Thinking and communicating about farm animal welfare: "de-polarizing" stakeholder views and why this matters, by Dr. Beth Ventura, University of Minnesota

Thinking and communicating about farm animal welfare: "de-polarizing" stakeholder views and why this matters, by Dr. Beth Ventura

Dr. Beth Ventura received her BSc and MSc in Animal Sciences at Michigan State University and University of Maryland, College Park (respectively) before moving to Canada to complete her PhD in the Animal Welfare Program at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Ventura is currently an Assistant Teaching Professor of Animal Behavior and Welfare at the University of Minnesota (UMN) in the US, where she teaches a number of applied ethology, welfare, and ethics courses to undergraduate and post-graduate students and coaches UMN’s animal welfare judging team. As an animal welfare scientist, she applies mixed research approaches toward the improvement of captive animal welfare. Her applied interests include the assessment of environmental enrichment on behavioral outcomes and the assessment and relief of pain in livestock animals. She is also interested in the translation of animal welfare science into practice, and to that end employs social science approaches to map stakeholder attitudes and values around animal welfare in a range of captive contexts.

In this talk, Dr. Ventura will visit some of the exciting research approaches uncovering how important groups like veterinarians, veterinary students, farmers, and the public perceive priorities and barriers to improving animal welfare, and the lessons within that point toward resolution of these challenges.