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Category: Animal Welfare ×
Bites haven't be an unavoidable part of veterinary work
More than 2,300 dog and cat bites were reported across a veterinary network of over 1,000 clinics in the UK and Ireland between January 2024 and October 2025.
US animal welfare policy: new federal measures focus on dogs and research while farm animals remain largely outside the framework
The Trump administration has announced what USDA calls a “new era of animal welfare”, combining stronger enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act for dogs with federal measures…
Welfare of Beef Cattle: EFSA Prioritizes Shortcomings and Areas for Action
An opinion from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) identifies the main risk factors for the welfare of beef cattle in Europe: hard flooring, limited access to water, an u...
Anxious Dogs in Shelters: Behavior Therapy Upon Arrival Reduces Stress More Quickly Without Delaying Adoption
An American study settles a recurring debate in animal welfare: Should dogs arriving at a shelter be given time to adjust, or should they undergo immediate behavioral rehabilita...
New Biomarkers to Better Perform Welfare Assessment on Wild Animals
An article presents a major advance in the welfare assessment of animals in both wildlife and captive populations. It promotes more accurate, non-invasive biomedical methods to...
Playing with a dog for 15 minutes reduces stress in both humans and dogs
Saliva and fecal tests showed that dogs’ cortisol levels were lower one week after spending time with a human, and that students’ self-reported stress levels decreased by 33.5%...
Anthropocentrism, anthropomorphism, speciesism: Beware of confusion!
Anthropocentrism—understood as the preference given to humans in a world they are free to exploit as they see fit—tends to clash with a concept that has become increasingly prev...
Hypertype in Dogs: Dutch Breeder Sentenced
A French bulldog breeder was fined €3,000 for selecting breeding dogs with noses that were too short, resulting in puppies that suffered from severe breathing difficulties, even...
Animal welfare… let's talk about the animal welfare instead
The conditions under which animals are raised for human consumption are a major source of controversy in society . Some call for an end to all animal farming, while others insis...
Does organic farming ensure better animal welfare for farm animals?
On June 30, 2021, the European Commission responded positively to the 1.4 million citizens who signed the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) “End the Cage Age , ” announcing th...
Welfare of Laying Hens: A New Challenge for Veterinarians
Veterinarians at the forefront of the transition toward more sustainable farming practices that respect the welfare of laying hens—that is the goal of the Federation of European...
Endangered Species: How YouTube Encourages the Trade in Exotic Animals
The unsustainable trade in wild species is growing exponentially, largely due to its widespread accessibility via the Internet. Access to social media has upended the rules of w...
City noise affects health and birdsong
Urban traffic noise causes learning deficits and delays in young birds. These birds also have weakened immune systems, a sign of chronic stress. Traffic noise is ubiquitous in o...
Prenatal stress affects anxiety-related behavior and the well-being of sows
Sows that experience prenatal stress are more anxious as adults, and when they become mothers themselves, they are less maternal toward their offspring. This finding has implica...
Better Detection of Pain in Donkeys to Improve Their Well-Being
People say donkeys are stubborn, but veterinarians prefer to describe them as stoic. In fact, they are very good at hiding their pain, which contributes to delays in detecting t...
Boxers: Dogs with Serious Heart Conditions
Boxers are prone to a rapidly progressive hereditary heart disease that is often diagnosed too late to be treated effectively. However, the discovery of a physiological biomarke...
Training through punishment compromises a dog’s well-being
Dogs trained using aversive stimuli become more anxious and stressed, according to a new study. If the training method relies on frequent punishment, this distressed state persi...
Retirement and End of Life Care for Equines: How Can We Meet Future Needs?
Despite a current trend toward a declining horse population, the growing popularity of horse riding in the 1990s and 2000s led to an increase in France’s equine population. Now...
Well-being: Brachycephalic dogs suffer from more health conditions
While flat-faced or brachycephalic dogs are very popular, they often suffer from serious respiratory, eye, digestive, and skin conditions that result in a reduced quality of lif...
Slower-growing chickens enjoy better well-being
A new independent study shows that slower-growing broiler chickens are healthier and have a better quality of life than breeds that grow more quickly to meet the demands of the...
Predicting and Preventing Fractures in Racehorses
A study of the skeletons of various horses shows that racehorses are not adequately prepared for the extreme mechanical stresses they endure during a race. The resulting injurie...
Cows' social networks: A Key Factor in Their Health and Well-Being
To date, our understanding of social connections and bonds among cows remains limited. However, these connections are believed to have a significant impact on the animals’ healt...
Relieving Post-Traumatic Stress in Dogs
Everyone is familiar, in one way or another, with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in humans, but did you know that your four-legged companions can also suffer from it? The...
Drones and Artificial Intelligence to the Rescue of Birds in Agricultural Settings
Ground nests of birds in rural areas are vulnerable to agricultural activities and machinery that plow fields every spring. Researchers have developed a new system that, when pa...