The Animal Guide for Curious Humans

Today we are focussing on one of most intelligent, socially complex, and inspiring animals on the planet; elephants.  While being indigenous to just two continents Africa and Asia, elephants are easily one of the most recognizable mammals on earth.  While mainly living in the wild, for millennia humans have captured elephants for use as labor, for war and most significantly in recent centuries, for entertainment –circuses, zoos or in television and movies.  Thankfully, we are developing a better understanding of and appreciation for these smart, thoughtful creatures, the need to protect them in the wild and to properly care for them when in captivity.  Our guest today is Margaret Whittaker, Executive Director of Wild Welfare U.S., a new American branch of the international organization Wild Welfare based on the United Kingdom.  Margaret has spent many years working with elephants and understanding their habits and behaviour and she shares her knowledge with us today.

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Contact Info: [email protected]

Today we will be exploring some interesting studies relating to the welfare of farmed animals.  As we have discussed before, billions of farmed animals around the world endure significant suffering and inhumane treatment to feed humans, largely in industrial farming. And yet, like other animals, cows, pigs and chickens, are sentient with clearly documented evidence of emotions, personality differences, kinship with others, etc.  For those of us who consume animal products, we can make a real difference in the lives of animals by insisting upon better animal welfare in the human food system.  There are many factors that need to be addressed (nutrition, health, environment, behaviour, and mental state) and much work needs to be done.  And our guest today is one of the people involved.

 Dr. Maria Camila Ceballos Bettancourt, is an assistant professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary in Alberta Canada.  She has a specialization in beef cattle welfare but, as you will hear, she has been involved in a number of really interesting studies involving pigs and chickens also.  She will talk about music and its impact on pigs, the positive benefits of silvopasturing on cattle and how different practices of handling chickens can have a big impact on their welfare.

Links:

 Contact Info: [email protected]

When you think about medicine and animals, what comes to mind?  For a lot of us, we first think of animal testing; clinical trials, lab mice, etc.  But we don’t tend to think so much about the ingredients in our medicines and what animals they come from.  Many common drugs and medicines like blood thinners, treatments for menopause and even vaccines contain pig, horse or chicken byproducts.  In some countries such as several in Asia, some medicines contain products from animals that are endangered such as tigers and rhinos.  Others involve extractions from live animals that can involve considerable pain to animal, damage to its health, and quite horrendous living conditions.  Use of bear bile is one example of this latter category.

 Today, we are going to devote a lot of time to the subject thanks to our guest Dr. Mandala Hunter-Ishikawa.  Mandala is a veterinarian with Animals Asia which is a charity headquartered in Hong Kong that has been working for decades to rescue and rehabilitate bears from the bear bile trade in China and Vietnam.  It aims to end the bear bile trade through awareness, education and rescue efforts.  

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Happy July everyone!  Our guest today is Dr. Heather Bacon, Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Central Lancashire in the United Kingdom.  Heather has worked internationally on veterinary education and animal welfare projects for over 15 years.  Her experience with and interest in animal welfare issues is so extensive it was difficult to decide on which topic to cover with her today.  In the end, we decided to focus mainly on issues of the health and well-being of captive wildlife, specifically those in zoos and aquaria.  

 Heather will talk about the five domains of animal welfare and how they underpin several frameworks around the world for treatment of zoo and aquarium animals.  You may recall I did an episode on that subject almost a year ago.  That episode is called Feeling Groovy – the Five Domains of Animal Welfare.  If you haven’t already done so you may want to check it out.

Heather also makes some compelling comments about importance of human interaction with animals, particularly for animals in zoos and aquaria.  Enjoy!

Links:

https://www.uclan.ac.uk/schools/veterinary-medicine

Recommendations of books, publications:  

Today we are exploring the world of domestic cat behaviour. Chances are either you have a cat in your family or you know someone who does.  There are around 400 million cats in households around the globe.  We humans have long had a fascination with these beautiful creatures dating back to ancient Egypt.  It is estimated that cats have been domestic pets for 12,000 years.  And yet, in many respects, they remain a mystery to us.

 Our guest is going to help us deepen our understanding of cat behaviour.  Nicky Trevorrow, behaviour manager in the Veterinary Department of Cats Protection, the largest UK charity for rescuing and placing cats for adoption.  Nicky’s role at Cats Protection is to implement the charity’s strategy to promote feline behaviour and welfare. She is a registered veterinary nurse. She holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Animal Behaviour. She also undertook an Advanced Diploma in Companion Animal Behaviour Therapy from the Centre of Applied Pet Ethology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Companion Animal Behaviour Counselling from the University of Southampton. Nicky is a full member of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors and a Registered Clinical Animal Behaviourist through the Animal Behaviour & Training Council (ABTC). The ABTC seeks to promote humane practices in animal training and behaviour therapy by setting and maintaining standards of knowledge and skills for practitioners in animal training and behaviour.  We will leave links to those organizations in our show notes if you would like to learn more about them.

 And please check out Cats Protection’s Youtube channel for lots of great content to help you understand the cats in your life.

Links:

Cats.org.uk