Hello!

I'm so excited to be blogging about my experiences as a student in the MSc Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare programme at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies at the University of Edinburgh. I know that you probably already know the title of my course if you are visiting this blog, but I love saying it because I spent so much time working toward my dream and goal of coming here, and I am so happy to be sitting in Dick Vet school right now typing this! :)


Since this is my first (ever) blog post, I'll start by telling you a bit about how I got here. Life is amazing chain of events and I love to think about how everything in my life lead me to be here....but I'll save the early life experiences for some other time. The first time I heard about Dick Vet, I was a Veterinary Assistant at an Exotics only veterinary practice, and I was reading a book about parrot behaviour. I later read more about Dick Vet and Edinburgh University research in American veterinary journals. I had also read great things about other veterinary research in Scotland in these journals like the pain assessment scale for companion animals which was developed in Glasgow.


I've been here since September, but it still is only just sinking in that I am actually here, doing this programme. I literally keep reminding myself that I'm sitting in front of veterinary learning models in the Dick Vet school study landscape while I'm typing.
Working as a Veterinary Assistant, there was a lot of dreaming of the magical, mythical place called Vet Schools where exceptional people could go to become Doctors or Scientists.


Luckily, everyone here is much more down to earth than I ever imagined that Scientists working in a Vet School could be. The wonderful scientists and professors who present lectures to me spend a great deal of time actually deconstructing this idea that scientists or even science is perfect.
We've spent a lot of time talking about how scientists are human and how there is no escaping the fact that these humans doing science are coming from a certain cultural, ethical, or political background when planning their studies and interpreting their findings. Our lecture on Ethics emphasized the point that to do good science, it is important to be clear, honest and transparent about your ethical views and explain them up-front, as well as explain other views.


The field of Animal Welfare Science (and yes, that is a real, experimental, scientific field for any of you who started to panic when you read the word 'Welfare' right next to the word 'Science')* has its roots in the 1960s in Britain when a book about intensive farming caused the public to get the government to address that issue. The government founded the Brambell Committee which included scientists, who decided that animals were sentient/capable of suffering, and animal welfare should be assessed scientifically. This concept of addressing animal suffering scientifically is really interesting because it occurred while reductionist behaviourism was popular (behaviourists argued that scientists should not address internal, mental states of animals or people) but, in order to start doing Animal Welfare Science research you have to find a way to assess internal states of animals, such as suffering or distress. It is a dilemma that will make you go crazy if you think about it too much, and I've been spending a lot of time thinking about it do much. Add to my dilemma that I have studied psychology and I became interested in this master's degree because of classes taught by an old-school behaviourist. I have also studied animal behaviour, welfare and ethics with students of B.F. Skinner, the founder of behaviourism.


The scientist in the Brambell committee who said we should approach animal welfare issues scientifically...which sounds like a great idea because even behaviourists think that science is the best way of finding information to solve problems...was an ethologist. I don't have a background in ethology, but some students in my course have been taught by great ethologists.


The point I'm trying to make is that my lecturers and the scientists in this field are forced to question the history, philosophy, and ethics of science before they can begin to conduct research.


I did not expect to be learning about these issues or to have my entire world-view turned on its head multiple times when I started this course. It is very enlightening. I think I'm lucky to be in a field of science where the status quo is rigorously questioned.


A big part of higher education is to have your mind opened and to become a critical thinker.


*Animal Behaviour Science is also a real, experimental scientific field despite that one Imposter Syndrome nightmare I had in which people yelled at me that animal behaviour science was not a real science and smart people studied molecules, which was terrifying but also pretty silly. I'm obviously an amazingly smart Scientist because I'm studying at a Dick Vet School (I've clearly learned how to make really impressive circular arguments. lol.)