Overview

The 2020 - 2021 academic year was a time of much growth and change for the Centre for Animal Welfare (CAW). The centre, and the entire animal welfare world, sadly lost one of its champions in 2021. Visiting Prof. Bernard Rollin passed away after an exemplary career. He was an American philosopher, and also Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Animal Sciences, and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. Considered the ‘father of veterinary medical ethics’, Prof. Rollin also co-wrote the 1982 US federal laws giving protection to animals used in research. He published more than 20 books, hundreds of scholarly articles, and lectured more than 1500 times internationally. His intellectually provocative and sometimes humorous presentations and discussions were both unforgettable and inspiring. Prof. Rollin was a valued colleague and member of our Centre, and is sorely missed. However, we were joined by seven other excellent permanent and visiting faculty members, and by additional postgraduate research students, who are already providing many valuable contributions highlight in the following. Additionally, our two existing animal welfare degrees continued to thrive in 2021 – 2022. After six years of successful operation and growth, both our BA (Hons) Animal Welfare and Society, and our MSc. Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law were revalidated for another six year term. The latter was renamed very slightly to MSc. Animal Welfare, Behaviour, Ethics and Law, from 2022 – 2023, reflecting its significant inclusion of animal behaviour. Additionally, our new BSc (Hons) Animal Science and Conservation was validated, and will accept its first students in 2022 - 2023. This degree focuses on animal welfare, behaviour and conservation, and following the strong success of our 100% distance learning MSc, will also be entirely distance learning.

Our students and faculty continued to be extremely active in their research and knowledge exchange (RKE) activities in support of animal welfare, with the CAW remaining one of Winchester’s most active RKE centres. CAW members and students published at least two key reports, 11 academic articles and book chapters, and 42 popular articles, blogs and letters on the Animal Sentience Bill and legislative efforts to protect animals, the animal welfare and environmental impacts of intensive farming, the decline of UK wildlife – notably birds, rewilding and species reintroductions – notably wolves, and vegan diets for companion animals and humans. Some of these attracted much attention within their fields. A study on vegan dog health outcomes by myself, Dr Brown et al., attracted worldwide attention, being reported in over 400 news outlets globally, in multiple languages.

Visiting veterinary Prof. Luke Gamble was one of seven permanent and visiting faculty members to join us in 2021 - 2022. He is CEO of charities Worldwide Veterinary Service (WVS) and Mission Rabies. Dr Steven McCulloch was invited to act as head of research for the Conservative Animal Welfare

Foundation (CAWF) in 2022, publishing reports on animal slaughtering and sow farrowing crates as described in the following. Centre members also worked hard producing key new textbooks. Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature Friendly Future, authored by Prof. Lymbery, and the Routledge Handbook of Animal Welfare edited by myself, Prof. Sparks, et al., are both expected to make major contributions to their fields. They will feature in next year’s report. Additionally, CAW members delivered at least 32 external presentations, many of them as plenary, keynote or invited lectures, at universities and conferences internationally, including the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Within the premiere annual public lecture series at Cambridge, my own invited presentation on vegan petfood was most attended of 2022, with the recording attracting many thousands of views. The CAW also hosted a public webinar on ‘Representing other animals in politics’, with Animal Welfare Party councillor Jane Smith and myself. Recordings of all CAW events continue to attract further views on the CAW YouTube channel www. rebrand.ly/caw-channel. CAW students also excelled this year. MSc students Kate Affleck and Eleanor Goodchild successfully published essays within the University’s student journal Alfred. Winchester has 8,000+ students, but only 15 essays were selected for publication. Hence, these are some of the very best produced at Winchester. Charlotte Smith also won not only the 2021 CAW/IFAW Essay Competition, but also the 2022 CAW/CIWF Essay Competition with our partner organisations the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Compassion in World Farming (CIWF). Such a double success is extremely unusual. Our postgraduate research students also published several academic articles based on their work, with details following. We are extremely proud of these successes, but not surprised – our students have repeatedly achieved such successes previously, demonstrating that we have some of the University’s best students in our animal welfare programmes. Selected examples of our work are highlighted in the following. However, much additional fine work exists. I remain very grateful for the support of our academics and students, administrative staff, and the various faculties, departments and others who have supported us all. These successes would not have been possible without their support. Prof. Andrew Knight, Director, Centre for Animal Welfare

Visiting Prof. Bernard Rollin passed away in 2021. He was an internationally-renowned champion of animal welfare, and is sorely missed.