Professor Cathy Dwyer

Collaboration bringing about real and sustained improvements in animal welfare in India and Sri Lanka.

Professor Cathy Dwyer is both the Director of the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education (JMICAWE) at the Royal Dick School of Veterinary Medicine (R(D)SVS), and the Head of the Animal Behaviour and Welfare research group at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC).

Cathy's work within JMICAWE, promotes animal welfare education, for veterinarians/vet students in particular, in UK and abroad, with a focus on Asia.

Cathy shares her involvement and work carried out in collaboration with the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Science University (KVASU) (India), Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University (KVAFSU) (India) and the University of Peradeniya (Sri Lanka).

How did this collaboration begin?

"These are long standing collaborative relationships that have been ongoing for at least the last 10 years. In both cases there were faculty members who had interests in animal welfare and were willing to discuss and build collaborations in these areas, as well as potentially acting as a hub to share knowledge more widely in India.

These collaborations were also motivated by statements from the World Organisation for Animal Health (formerly OIE) that veterinary schools should be teaching animal welfare, but many schools did not have faculty with knowledge and skills to be able to do this. Our role was to support these schools and provide advice, knowledge and mentoring to develop their faculty to be able to deliver this teaching , and latterly research in this area."

What’s the current status or progress?

"We have run a series of workshops in both veterinary schools, mostly annually (except 2021/22), to provide information about animal welfare science and education. We have also hosted faculty exchange visits with both Universities to Edinburgh, and engaged in knowledge sharing and support for teaching endeavours (especially in veterinary nursing).

In 2019, KVAFSU began an Animal Welfare Research Centre in Bengaluru and in 2020 we ran a three day animal behaviour and welfare research workshop to support this development. This was attended by representatives from several of the veterinary colleges in Southern India, including from KVASU. Both universities are now increasing the number of Postgraduate student projects that include animal welfare research, and KVASU has also developed an online Postgraduate course in animal welfare science, ethics and law, for which we provided some video teaching material.

We continue to support both institutions in developing their animal welfare research through discussion, educational resources, knowledge and mentoring. KVASU is also developing a Veterinary Nursing training programme, for which we have advised on curriculum and provided access to relevant training materials (especially through our MOOC courses)."

What is your dream for the future of this collaborative partnership?

"To see these institutions to become nationally recognised as centres of expertise in animal welfare education and research in India and for this to become more widespread in other veterinary schools in India. Support for their developing research programmes that leads to international recognition and encourages student exchange and research collaborations between our institutions.

We would also like to see the veterinary nursing programme succeed, and become a mechanism to improve animal welfare in India. If this success lead to the topic becoming more mainstream in the Indian vet schools this can encourage more students to follow this path and to take their skills into the veterinary clinics of India and elsewhere to improve animal welfare.

Ultimately the hope is that these collaborations are a mechanism to bring about real and sustained improvements in animal welfare in India."

What are the key benefits from this joint engagement?

"Our goal at JMICAWE is to improve animal welfare, specifically through education and support, with a focus on Asia.

Our partnerships are a direct way of achieving this and we are starting to see the benefits of these associations – through the increase in interest in undergraduate and postgraduate students, and the improved knowledge and capabilities of the faculty that we work to support.

It has been especially gratifying to see the impact of these engagements – we have gone beyond workshops and discussions and are now seeing concrete actions by our partners to make changes and implement new courses in animal welfare.

The role of our partners in sharing their knowledge and our collaboration with others beyond just these partners is also a very strong benefit of our engagement.

From a personal perspective, we gain exposure to different systems, different problems and other ways of thinking that challenge our biases and perceptions and help to make us better at educating and researching animal welfare in Edinburgh."

What are the persisting challenges that you faced in this collaboration?

"Funding for these collaborations can be very difficult and does limit the types of activities we can undertake and reduces the opportunity for research collaborations. Funders of collaborative research projects often seek to see a true collaborative benefit of the engagement, where each partner brings specific and different expertise to the collaboration. As animal welfare is still in its infancy as a research topic in India, our collaborative efforts are more one-sided, with the expertise in the UK and our engagement more in supporting and mentoring the faculty and students in their research. Currently we rely mostly on philanthropic and charitable support to fund these interactions.

Many of our courses are free (such as MOOCs) and other resources are made available without charge but certification and more formal education does require fees that are generally beyond the scope of many of those with whom we work and this limits uptake. Scholarships or other approaches that could support these developments would be invaluable."

What support from the University of Edinburgh would enhance this partnership?

"As above, some financial support for the activities and consideration of scholarships for students to undertake MSc courses would help to cement the relationship and to enhance the collaboration by increasing capacity in animal welfare science.

Some creative methods whereby we could ensure that faculty and students are able to access resources, or share knowledge and to facilitate staff and student exchanges would be very helpful."