The Animal Welfare Program is excited to celebrate the graduation of several students! Maria Chen with her MSc and Katelyn Mills, Ben Lecorps and Thomas Ede with their PhD! In addition to these graduate students, several undergraduate students have actively been working with the program this year through undergraduate theses or directed studies. Congratulations!
Alex San Pedro
Congratulations to Alex San Pedro for graduating with a Bachelor’s of Science in Applied Biology, specializing in Applied Animal Biology Honours! Alex was an NSERC Undergraduate Research Assistant with the Animal Welfare Program. She completed a directed study and undergraduate thesis on rat pups and refining mouse euthanasia, respectively. She is currently working on a research project that looks at dairy cows’ drinking behaviours as water quality declines. Alex hopes to continue her studies by applying for UBC’s Master’s program in Applied Animal Biology. We wish Alex the best of luck in the future and we can’t wait to see what she does next!
Ben Lecorps
Congratulations to Ben for graduating with his PhD in Applied Animal Biology! Ben’s thesis explored long-lasting affective states of dairy cattle when subjected to routine farm procedures such as hot-iron disbudding, social mixing and separation from the calf. His work provides additional evidence that these procedures trigger negative affective states in cows, and provides evaluation into an individual’s vulnerability to certain stressors. Examples of Ben’s research showed that pessimistic calves are more vulnerable, a calf’s personality can be used to predict their response to certain situations and that captivity can impact mood-related disorders such as depression in animals.
Moving forward Ben plans to continue with the Animal Welfare Program as a Postdoc working on improving the lives of animals by dedicating his research to a better understanding of farm animals’ affective states and finding practical solutions to avoid negative states to occur.
We look forward to seeing everything that Ben achieves and wish him good luck!
Joey Krahn
Congratulations to Joey for graduating with his BSc! Joey has been living and learning at the UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre, working on his undergraduate thesis project under the supervision of Nina von Keyserlingk. Joey has been exploring the intersection of on-farm technology and animal welfare.
Katelyn Mills
Congratulations to Katie Mills for graduating and completing her PhD in Applied Animal Biology! Katie’s research has focused on dairy farm management and improving dairy cattle welfare. Papers from her PhD include research into topics such as investigating the challenges and opportunities for human resource management on dairy farms, a paper published in the Journal of Dairy Science. Additionally, Katie’s research includes investigating dairy farmer advising and its relation to the development of standard operating procedures and research into identifying barriers to successful dairy cow transition management. Katie’s hard work and dedication to dairy cattle welfare is evident through the breadth and depth of her research and accomplishment.
Katie is continuing on to work with AgResearch in New Zealand! Congratulations to Katie for her wonderful achievements and we wish her luck in her future endeavors!
Lexis Ly
Congratulations to Lexis Ly for graduating with her undergraduate degree in Applied Animal Biology with Honours! Lexis’ undergrad has involved a range of research including evaluating human empathy, public attitudes to technology in the dairy industry and the surrender of shelter animals. Her undergraduate thesis, published in PLOS ONE, focuses on human facial expression as a measure of empathy towards farm animals in pain. Additionally, Lexis completed a summer project which focuses on public attitudes towards milk technologies, including those which use genetic modification and milk alternatives, such as plant based and non-dairy/”cowless” milk. Finally, Lexis’ directed study explores the relationship between human social deprivation and animal surrender to shelters in British Columbia.
Lexis is going on to complete her MSc with the Animal Welfare Program, which she started in January, where she will continue her work with human vulnerability and companion animal ownership under the supervision of Sasha Protopopova. Congratulations to Lexis on all of her achievements, and we wish her the best of luck going forward!
Maria Chen
Congratulations to Maria for graduating with her Master’s degree in Applied Animal Biology. Maria’s Master’s research focused on understanding how employee management shaped animal care on 2 large dairies in China. She conducted immersive fieldwork, living and working with the farmers to understand their daily lives and perspectives. Maria found that animal care can be promoted in this context by 1. Promoting a culture where workers have ‘grit’ and are eager to learn, 2. Ensuring worker welfare, and 3. Incentivizing workers through linking performance to pay.
Moving forward Maria is starting a collaborative research project where she will conduct ethnographic fieldwork to understand challenges and opportunities of improving layer hen welfare on large cage-free egg farms in China. Additionally, She will continue to be program coordinator at the International Farm Animal Welfare Fellowship, (IFAWF: www.ifawf.org), where she will work to cultivate a community of individuals working on improving Chinese farm animal welfare.
We wish Maria the best of luck moving forward!
Thomas Ede
Congratulations to Thomas Ede for graduating with his PhD in Applied Animal Biology! Thomas has spent the last 4 years studying ways of assessing affective states in cattle. His thesis was focused on the impact of painful procedures on young dairy calves, ranging from simple injections to hot-iron disbudding. Since completing his defense, Thomas has continued studying calf affective states as a Postdoctoral Researcher with the animal Welfare Program and intends to pursue research in the field moving forward.
Congratulations to Thomas for all of his hard work and amazing achievements, we are excited to see where the future takes you!