Animal Welfare Assessment

This course is intended to cover the animal welfare assessment requirements as outlined in the ACAW guidelines for board certification but also allows any students pursuing the master's program to improve their welfare assessment abilities. Students must participate in assessment of Companion animals, Poultry production, Hooved stock production, Equids, Laboratory animals and Zoo animals. They must also choose at least 2 to assess from the following: Aquatic animals, aquaculture/fisheries, Wildlife/exotic animals, Animals in exhibitions/entertainment, Animals in education, and Working/assistant animals. Students will work on 3 assessments per week for a total of 9 assessments. The final week of the course will be dedicated to working on case studies from the student's own experience. This will include identification of a situation where welfare would need to be assessed, determination of how to assess the welfare of the animal(s) and a written report of the assessment, including recommendations for steps that could be instituted so that the welfare could be improved. Each week a video and reading assignments will familiarize students with assessment techniques and tools. 6 Credit Hours