News about Animals

Ethicists’ commentary on humane killing of healthy surplus animals

Ethical question of the month, March 2022 The Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA) position statement on the Care of Neonatal Calves on Dairy Farms states that euthanasia/humane killing of surplus calves is th…

Ethicists’ commentary on treating animals without payment or without owners

Ethical question of the month, February 2022 You manage a multi-doctor practice in a low-income area of a city. You have accepted many animals that have been hit by cars; however, these animals are never claimed, or…

Estimating the Population of Unowned Free-Ranging Domestic Cats in Denmark

This study estimated the size of the population of unowned free-ranging domestic cats and their distribution in Denmark using a combination of questionnaires and GPS tracking

Ethicist’s commentary on use of Ventilation Shut Down

Ethical question of the month, December 2021 Ventilation Shut Down (VSD) and VSD 1 (the plus is the addition of heat or CO2) is a mass depopulation method employed in barns in “constrained circumstances” by the poultry…

Market driven initiatives can improve broiler welfare – A comparison across five European countries

Market driven initiatives can have a strong impact on improving broiler welfare, building on those standards achieved by animal welfare legislation.

Insect wingbeats will help quantify biodiversity

Insect populations are plummeting worldwide, with major consequences for our ecosystems and without us quite knowing why. A new AI method from the University of Copenhagen is set to help monitor and catalogue insect…

Positive animal welfare: Bridging the gap or raising inequalities worldwide?

This paper takes a comparative approach to the ways animals are kept in various parts of the world, and highlights the opportunities and potential barriers to promote positive animal welfare in a global context.

After thousands of years, an iconic whale confronts a new enemy

The iconic tusked whale of the Arctic has a new enemy – noise. A unique study from the University of Copenhagen and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources shows that narwhals are highly affected by noise from ship…

New phenomenon: Forest mammals eavesdrop on messy monkeys

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have discovered a unique phenomenon among forest mammals – eavesdropping. Their study demonstrates that various animal species depend on one another in more ways than ever…

Tigers end their days in high-pressure cookers

Thousands of tigers, bred on farms like pigs and raised in basements, end up in high-pressure cookers, where their bones are dissolved and transformed into traditional medicine. University of Copenhagen researchers are…

Colleague suspected of illegal behavior

Ethical question of the month, September 2021 You provide regular 1 day per week locum services to a solo small animal veterinarian. You receive a call from the Registrar of the provincial veterinary regulator. With no…

Zebrafish reproduction affected by plastic particles in the aquatic environment

Plastic nanoparticles cause mild inflammation, disrupt metabolic pathways, change the gut microbiota and affect reproduction in zebrafish.

Veterinarians’ course of treatment based on financial concerns

Ethical question of the month, August 2021 You are an employee of a veterinary hospital with strict billing protocols. If a treatment is deemed necessary to avoid unnecessary suffering or death then an estimate is…

Depopulating healthy university animals

Ethical question of the month, July 2021 A veterinarian has a long-term contract with the animal care committee of a university in good standing with the Canadian Council of Animal Care (CCAC). He was informed by an…

Taking up red nanoplastic particles and showing green neutrophils

Our new Zeiss V8 stereo microscope have captured the red nanoplastic particles taken up by the zebrafish and the Artemia.

Surprised researchers: Number of leopards in northern China on the rise

Most of the world’s leopards are endangered and generally, the number of these shy and stunning cats is decreasing. However, according to a recent study by a researcher from University of Copenhagen and colleagues from…

Ethical management of wildlife. Lethal versus nonlethal control of white-tailed deer

By C. Gamborg, P. Sandøe, & C. Palmer (2020). Conservation Science and Practice. Wiley. Abstract Calls for ethical management of wildlife in the international conservation com- munity are increasing. However, it is not…

Bad behaviour isn’t what leads dog and cat owners to relinquish their pets

Bad behaviour isn’t what leads dog and cat owners to relinquish their little Fido or Daisy to the animal shelter. On the contrary, relinquishing a pet is often due to an owner’s poor health, housing problems or a lack o…

Benchmarking Farm Animal Welfare — A Novel Tool for Cross-Country Comparison Applied to Pig Production and Pork Consumption

To enable cross-country comparisons of pig welfare, a number of welfare dimensions, covering the features typically modified in legislative and market-driven welfare initiatives aimed at pig production, were defined.

Insects, the new experimental animals of gastrointestinal research

Flour beetles are the new experimental animals in a study of how parasites affect gut bacteria. Experiments on insects are both cheap and fast, according to a University of Copenhagen researcher.

Researchers go cuckoo: Antarctic penguins release an extreme amount of laughing gas

In a new study, researchers from the University of Copenhagen have demonstrated that penguins in Antarctica emit copious amounts of nitrous oxide via their feces. So much so, that the researchers went "cuckoo" from bein…

Benchmarking farm animal welfare – Ethical considerations when developing a tool for cross-country comparison

A tool enabling animal welfare to be benchmarked across countries would make it possible to monitor and compare the status of animal welfare at both disaggregated and aggregated levels.

Examining compliance with ethical standards for animal research - is there a need for refinement?

- a qualitative study from northern Europe By A. Brønstad & P. Sandøe (2019) Laboratory Animals. SAGE Journals. Abstract Ethical guidelines for research on animals such as the 3Rs (Replacing, Reducing, Refining) and…

Animal Welfare Reconsidered - special open access issue of the journal Animal Welfare

This special issue of Animal Welfare, Vol 28, No. 1, February 2019, published by Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW), is edited by D. M. Weary, P. Sandøe, & M. C. Appleby.