Introduction to Animal Welfare

This course will cover the basic principles, history, and application of animal welfare science for multiple species. Over a series of lectures, the complex issue of assessing good versus poor welfare will be addressed. The first few lectures will provide students with the background of this field, as well as key terms which define the assessment methods of animal welfare science. The multifaceted issue of poor versus good welfare will be addressed in a lecture on ethics and sociology. The background lectures will also cover the disparity in the assessment of pain, pleasure, stress, and suffering based on applying physiological versus behavioral measurements. Given the tools provided by the background lectures, the students will then learn about species-specific welfare issues in the subsequent lectures to include swine, poultry, bovine, equine, aquaculture, exotic/zoo animals, lab animals, shelter animals, companion animals and current events. Following each one- hour lecture, the students will engage in an hour of hands-on activities, and debates concerning that weeks topic. Students will also participat e in one wet lab where they will have the opportunity to apply methods of welfare assessment that they have learned in class. 4 Credit Hours