Animal welfare
Project aim
To make two key academic appointments which will consolidate Bristol's leading role in implementing viable strategies that both improve animal lives and promote human development.
Target
£2 million.
Recognising significant support
Naming academic posts.
Empathy towards animals has no frontiers. All humans have a right to care compassionately for the animals they depend upon.
Christine Nicol
Professor of Animal Welfare
Bristol’s Animal Welfare research already informs national and international policy. Additional funding will drive forward the improved treatment of animals, with attendant human benefits, throughout the world.
Importance
Farm animals, horses and donkeys are key to human economic development in many regions of the world. Even in poverty, humans care greatly for the animals they depend upon but poor understanding of animal welfare can limit development projects, and lead to animal suffering and environmental damage.
In Western societies too, living with animals can make us healthier and happier but 'silent suffering' can go unnoticed as animals struggle to adapt to our modern lifestyles.
Impact
Bristol University is famous for its work in Animal Welfare and plays a key role in steering the national agenda in what is becoming a very important, rapidly growing area of research. The group is also regarded as a major player throughout the world.
Human Development and Animal Welfare is one of the fastest-growing areas of work looking to improve animal welfare in parallel with the well-being of humans. However, more research is needed into the complex interactions between human and animal welfare in an international context.
Companion Animal Welfare is also a rapidly-growing area, investigating new ways to assess the welfare of domestic animals and finding strategies to enable pet animals to adapt to the demands of 21st century life.
Goal
Our key aim at this stage is to develop core stability for the group by attracting funding for posts for staff in these two areas that are essential to the continued success of the group. We therefore seek long-term funding for two new posts: a Senior Lectureship in Human Development and Animal Welfare and a Lectureship in Companion Animal Welfare.