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UFAW

UFAW (the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare) , the international animal welfare science society, is a UK registered scientific and educational charity that brings together the animal welfare science community, educators, veterinarians and all concerned about animal welfare worldwide in order to achieve advances in the well-being of farm, companion, laboratory and captive wild animals, and for those animals with which we interact in the wild. UFAW works to improve animals’ lives by:

• Promoting and supporting developments in the science and technology that underpin advances in animal welfare.
• Promoting and supporting education in animal care and welfare.
• Providing information, organising symposia, conferences and meetings, and publishing books, videos, technical reports and the international quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal Animal Welfare.
• Providing expert advice to governments and other bodies and helping to draft and amend laws and guidelines.

UFAW is an independent organisation, and throughout its history its work has primarily been funded by donations, subscriptions and legacies.

UFAW’s philosophy: The importance of science to animal welfare

Ensuring good welfare is about more than ensuring good health. Animal welfare is about the quality of animals' lives: their feelings . It is now widely accepted, although it was not always so, that many species may be sentient - that is, they have the capacity to feel pain and distress, they can suffer and, conversely, be aware of pleasant feelings - and that this matters morally. But how do we assess, from the animal's point of view, what matters to them and how much? UFAW pioneered, and promotes and supports the scientific approach to gaining insight into what matters to animals, assessing their welfare and improving the quality of their lives through practical developments in all aspects of their care. Change for the better depends on knowledge, understanding and practical solutions. UFAW believes that good science can inform, motivate and facilitate that change - whether through developments in professional best practice, education or legislation – by providing a strong evidence base for changing attitudes and practices, and by creating practical and effective solutions to welfare problems.

Supporting animal welfare science: UFAW’s Research and Education Grants and Awards

One of UFAW's priorities is to promote and support high quality science that will lead to substantial advances in animal welfare, and to promote education in animal welfare - particularly at the university and college level. A lack of knowledge and understanding of animals' environmental and psychological needs, and how these can be recognised and met, remains greater than is often assumed. A great deal of both fundamental and applied research remains to be done in these areas. UFAW has supported a wide range of project types, through the following :

• Hume Animal Welfare Research Fellowships
• Research Training Scholarships
• Animal Welfare Student Scholarships
• Small Project and Travel Awards
• Research and Project Awards
• UFAW 3Rs Liaison Group Research Studentships

UFAW: An on-going history of improving animal welfare

In 1926, the University of London Animal Welfare Society (ULAWS) was founded by Major Charles Hume. As its support base amongst academic institutions grew and as more institutions and people came to know about and champion the scientific approach to animal problems that ULAWS stood for, the name of the society was changed, in 1938, to the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW). UFAW’s aims were:

• To enlist the influence of university men and women on behalf of animals, wild and domestic;
• To promote, by educational and other methods, interest in the welfare of animals in Great Britain and abroad;
• To lessen, by methods appropriate to the special character of a university organisation, the pain and fear inflicted on animals by man;
• To obtain and disseminate accurate information relating to animal welfare;
• To further and promote legislation for the protection of animals.

These aims continue to drive UFAW’s work today.

Since its foundation, UFAW has initiated many important advances in animal welfare including the first handbook aimed at improving the care and management of laboratory animals (now on its 7th edition) , the first programme of research on environmental enrichment (in zoo animals) and involvement in the Brambell Committee whose report into the welfare of animals kept under intensive livestock husbandry systems led to the formation of the Farm Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (later Farm Animal Welfare Council – FAWC) and the concept of the Five Freedoms.

Examples of more recent activities include funding of the work, at the University of Bristol, investigating the use of the concept of cognitive bias to assess the subjective emotional state of an animal – pessimistic or optimistic - and hence their welfare . UFAW has also supported work on genetic welfare problems of companion animals and produced a web resource that describes a range of genetic conditions that affect companion animals and which explains their welfare consequences – the impacts on the animals’ quality of life.

Another area of on-going interest is that of the welfare of wild animals, and UFAW established the Garden Bird Health Initiative (GBHi) to develop and publish guidelines about garden birds aimed at maximizing their welfare and conservation. A new strain of avian pox, for example, is an area of developing concern within the UK.

As part of its remit to educate and inform on animal welfare, UFAW has also produced a series of books, in collaboration with Wiley-Blackwell Science, that seek to provide an authoritative source of information on worldwide developments, current thinking and best practice in the field of animal welfare science and technology .

In 1987, the Council Members became also the Trustees of the Humane Slaughter Association (HSA) . The HSA and UFAW are financially independent but have worked closely together for many years to advance farm animal welfare. The HSA works to improve farm animal welfare ‘beyond the farm gate’ - during transport, at markets and at slaughter.

Animals in research - The Three Rs

UFAW originated and supports the principle of the ‘Three R’s’ in the use of animals in scientific procedures.

In 1954 UFAW’s founder, Major Charles Hume, together with other members of UFAW’s Council, wished ‘to see laboratory techniques become more humane for the animals concerned’ and appointed an Oxford zoologist Dr William Russell to undertake a programme of research into this subject. UFAW Research Fellow Dr Russell, along with his laboratory assistant and co-author Rex Burch, published the results of their work in 1959 as ‘The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique’ (reprinted in 1992) . This seminal publication introduced the concept of the ‘Three Rs’ - of Replacement, Reduction and Refinement - which in due course came to be adopted as the guiding principle for the welfare of research animals worldwide . The Three Rs are:

• Replacement - the use of non-animal subjects wherever possible, and research into development and validation of new non-animal research and testing models;
• Reduction - where replacement is not currently possible, the minimising of the number of animals used by, for example, better research design, appropriate statistical methods and use of information databases;
• Refinement - improvement of experimental procedures and aspects of housing and husbandry so as to minimise risks to welfare.

A good deal of UFAW’s work, including the Hume Animal Welfare Research Fellowship, the Animal Welfare Research Training Scholarship and other research grants, the UFAW 3Rs Liaison Group, and participation in working groups, has been focused in areas directly related to promoting the Three Rs . A special edition of UFAW’s Animal Welfare journal devoted to the Three Rs, and including an article by Professor Russell entitled ‘The Three Rs: past, present and future' , was published in 2005 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the project leading to the publication of the book.

UFAW’s journal ‘Animal Welfare’

Animal Welfare is an international scientific and technical journal, first produced by UFAW in 1992. It publishes the results of peer-reviewed scientific research, technical studies and reviews relating to the welfare of kept animals (eg on farms, in laboratories, zoos and as companions) and of those in the wild whose welfare is compromised by human activities. Papers on related ethical and legal issues are also considered for publication. The journal also includes letters to the editor, commentary on topical issues such as developments in legislation and codes of practice relating to animal welfare and book reviews.

See also

• Animal welfare science
• Behavioral enrichment
• List of animal welfare groups
• Pain in animals
• Veterinary ethics