Prof. Dan Weary receives 2014 Charles River Laboratories’ Excellence in Refinement Award
Prof. Dan Weary receives award in recognition of his work to enhance the well-being of laboratory animals.
“Dilemmas in Animal Welfare”
A new book “Dilemmas in Animal Welfare“, co-edited by UBC’s Dan Weary, was recently published by CABI. The book addresses some of the current debates in animal welfare such as tail docking, pet obesity, and neutering of feral cats. Dan has also contributed a chapter entitled “What is suffering in animals?”
“Fish have feelings too”
Recent research from UBC’s Animal Welfare Program has inspired an Editorial in Nature, the world’s leading scientific journal, provocatively entitled “Fish have feelings too.” The Editorial argues for a re-examination of our ethical obligations to the animals we use in research, including fish that are rapidly becoming the most used animals in research laboratories.
Fish euthanasia research featured in Nature
Today’s issue of Nature covers recent research by UBC’s Animal Welfare Program, highlighting more humane methods for the killing and anaesthesia of laboratory fish. To learn more see our previous post on this topic.
Killing them softly – new research shows a better way for euthanizing laboratory fish
A new study just published on the open access journal PLoS ONE shows how practices in research laboratories can be made more animal friendly.
Emotional rats
What emotions do rats experience and how can we know? A newly published article by Animal Welfare Program members Joanna Makowska and Dan Weary reviews evidence that rats experience a range of positive and negative emotion, and that these states can be assessed scientifically using a range of techniques. The authors conclude that existing standards […]
Nature profiles Program’s research on improved euthanasia methods for lab animals
An article in this week’s edition of the journal Nature profiles the contributions of graduate students Joanna Makowska and Devina Wong in developing more humane methods of euthanizing lab animals
Two new studies on attitudes toward the use of genetically-engineered animals in science
Post-doctoral scholar, Elisabeth Ormandy, and colleagues in the Animal Welfare Program and at the Canadian Council on Animal Care recently published two articles on the use of genetically-engineered animals in research. The first article describes public attitudes towards animal research, and the effects of invasiveness, genetic engineering, and regulation. The second article described the views […]
Plenary presentation on animal suffering
The Animal Welfare Program’s Dan Weary gave a plenary presentation at the 47th Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology. Dan’s presentation was entitled ‘A new science of animal suffering’. Click here to read more about the ideas presented.
A good life for lab animals?
Most discussion on the welfare of laboratory animals focuses on harm reduction, including methods of handling and euthanasia that are less likely to cause pain or distress. UBC researchers are now trying to change the focus to what constitutes “a good life” for lab animals. This week Dan Weary delivered the Keynote Address on this […]