04:35
Plant-based pet foods are rapidly developing, driven by distrust of conventional pet foods, and concerns about their impacts on pets, farmed animals, and the environment. But are plant-based pet foods nutritionally sound? Do consumers really need to be worried about conventional pet foods? Our recent study explored in detail, steps taken by pet food manufacturers to ensure the nutritional sound...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
06:03
Thousands of alternatives to harmful animal use are now available. Why, then, are well over 100,000 animals used annually for educational purposes, within the EU alone? To find the answers, we studied the publicly available summaries of scientific and educational animal use in EU member states. The most common reasons provided by educators for not using humane alternatives, were: 1) the perceiv...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
01:05:12
Updated 2/2/2022 to fix interruption in live stream which has had 1422 views and 46 likes to date.
Andrew Knight is Professor of Animal Welfare and Ethics, and Founding Director of the University of Winchester Centre for Animal Welfare, and Adjunct Professor in the School of Environment and Science at Griffith University, Queensland. An experienced cat and dog veterinarian, he's also a Europea...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
05:47
Vegan dog food is less damaging to the environment, and to the welfare of animals processed into pet foods. But – are vegan diets good for dogs? To test this, we collected data on 2,536 dogs fed a conventional meat (1,370 = 54%), raw meat (830 = 33%) or vegan (336 = 13%) diet for at least one year. We examined seven general indicators of ill health: unusual numbers of veterinary visits, medicat...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
04:12
Over 70 billion chickens are slaughtered globally each year. Almost all are meat breeds, typically housed in very large barns with a litter floor. Recently however, modern cage systems have been developed which provide very limited space and stack several tiers high. There is debate about the impacts of such modern cage systems on chicken welfare. Accordingly, we systematically reviewed studies...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
05:05
We studied 1,369 cats fed vegan or meat-based pet food, for at least one year. Cats fed vegan diets had better health outcomes for each of seven general health indicators studied. Collectively, this represents a strong and consistent trend. Additionally, the prevalence of 22 of the most common feline health disorders was studied. Forty two percent of cats fed meat, and 37% of those fed vegan di...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
05:17
What would the environmental benefits be, if the world’s dogs, cats and people all consumed vegan diets, and how many additional people or pets could be fed with the food energy saved? How much livestock consumption is due to pet food? After analysing pet food ingredients in detail, as well as food consumed by people, I was able to calculate these benefits. They are game-changingly large. Vegan...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
04:08
Cell-based seafood is produced by taking cells from live sea creatures and cultivating them in appropriate growth media in bioreactors. Identical to conventional tissue at the DNA level, cell-based products appear to be safe for human consumption and might present a viable alternative to wild-caught or farm-raised seafood in the near future. This might take pressure off aquatic ecosystems and m...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
04:29
Most new and emerging human diseases come from animal populations, and among these, viruses - especially influenza viruses - are the most dangerous. Viral transmission and mortality can be very high. Influenza pandemics have previously killed many millions of people. Pigs and poultry are readily infected and can transmit disease to people. Intensive pig and poultry farms include large animal gr...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
04:35
Chickens may be the third most common pet in many countries; however, little is known about their welfare status or the human–chicken relationship. Hence, using 2000+ questionnaire responses, this study collected the most comprehensive and holistic dataset to date on owners’ care-taking practices, owners’ attitudes towards chickens, the human–chicken relationship, and challenges regarding chick...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
07:48
This study summarises a systematic review of 42 pieces of scientific literature, including virtually all animal welfare studies of captive tigers within circuses and zoos, published by 2023. After analysing the effects on each of the recognised five domains of animal welfare: nutrition, physical environment, health, behaviour and mental state, it was clear that circuses threaten the welfare of ...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025
04:45
Control methods are applied worldwide to reduce predation on livestock by European red foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Lethal methods are intended to kill foxes and can inflict suffering. Non-lethal methods can also inflict suffering and can unintentionally lead to death. Moral debate about the animal welfare and ethical consequences of both methods is lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate t...
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2025