University LINKs Scheme

Europe

Select an entry in the table below to view contact details and news for that LINK

Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) (UK)

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain)

University of Bern (Switzerland)

Brooksby Melton College (UK)

14th annual UFAW Student Animal Welfare Conference – Moulton College

This year it was the turn of Moulton College to host the annual UFAW student animal welfare conference, the 14th of such events. At the conference, which featured both talks and posters, final year students from Moulton, Writtle, Hartpury and Brooksby Melton Colleges presented the results of research undertaken as part of their degrees.

As usual the students presented on a diverse range of issues, including whether secondary emotions can be accurately attributed to dogs and their impact on welfare, acquired dental disease in guinea pigs, the effect of complexity in the kennelled environment on the physiology of dogs and zoo visitor effects on the behaviour on the Western lowland gorillas. Prizes were also awarded for the best, and highly commended, talks and posters.

In addition to the confidence the students showed in presenting and talking about their work, they also answered questions from their fellow students intelligently and very competently.

The best oral presentation award went to Matthew Long (BSc (Hons) Animal Management at Writtle University College. Supervised by Jonathan Amory) for his impressive talk on ‘A social network analysis of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus)’. Concerned about the interactions that were taking place in their elephant herd, a local zoo had asked Matthew to assess the social cohesion of the group, the frequency with which they interacted with each other and the nature of their interactions (positive or negative). Matthew, with a nice application of network analysis, was able to show that an immature male within the group was an initiator of many negative interactions that were having an adverse impact on the group. His recommendation, based on this empirical evidence, was that the zoo should consider moving the male to another collection that could better meet his needs as he matured. Matthew’s work offers a method by which those with responsible for large collections of animals housed socially can make more informed management decisions.

The following students were also awarded prizes for their presentations:

COMMENDED ORAL PRESENTATION – An investigation into two nocturnal housing environments and their effect on locomotion and social facilitation in horses. Lucy Slater, Moulton College (Supervised by Rosa Verwijs)

BEST POSTER - The effect of being a Pets as Therapy (PAT) dog on stress levels during a working day Claire Lockie, Hartpury University College (Supervised by Lucy Bearman-Brown)

COMMENDED POSTER –Do the behaviours and abundance of waterfowl differ based on the levels of sound pollution in their environment? William Walker, Brooksby-Melton College (Supervised by Lydia Bradwell and Melissa Rudd)

Cardiff University (UK)

University Centre West Anglia (UK)

University of Chester (UK)

University of Copenhagen (Denmark)

Cornwall College (UK)

University College Dublin (Ireland)

University of Durham (UK)

East Durham College (UK)

University of Edinburgh (UK)

Ege University (Turkey)

Eotvos Lorand University (Hungary)

Estonian University of Life Sciences (Estonia)

Exeter University (UK)

Free University Berlin (Germany)

University of Glasgow (UK)

Harper Adams University (UK)

Hartpury University (UK)

University of Helsinki (Finland)

Hogeschool VIVES (Belgium)

ILVO/Ghent (Belgium)

INRA (France)

University of Leeds (UK)

University of Lincoln (UK)

University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Ludwig-Maximillians University (Germany)

Liverpool John Moores University (UK)

Lviv University (Ukraine)

Universita degli Studi di Milano (Italy)

Moulton College (UK)

Myerscough College (UK)

Newcastle University (UK)

Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway)

University of Nottingham (UK)

Nottingham Trent University (UK)

University of Plymouth (UK)

Dr Katherine Herborn
School of Biological & Marine Sciences
Email: katherine.herborn@plymouth.ac.uk

2018:

Professor Christine Nicol, of the Royal Veterinary College, delivered the annual public Plymouth Animal Behaviour and Welfare lecture at the School of Marine and Biological Sciences in 2018. Professor Nicol gave a talk entitled “Alien Encounters – Reflections on the relevance of animal welfare science”, based on her 2015 BBC Radio 4 series ‘Would you eat an alien?’ In her talk, Professor Nicol explored the human-animal relationship by asking how a spaceman crash landing on a remote planet might weigh up the pain, distress and suffering of various edible creatures, taking into account their awareness and relationship to others. This analogy provided a great way of exploring the ethical issues surrounding the captivity, farming and breeding of an organism as a food source. This includes how our close relationship with some animals can affect our view on the acceptability of their treatment: for example issues surrounding the classification of animals as pets versus livestock. The mixture of 100+ students, staff and members of the public were given a fascinating perspective on the topic of how we might make ethical choices in our treatment and use of animals and how science can inform those choices. Professor Nicol is a past winner of the UFAW Medal for outstanding achievement in animal welfare science

2015:

The second Plymouth Animal Welfare lecture, sponsored by UFAW, was held in December 2015 at Plymouth University. John Bradshaw, Visiting Fellow at Bristol University, gave a public talk on "‘Dogs and cats: the animals among us’". The talk was immensely popular with the first recorded instance at the university of >100% attendance relative to pre-registration numbers. The mixture of students, staff and members of the public were given a beautifully clear and fascinating talk relating how an understanding of the history and domestication of cats and dogs can help us improve their welfare in the here and now. Dr Bradshaw dealt individually with dogs and then cats, showing how, for example, the social life of the dog progenitor gives rise to current welfare issues (e.g. separation anxiety) and how outmoded ideas on ‘dominance’ in training have no grounding based on more current ideas on dog social behaviour. As with previous lectures, the audience went away significantly better informed and will no doubt have had a fresh view of their canine and feline friends when they got home. Our thanks go to Dr Bradshaw for delivering the lecture and to UFAW for supporting it.

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) who achieved the highest aggregate mark across all modules.

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