Since the centre’s early initial focus on farm and laboratory animals (which continues as a research strength today), CCSAW faculty have broadened to study fish, horses, wild animals and species kept as pets, along with a wider range of topics including positive well-being (no longer just welfare problems), animal personality, animal sentience, factors shaping human behaviour and attitudes to animals, and many others.
Faculty members’ departmental webpages describe their diverse specific research interests and ongoing projects. Several CCSAW faculty have won prizes and distinctions for their animal welfare research; and their projects and graduate students are funded by a range of sources.
Research outputs
The research of CCSAW faculty and graduate students generates a large number of publications on animal welfare, care and related topics. These are used widely by other researchers and graduate students around the world, and also inform animal care and welfare policies in Canada and elsewhere.
Journal publications
In 2022 alone, CCSAW members published nearly 100 peer-reviewed papers on animal welfare, and our welfare research outputs were cited 9,000 times!
You can find a comprehensive, up-to-date list of most of CCSAW’s animal welfare science papers on Google Scholar. Some of our classic, most highly cited past papers include:
The notion of ethological ‘need’, models of motivation and animal welfare, Animal Behaviour, Hughes, B. O., and Duncan, I. J. H.
Can fish suffer? Perspectives on sentience, pain, fear and stress, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Chandroo, K. P., Duncan, I. J., and Moccia, R. D.
Effect of feeding space on the inter-cow distance, aggression, and feeding behavior of free-stall housed lactating dairy cows, Journal of Dairy Science, DeVries, T. J., Von Keyserlingk, M. A. G., and Weary, D. M.
Behavioural indicators of cow comfort: activity and resting behaviour of dairy cows in two types of housing, Canadian Journal of Animal Science, Haley, D. B., Rushen, J., and Passillé, A. D.
Stereotypies: a critical review, Animal Behaviour, Mason, G. J.
Captivity effects on wide-ranging carnivores, Nature, Mason, G. and Clubb, R.
Why and how should we use environmental enrichment to tackle stereotypic behaviour?, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Mason, G., Clubb, R., Latham, N., and Vickery, S.
Identifying and preventing pain in animals, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Weary, D. M., Niel, L., Flower, F. C., and Fraser, D.
Books by Core and Associated Faculty
Stereotypic Behaviour in Captive Animals: Fundamentals and Applications to Welfare (second edition), CAB International, 2006, Edited by Georgia Mason and Jeff Rushen
Entertaining Elephants: Animal Agency and the Business of the American Circus Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013 Susan Nance
Animal Modernity: Jumbo the Elephant and the Human Dilemma Houndmills, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015, Susan Nance
The Historical Animal Syracuse University Press, 2015, edited by Susan Nance
Rodeo: An Animal History University of Oklahoma Press, 2020, by Susan Nance
Ranching and the American West: A History in Documents Broadview Press, 2021, Edited by Susan Nance
Bellwether Histories: Animals, Humans and US Environments in Crisis
University of Washington Press, 2023, Edited by Susan Nance and Jennifer Marks
Fraser’s The Behaviour of the Horse (third edition)
CABI, Edited b y Christopher B. Riley, Sharon E. Cregier and Andrew F. Fraser, 2022
Laboratory Animal Welfare
Elsvier, 2013, Edited by K. Bayne and Pat V. Turner
Harkness and Wagner’s Biology and Medicine of Rabbits and Rodents (sixth edition)
Wiley-Blackwell, Edited by Pat V. Turner, C.L. Wheler, H. Beaufreres, J. Harkness, 2010
Animal Welfare: Laboratory Animal Medicine (fourth edition)
Academic Press, 2023, Edited by K. Bayne, D. Hickman, J. Mench, L. Meunier, Pat V. Turner, J. Werner
Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, National Acamdeic Press, 2010
Janet C. Garber, Pat V. Turner and 12 co-authors
Theses and Dissertations
Find all CCSAW-affiliated theses and dissertations by our Masters and PhD students in The Atrium.
Research prizes and distinctions won by CCSAW Faculty
British Society for Animal Science/RSPCA Joint Award for Innovative Developments in Animal Welfare, Georgia Mason
International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE) Creativity Award, Georgia Mason
Johns Hopkins/Charles River Excellence in Refinement Award, Georgia Mason
Metacam Bovine Welfare Award, Trevor DeVries, Todd Duffield and Charlotte Winder
Poultry Science Association Welfare Research Award, Alexandra Harlander and Tina Widowski
UFAW Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Animal Welfare Science, Ian Duncan and Georgia Mason
