Abstracts: Facial action units, activity and time spent with dam are effective measures of pain in response to mulesing of Merino lambs

Repeatable measures of pain in ruminants following husbandry procedures are required to validate responses to pain relief. This study tested the hypotheses that facial action units, activity and time spent with dam can be used to assess the efficacy of pain relief in lambs following mulesing.

Continue Reading
Picture: Sam Fraser-Smith

In dingoes, colour is critical

The widely held belief is that the coats of pure dingoes are ginger in colour and any variations are indicative of hybrid animals with domestic dog genetics in their ancestry.             This idea has been challenged in a collaborative study involving 1325 wild canids across south-eastern NSW, that was published recently in the Journal of Zoology. Researchers found […]

Continue Reading

Abstracts: Pre-slaughter factors linked to variation in responses to carbon dioxide gas stunning in pig abattoirs

The stunning process is an important component of slaughter with implications for animal welfare due to the potential distress and pain in the case of a sub-effective or lengthy stun. This study examined the factors correlated with variation in responses to carbon dioxide (CO2) stunning of pigs in five Australian commercial abattoirs. A total of […]

Continue Reading

Vet ethics: Painlessly killing versus herbivorising predators

Some philosophers interested in animal ethics have lately been turning their attention to the problem of wild animal suffering. Most of us would agree that we have duties to prevent or limit suffering in animals under our care. But do we have similar duties to animals in the wild?  This is a controversial idea. Yet […]

Continue Reading