFAW. These activities included manning a stall, dressing up and handing out information about UFAW. In total they raised £163; ‘…..not bad for an afternoon’s work’ as Caroline wrote. We would like to thank Caroline and the others on behalf of UFAW.

 

Clockwise from front: Caroline Ogden (Panda), Rosie Noyce (Bunny ears), Fiona Noble (Cow), Suzanne Niven, Matthew Preston, Paula Simms, Jareena Pradhan, Gillian Scott, Jacqueline Scott.

 

 

University of Sussex

Contact: Professor Pete Clifton, Dept of Psychology

Email: pete@sussex.ac.uk

 

 

 

 

Unitec New Zealand

Contact: Mr Mark Farnworth, School of Natural Sciences

Email: mfarnworth@unitec.ac.nz

 

This year, Unitec student Ellen Schubert received money from the UFAW link scheme in support of her project into the provision of care for rabbits in New Zealand and reasons for their adoption.  A synopsis of this study can be found here.

Last year Unitec student Megan Young’s study into the impact of plastic pollution on the welfare of wild seabirds was supported. . A synopsis of her study can be found here.

We were lucky enough to receive a public lecture from Professor Alistair Lawrence in his whistlestop tour of the Antipodes. Student and public reaction was overwhelmingly positive and the lecture "Animal Welfare: Who cares and what do we do about it?" successfully brought together both specific research and major economic, environmental and ethical concerns which impact upon the field. It served to remind students that no scientific field stands alone and also to revitalise and embed their years of learning about Animal Welfare Science. It also had a small dose of celebrity affirmative action.


Unitec New Zealand thanks both UFAW and SAC for enabling this to happen.

 

Writtle College

Contact: Jonathan Amory

Email: jonathan.amory@writtle.ac.uk

Photo: Dr Carlos de Luna, Dr Jarmila Bone and Dr Jonathan Amory with Rebecca Hunter (BSc Animal Management) and Yvonne Owen (PhD student) attend the BIAZA research conference at Chester Zoo July 2010.

Writtle College has a wide range of research projects in the field of animal welfare, studying zoo, companion and livestock species. The UFAW link money is currently used to support attendance (and sometimes hosting) the Student Animal Welfare Conference that is held annually between Hartpury, Moulton and Writtle College. It is also funds a prize for the best BSc dissertation project in the field of animal welfare.

In April, Writtle College, with assistance from the UFAW link scheme, hosted the third ‘Student Animal Welfare Conference’. This annual conference, which is for students attending Writtle, Hartpury and Moulton Colleges, featured talks and posters from undergraduate and postgraduate students at these institutions. The presentations covered a wide range of topics from all areas of animal welfare related to farmed livestock, horses, companion animals and zoo species. The plenary talk was given by Professor Don Broom of the University of Cambridge who soke about “Awareness in domestic animals and our obligations to them”..

Prizes were awarded on the day and congratulations are extended to Carla Khouri (Writtle College) - Best oral presentation; Rachael Saggers (Writtle College) - Commended oral presentation; Helen Neill (Writtle College) - Best poster presentation and Sophie Mayes (Writtle College) - Commended poster presentation.

For further details click here.

 

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