Education in animal welfare

- Published: 23 September, 2008

An animal welfare advisory body has announced the launch of a project aimed at raising consumer and producer awareness of welfare issues.

The Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) said it will launch a 'Working Group' to examine how education and communication can improve the welfare of farm animals by focusing on promotion in schools and higher education institutions as well as how to better inform consumers and policy-makers and improve existing knowledge among producers.

FAWC chairman Professor Christopher Wathes said: "Although FAWC's primary remit is to provide advice to government, it does communicate with other bodies. It also recognises that delivery of animal welfare improvements may be better achieved by partnership working as outlined in the GB Animal Health and Welfare Strategy. The scope of this study is therefore not limited to government activities."

The study will be chaired by Dr David Main, a lecturer at Bristol University, where any comments from interested parties should be sent to the FAWC by 24 October, 2008.

Professor Wathes added: "The Working Group is also mindful of the possible links with animal welfare goals for non-farmed animals and will comment on wider applications where relevant.

"The study is a logical successor to previous FAWC advice to government on farm assurance schemes (2005), labelling food according to welfare provenance (2006) and on stockmanship (2007)."

Anyone who would like to submit comments to the report can email the FAWC on fawcsecretariat@defra.gsi.gov.uk or call 0207 238 5124.