Saturday, July 19, 2014

Cats playing in the snow and learning resources in animal welfare science, ethics and law

Mio the cat enjoys the snow.
After a small working tour of Italy and England (very select bits of both), SAT has now returned to our home headquarters in Sydney where its 9 degrees Celsius (I know our European friends will be laughing at us, but this is c-c-cold!).

One of the unexpected highlights of the trip was meeting Dr Christine Leeb from the Institute of Livestock Sciences, Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Austria.

Aside from talking about animal welfare research in general the discussion turned to companion animals. Dr Leeb shares her life with two cats that she describes as three-quarters “organic farmhouse cat”, one quarter Maine Coon. The brother (Mio, the grey prince, named after a famous Astrid Lindgren story) and sister (Zora, named after a character in the children’s book “Die Rote Zora”) are a stunning pair who enjoy playing in snow when it happens to be around.

Littermate Zora is also a fan of snow.
If you’ve not yet enrolled in the University of Edinburgh’s introductory course on animal welfare, it’s well worth it (especially since it is free).

You can sign up here.

Zora can jump in the snow too.
On the animal welfare theme, AWSELVA, the Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law Veterinary Association, is an organisation with membership open to vets but also others working in animal welfare science, ethics and law fields. Click here for more info.

If you don’t think birds are clever, this video might change your view. It shows a crow behaving very intelligently – or at least in a way that impresses humans. Check this out.

FINALLY I need to announce that our David Attenborough Giveaway Winners have been selected but the announcement is slightly delayed and will be made on Monday. Thank you to everyone who entered!