YOUR DONATIONS ARE MAKING A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE
Because of your ongoing support, the UBC Animal Welfare Program is able to conduct landmark research that improves the welfare of animals in real-world situations.
Here are some examples of how your donations are making a world of difference in the lives of:
Companion Animals || Research Animals || Farm Animals || Wildlife Animals
COMPANION ANIMALS
Nadine Gourkow, M.Sc. (UBC)
Factors Affecting the Welfare and Adoption Rate of Cats in Animal Shelters
Donor support of the UBC Animal Welfare Program was instrumental in advancing Nadine Gourkow’s seminal research on reducing stress in shelter animals. Nadine’s concern for the plight of adult shelter cats guided her scientific investigation.
Many cats are under stress as they await adoption. This affects their behaviour and makes them less appealing to potential adopters. The end result is that many are euthanized. Nadine modified housing and handling such that cats could express more of their natural behaviours. Her study established that these evidence-based protocols for handling and housing shelter cats improved adoption rates by 30%. As a result, her care recommendations are quickly becoming the standard. They are used by humane societies across Canada and the United States and are increasingly in use in New Zealand, Holland, and the U.K.
Nadine has gone on to work in the Animal Welfare sector where her research has garnered her organization a $50,000 grant from the Vancouver Foundation and additional support from the Summerlee Foundation. With this funding she has been able to further train caregivers in management practices and develop and distribute "Cat Sense” materials such as the "Hide, Perch, and Go" shelter box, the "Emotional Life of Cats" Video/DVD, and a 65 page Training Manual
Click here to watch a short demonstration video of the "Hide Perch & Go" box.
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RESEARCH ANIMALS
Lee Niel, Ph.D. (UBC)
Assessment of distress associated with carbon dioxide euthanasia of laboratory rats
Joanna Makowska, M.Sc. (UBC)
Alternatives to carbon dioxide euthanasia for laboratory rats
Many millions of animals are used in laboratory research every year. In Canada approximately 2 million animals (primarily rats and mice) are used in medical research, product development and testing, and education every year. All these test animals are eventually euthanized.
The most common method of euthanasia of laboratory rodents is exposure to carbon dioxide gas. However, there is increasing debate amongst animal welfare scientists as to whether this method of euthanasia is humane.
A scholarship generously donated by the Charles River Laboratories Foundation and Annual Donations has enabled an AWP research team to investigate this concern. The reactions rats to non-lethal levels carbon dioxide have been carefully analyzed and suggest that the animals experience distress when exposed to the gas. Choice experiments show rats consistently avoid exposure to carbon dioxide over a certain concentration. These striking results have made an immediate and compelling case for the re-evaluation of this euthanasia method as a humane practice. Results have been presented at the International consensus meeting on carbon dioxide euthanasia of laboratory animals in Newcastle, England, and to industry research and policy development representatives from Canada, Europe, the UK and the US.
Our research team is now conducting trials that test rat responses to alternate gasses that may prove more humane. The establishment of humane euthanasia protocols will have a direct effect on the welfare of millions of animals. It is with the dedication and philanthropic action of our donors that the UBC Animal Welfare Program this kind of landmark research.
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FARM ANIMALS
Dr. Dan Weary, Ph.D. (Oxford), Dr. Nina von Keyserlingk, Ph.D. (UBC) & Dairy Research students
The UBC Dairy Education and Research Centre has received national and international recognition as a leader in international dairy cattle research. The Centre encompasses a state-of-the-art Feed-Intake Research building, Heifer Research building, and the Westgen Calf Research Facility. Here faculty, students, visiting scholars and affiliate researchers study housing and management practices. Their findings have improved the care and treatment of dairy cows locally and internationally.
Some examples include:
Improvement of welfare and housing for dairy cows by:
- Developing on-farm methods of detecting lameness
- Using biomechanical techniques to objectively analyze cow gait
- Determining the relationship between environmental factors, such as flooring surface, and lameness;
- Improving feed bunk design and management
- Improving cow comfort: free stall design and management
- Using feeding behaviour as an early predictor of disease
- Developing group housing strategies
- Improving methods of feeding milk to calves
- Minimizing stress during weaning
- Optimizing age of separation from the dam
- Minimizing pain and distress at dehorning
Core facilities were built through the support of Westgen, Arntgen North America, Artex Fabricators Ltd., CanArm/BSM Agri. Products and DeLaval.
The above research is made possible through ongoing monthly and annual donations to the Animal Welfare Program and planned individual and corporate gifts towards the establishment of a permanent Chair in Animal Welfare.
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WILDLIFE ANIMALS
Anna Drake, M.Sc. (UBC)
Care of orphaned mallard ducklings brought into care at wildlife rehabilitation centres
Amelia MacRae, M.Sc. (UBC)
Improving husbandry of orphaned harbour seal pups at rehabilitation centres
Anna Drake (M.Sc. 2007) and Amelia MacRae (M.Sc. 2009), UBC Animal Welfare research scholars, greatly appreciated the support given to their research through The Marion Judith Madsen Memorial Scholarship in Animal Welfare. Marion Judith Madsen, born in 1949 and raised in Vancouver, volunteered for over ten years doing home care of orphaned and baby animals so that they could be released back to the wild. As Marion was unable to attend university herself, this scholarship endowed in her memory by her husband, Gregory P. Madsen, is provided to help others continue their studies and thereby benefit the animals that she so loved. The award is given annually to candidates studying wildlife and wildlife ecosystems.
Anna Drake has also cultivated a lifelong passion for wild animals, having spent summers working in wildlife rehabilitation industry while studying for a BSc in ecology and evolution. Welfare concerns for mallards are many as they are among the most commonly orphaned bird species brought to rehabilitators and experience high mortality rates in care. Anna’s MSc work has improved care protocols for orphaned mallard ducklings (Anas platyrynchos) brought to wildlife rehabilitation facilities. One of her studies has established criteria that enable rehabilitators to identify and provide appropriate birds that are at risk of dying.
Amelia MacRae has extensive experience with captive wild animals through her work at the Calgary Zoo and as an assistant marine mammal trainer at the Vancouver Aquarium. The Marion Judith Madsen Memorial Scholarship supported her research into improving diets and care for orphaned harbour seal pups that are admitted to wildlife rehabilitators during the summer months.
The positive impact this scientific research is having on these species is a direct testament to the philanthropic actions of the Madsen family.
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Anton Pitts M.Sc. (UBC)
The effects of eco-tourism on grizzly bears
One of the hallmarks of the UBC Animal Welfare Program is its emphasis on partnership and its capacity to address the needs and interests of industry and community organizations. Making science based evidence accessible to industry and community organizations advances the interests of all concerned with improving the lives of animals.
In response to the expressed needs of the BC Parks Service, Mountain Equipment Co op and Annual Donations provided the funding for UBC Animal Welfare scholar and researcher Anton Pitts to investigate the effects of eco-tourism on the well-being of grizzly bears.
Moving deep into grizzly territory in the Khutzeymateen/ K'tzim-a-deen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary in Northern B.C. (the first area within BC established to protect the grizzly bear and its habitat), Anton Pitts and his research assistant camped for weeks at a time and carefully monitored, documented, and analyzed the behaviour patterns of bears when tourists were and were not present.
Of significant interest to the B.C. Parks Service, was the science-based evidence concluding that the current level of tourist presence in the area has little effect on the bears’ overall behavior patterns or activities. These results have been central in forming the current guidelines and regulations within the Park Service’s purview to safeguard the grizzly bear and its habitat.
This research illustrates one of the many successes derived from the Animal Welfare Program’s cooperation with animal welfare stakeholders.
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