University LINKs Scheme
University of Guelph (Canada)
Dr Georgia Mason
Animal Sciences Department
Email: gmason@uoguelph.ca
2021-2022:
Thanks to UFAW Link funding for the 2021-2022 academic year, CCSAW ran 14 seminars and workshops, 10 on welfare science and a four-part mini-series on Indigenous Attitudes to Animals, a topic CCSAW was keen to explore in the spirit of truth and reconciliation (https://nctr.ca/).
These events were either online only or hybrid, and despite the occasional "Zoom-bombing" shock, went well, consistently attracting audiences of 60-150 people from all around the world. A few highlights included Mi'kmaq scholar Dr Margaret Robinson (Can intensive animal agriculture be decolonized? One Mi’kmaw perspective), Dr Joao Costa (Dairy cattle behaviour in modern production systems: Are we forgetting about the cows’ individually?), and Dr Beth Greenhough, who also ran a workshop for some of Guelph's animal care staff (Care-full Stories: Using qualitative social science to examine, understand and develop a culture of care in animal research).
We organised a 'Three minute thesis' (3MT) style annual research symposium too, in May 2021.
In addition, we used the UFAW funds to edit and upload videos of all our seminars and 3MT to Youtube. Please click here if you’d like to watch any (https://www.youtube.com/c/CampbellCentrefortheStudyofAnimalWelfare/playlists)! And to keep abreast of future activities, email Georgia Mason to join our listserv, or follow us on Twitter
The LINK scheme allowed Dr Eric Troncy, from the University of Montreal, to attend Guelph’s annual Animal Welfare Research Symposium. A veterinarian whose research focuses on pain, Dr Troncy spoke on how to measure pain and treat or reduce it.
2013:
UFAW was very pleased to continue its on-going support for the University of Guelph’s Animal Welfare Research Symposium through the link scheme. This annual event, which took place in May, was organized by the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare and featured presentations on a range of subjects including the welfare consequences of ‘boredom’, animal housing, early warning signs for injury and disease, and assessing and improving behaviour issues.
At the end of the symposium, prizes were awarded for the best presentation and best research poster. Hillary Dalton, University of Guelph, was awarded best poster for "Injurious pecking in domestic turkeys: development causes and potential solutions". Gosia Zobel, a PhD student from the University of British Columbia, won best presentation for her talk on working towards earlier identification of pregnancy toxemia in dairy goats during the last stages of pregnancy.
A more detailed report on the meeting can be found here: http://www.uoguelph.ca/oac/news/symposium-becomes-tradition-animal-welfare-research
Abstracts of all the presentations can also be found by visiting the University of Guelph’s webpage: http://www.uoguelph.ca/csaw/documents/
schedule.abstracts.final.2013.pdf
