Ryann McCready
MSc Student
Dairy Cattle
About
Like many fellow animal lovers, I had always dreamed about becoming a veterinarian to help animals. I grew up with 3 cats and a dog (literally grew up with them, my dog lived until 14 and two of my cats lived to be 18 and 19!). However, working as a veterinary assistant throughout my undergrad convinced me that a career as a veterinarian wasn’t in the cards for me. I was lucky enough to complete my bachelor’s here at UBC in Applied Animal Biology, in which I took APBI 398 (Research Methods in Applied Biology). This was my first true exposure to research and also where I developed an interest in research and helping animals in a slightly less conventional route.
Since taking APBI 398, I was lucky enough to start getting involved in and experience how incredible the AWP program at UBC is. I volunteered with a Master’s student on one of her projects working on refining euthanasia practices for laboratory mice and presented at MURC on this project. I also started attending the weekly lab meetings (in which everyone was incredibly welcoming) and then completed a directed studies looking at hemorrhagic bowel syndrome in dairy cattle. All of these experiences led to my pursuing a Master’s degree in Applied Animal Biology here at UBC: there was no other animal welfare program I wanted to belong to more.
I started my MSc. in September 2024 and am looking at both the welfare of dairy cows and calves in foster systems and fence-line weaning in dairy cow-calf contact systems.