And She Lived Happily Ever After...

Hey!

I have completed the MSc programme and submitted my dissertation on the social and foraging behaviour of African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus). I am no longer in Edinburgh, but I will continue my 'Adventures in Applied Animal Behaviour & Animal Welfare'.

I have decided to start a new blog because I enjoyed writing this one.

My new blog is:
Adventures in Applied Animal Behavior and Animal Welfare
at http://animalbehaviorandwelfare.blogspot.com/

I hope you will follow me on my adventures there as I figure out my life after the MSc.

~ Joanna

More Animal Behavior Blogs

Hello!

I'm seeing the light at the end of the dissertation tunnel. It won't be long before I complete my final MSc coursework. I won't be blogging here any more, but I want to leave you with links to a few Animal Behavior Science blogs so that you may continue reading about this topic.

• UC Davis Animal Behavior blog - www.theethogram.com
• Dr. Jennifer Campbell-Smith's blog about Crow research - http://coyot.es/thecorvidblog/
• Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education - http://jmicaweactivities.blogspot.co.uk/
• Dr. Terese Hart's Field Research on Congolese Wildlife - http://www.bonoboincongo.com/
• Dr. Georgia Mason's Animal Behaviour & Welfare Lab - https://masonabwlab.wordpress.com/

We can talk to the animals!

This is why I study Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare! (& why my dissertation is on the complex social behaviour of African birds) I really should be writing and editing my dissertation now instead of posting an extra blog post. I have completed the required number of blog posts as an official blogger for the Veterinary school, but... LOOK AT THIS RESEARCH THAT WAS JUST PUBLISHED! It is really exciting. It totally builds on my last long, convoluted post about people learning from birds & humans and other species living in harmony. It also supports my point that we "Westerners" need to respect the abilities and views of indigenous people much more than we typically do.

A paper was just published in the journal, Science, on the ability of humans and birds to talk to each other. This is not 'parroting' or talking at birds and pretending that they are human, but actually working with and communicating with the birds. 

Look at this cool stuff:

http://www2.zoo.cam.ac.uk/africancuckoos/systems/honeyguides_mutualism.html

Dr. Claire Spottiswoode is my new awesome female scientist role model. 

Dr. Spottiswoode, if you happen to read this, I would like to do a PhD with you.

I really want to go to Africa to do field research. 

Ok, I'm done totally geek-ing out. I'll get back to writing my dissertation now. 

Historic Buildings

I visited downtown Staunton, Virginia yesterday. The buildings reminded me of the architecture in Edinburgh. One thing that surprised me when I arrived in the USA after living in Edinburgh was how new most of the buildings are in the US.  Even many of the oldest buildings in the US are wooden and look very different than the gothic stonework in Edinburgh. I was  surprised to find a few places in Staunton that looked a little bit like Scotland.

Abolition, Animal Welfare...and Liberty and Justice for All?

Hello,

I have been thinking and over-thinking and re-thinking a lot about Abolition versus Welfare. We discussed this issue in class. My course-mates had varying opinions. For instance, the fact that some of my course-mates were Vegan and some were omnivorous illustrates varying attitudes toward animal use. There were also various opinions on the ethics of animal welfare amongst our lecturers. Despite having different viewpoints and attitudes, we all cared greatly for animals and wanted to work to make life better for the other species with whom we share this Earth.

I had an applicant to the MSc programme as me about the issue of abolishing animal use vs. working in animal welfare. I have also noticed that this question comes up when I'm speaking to many Americans who care about animals in the US. It is still something that I am grappling with, but I just found this: http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/Debating/fallacy.html Even though this is on a website of what I consider to be an extreme organization, I like this balanced explanation. There need not be a sharp division between Abolitionists vs Animal Welfarists. We all want animals to have better lives. I think that the example of cage space is useful to explain this idea. A person who works in Animal Welfare may think that it would be best for zebra finches to live outside in a large social group as they would in the wild, but may publish a report that calls for laboratory finches to have larger cages. If the report improves the welfare of the finches by giving them more space, then the finches have better lives. One of our lecturers told me that she didn't think that we would completely stop using animals for human purposes within her lifetime, so she thought the best way to help the animals would be to improve their housing conditions. That is a pragmatic approach.

These are the 5 Freedoms of Animal Welfare:
1. Freedom from hunger and thirst
2. Freedom from discomfort
3. Freedom from pain, injury and disease
4. Freedom to express normal behaviour
5. Freedom from fear and distress

The Five Freedoms are goals of animal welfare work. They provide a rough framework to help create a concept of welfare, but it can be difficult to meet all of them at once. One goal may conflict with another. For example, freedom from injury and disease can require veterinary procedures that may be somewhat painful. The goal would be to reduce the pain as much as possible by providing analgesia to balance these freedoms, but it is not always possible to achieve both all aspects of all goals at the same time. It may not be possible for anyone to live a life that is free from fear and distress, because these are natural emotions. In reality that goal often means preventing excessive or constant/pro-longed fear or distress. Perhaps the a social group of finches is housed in a very large, enriched, naturalistic aviary without any stressful visitor presence, but to maintain the health of the group, the birds must be caught and taken to a veterinarian once a year. The birds will be free from distress and fear much of the time, but they may experience distress and fear when they are caught at for that annual examination. Perhaps these finches are wild and in their native habitat, but are caught by a researcher and tagged to monitor their population. Catching them could cause fear and distress, so an animal welfarist would recommend ways to reduce fear and distress, maybe by developing smaller tags and gentler handling methods.

Our broad goal is to reduce suffering and improve the lives of non-human animals.

Can that be achieved if we consider animals to be our property??? Should be abolish animal ownership?

I actually don't know. I know that many vegans, including myself, who don't think of animals as property do live with pets. These pets are usually stray or relinquished domestic animals which would otherwise be killed or suffer if they weren't provided with homes. There is a discussion about whether we refer to ourselves as pet "owners" or "guardians". "Guardian" has more of an animal welfare flavor to it and makes me think of the five freedoms.

There is agreement in the UK that animals are sentient beings that deserve respect. I think that respect for animals is very important, regardless of whether or not we label them as "property".

Now I'm going to make you feel uneasy. Try to breathe deeply and know that I am saying this from a place of love. I have really grappled with this for a long time, but I still find it very difficult. This is not the same as animal welfare. I must stress that this is a different topic with different ethics.
This is the thought that always creeps into my mind when I discuss Abolition vs Welfare. It reared its ugly head during our Livestock Auction Welfare Assessment project & it still haunts me.

OK -

People used to be legal property.

If you lived in a place and time when humans were legal property, would you work to improve the welfare of these people or would you work to abolish the practice of keeping humans as property?

Note: The Animal Rights ethical viewpoint is that non-human animals have a right to life and freedom.

People working in the field of Human Rights do work to abolish slavery (yes, unfortunately, slavery still exists in the world) and to improve human well-being/welfare. It is possible to do both. I am a fan of Human Rights. I think is is ethically appalling to begin to think that there is any excuse for humans to be considered property. I don't think that women are the property of men.

My course in animal welfare taught me that Aristotle set up an incorrect hierarchy with rich men at the top, women below them, enslaved people lower down, animals below that level, and plants at the bottom. I reject Aristotle's hierarchy. I prefer modern holistic philosophy. I think that science is showing us that we are all connected parts of an ecosystem and that all people and living beings deserve respect. I studied the Gaia Hypothesis during an Environmental Science class in undergrad which relates to this. I think there is a trend toward systems approaches in science. I think the future of science is analyzing the complex connections between things/beings. Our lectures on Consciousness and my undergraduate lectures in Social Psychology and Neuroscience lead me to think that every part of our Universe is important and deserves respect.

I have also learned that there is diversity and variation in nature. Aristotle's hierarchical concept of nature was too shallow and didn't explain the variation within each of his levels. For instance, if you think all rich men are at the high level, and women are below them, so women have smaller brains and are less intelligent (completely dis-proven by scientific research, by the way), you can't have a concept of neuro-elasticity or changes in intelligence. I recently saw an article about a person with almost no cortex (only a minuscule part of the brain was present) who functioned normally. I heard from a friend who works at a veterinary neurologist that she has seen a few dogs with almost no brain tissue that, amazingly, are normally functioning dogs. Irene Pepperberg and other bird researchers showed the cognitive abilities of birds, animals with very, very different brain structures than ours. Science is starting to reveal amazing things which are demolishing Aristotle's hierarchy.

I believe that to make the world a better place we must value all parts of the Earth. I am sitting on land that was once inhabited by the Powhatan tribe of Native American people. I gather that Native Americans respect all of nature. I also gather that Native Americans have broader gender concepts than we do and accept two-spirit people, while Westerners struggle to accept LGBT+ humans. During this course, I learned that homosexual behavior common in many species of animals and is a normal part of nature.



Darwin was a scientist who was from Shropshire, England. I saw his Origin of Species book at the museum in Edinburgh. I have recently read his text, the Descent of Man. Darwin is credited with shattering many concepts with his work and for improving our understanding of and respect for non-human animals. I was surprised to hear how biased Darwin was in his understanding of humans. In Descent of Man, he talks about how he thinks that Parrots have a concept of property ownership and love, but he also says, in an extremely problematic way, that indigenous people are savages and are less intelligent than Englishmen. I reject his statements about indigenous people. Other researchers showed that indigenous people are no less intelligent and no less cognitive than English people. Once again, our brains are the same size...as hard as that might be for old people like Darwin and Aristotle to understand.

I think it is important to value all people and all animals. I think we can learn a lot from people who have different perspectives than our own. I know that I learned a ton by talking to students from different parts of the world.

I also think we can learn from other species. Many researchers, especially in the US, refer to animals used in their research as "models". For example, mice are "models" of human anxiety and depression. Parrots have been referred to as models for the evolution of human social behavior. I have always thought that other species of animals evolved to have different abilities, and that we can actually learn from these species because they may be better at certain things than humans are. Hear me out.  I cannot smell the difference between a ripe or unripe blackberry, but my dog can. My dog cannot see the difference between a red or black blackberry, but I can. Parrots live in huge social flocks. Instead of thinking of them as models of the evolution of human behavior which is a statement that is made with the assumption that humans are somehow "more" socially evolved that birds, despite the obvious problems that people have getting along and the amazing ability of birds to live in huge groups in very close proximity without fighting.... I think we could possibly learn from parrots about how to get along with one another. They are actually really good at it. They are probably way better at it than we are. It may sound crazy, but I think that parrots might respect one another. I know that they have complex social behavior and that African Grey Parrots barely ever have violent fights.

I've observed that humans can be very violent. This is apparent in recent news and in history.

We have very big brains. The science of Psychology is demonstrating that we also have very real cognitive biases. Our minds use short-cuts which evolved to help us survive. One of those short-cuts is called "In-Group Bias" in psychology. It is the shortcut that evolved so that we feel safer with our own family than with other people. We are fearful of others who don't look like us. It seems to be a very natural tendency with an important evolutionary function that helped us to survive. We used to live in family groups or tribes and we couldn't trust certain animals because they would eat us. "In-Group Bias" is a problem. It is why we are afraid of people who do not look like us. There is some fantastic current research by psychologists who are investigating how this causes racial bias. A couple of studies have also shown that In-Group Bias leads us to speciesist thinking. We are more likely to rely on this cognitive shortcut when we are already feeling afraid. We are less likely to feel comfortable around people and species that are not familiar, especially when we are fearful. One study also linked In-Group bias to right-wing conservative politics. (I will find that reference and insert it as soon as I can). Due to a our survival mechanism, we become more conservative when we experience cognitive dissonance, that is, when our core beliefs are challenged by our experiences. This is why people react so surprisingly passionately and aggressively (or "agonistically" as we say in behaviour science) when they see me eat a veggie burger instead of a hot-dog. It is really important to realize that In-Group bias exists and to recognize it.

During this course, we learned about history and culture, including Aristotle's hierarchy, so that we could be aware of all of our own biases when doing our research projects. I think this is a good and rational practice which helps me see through "cultural fog" as dear Dr. Susan Friedman always says when teaching Clinical Animal Behavior. Being aware of my biases allows me to be able to "take of my blinders" and see the bigger picture. It allows me to have my mind blown over and over again by the majesty of the universe and the complexity of humanity. Despite a lot of effort to recognize biases and respect others, even the very best scientists are still somewhat biased because we are all only human.

That reminds me of this song that I love: https://youtu.be/r5yaoMjaAmE (Human by Christina Perri)

I would like to apologize in advance for problematic statements in this post. I don't have a complete understanding of Native American spirituality, but I would like to learn more. 
I have biases. I am always trying to recognize biases in my thinking and gaps in my knowledge. 

...There is also a possibility that this dissertation period has caused me to completely lose my mind and that this is nonsensical gibberish... 

Just Keep Swimming

I took a break from working on my dissertation to go see Finding Dory last week. I really enjoyed it. I don't want to spoil the film for you, especially because it has not yet been released in the UK. In Finding Nemo, Dory sings "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming swimming..." when things are getting tough. Dory's song reminds me of a song from my childhood that went, "Inch by inch, row by row, I'm going to make this garden grow..." Both of these songs are about doing one small thing at a time, especially when things feel overwhelming.

Clinical Animal Behaviourists break behaviours or tricks that they are training into small steps for animals to learn. For example, I am training my dog to target or touch items with his rear feet, so I started by rewarding him for moving toward the target item, then for moving his hind legs in the direction of the item, then stepping backward near the item, then touching any part of the item with his foot, then touching the middle of the item with his foot, then holding his foot on top of the middle of the item for a few seconds. This is shaping and building a behaviour. Complex tricks like running an entire agility course or doing a circus performance can be trained step-wise in a similar way.

Despite my understanding of clinical behaviour and animal training, it is a challenge for me to break my own projects into smaller steps. I used to keep my schedule extremely full and work under extreme pressure at the last minute, i.e. writing a paper the night before it was due. I worked in that way throughout high school and during most of undergrad, but it became very unhealthy. Short-term stress is ok, but long-term stress takes a toll on health. I know not to push my dog too hard by training him for too long because it could make him irritable, stressed and negatively impact his learning. This year, I have been working to develop new, healthier work habits. Unfortunately, it takes a long time for new habits/behaviours to form. My dog will have to practice touching a target with his rear foot many, many times before it becomes a behaviour that he does quickly and reliably without hesitation. The same is true for human behaviour modification. I have learned a great deal during this MSc programme, but I often notice that even when I know something cognitively (for example, I know that leaving writing to the last minute is unhealthy for me), I have trouble converting that information into my behavioural habits. 

It is difficult to break large projects into smaller pieces and to do one piece at a time. I was able to do this when I was preparing for graduate school. Some of my steps toward my post-graduate studies were:

1. Complete a Bachelor's degree in Psychology 

2. Work in an Exotic veterinary practice

 a. excel as a veterinary assistant & learn best ways to handle exotic animals safely and humanely 

 b. gain promotion to veterinary nurse and learn veterinary skills

 c. read a book on Avian Behaviour which referenced studies at Dick Vet

 d. read veterinary journals and behavioural case studies which also cited research conducted in Scotland

3. Work in a not-for-profit veterinary practice with an Animal Welfare mission

a. learn about animal sheltering, TNR, spay/neuter, cat and dog behaviour

4. Take online classes in clinical behaviour, animal welfare and training

5. Clicker-train my dog, friends' dogs, my cat and my chickens 

6. Apply for Edinburgh's MSc AABAW programme

7. Attend the University of Edinburgh in Scotland...(write this blog, etc. etc.)

Now, I am starting to see a bit of light at the end of the MSc tunnel because my dissertation is due in about a month. I still have many, many little steps left. I am reminding myself to do one thing at a time. If I can keep doing on thing at a time (one graph, one outline, one sentence, one paragraph, one page, one section, one citation...) I should end up with a paper/dissertation. If I include the steps of editing, rewriting, proofreading, then I should have a good dissertation. I have already done many of the steps of this project, but I still have writing and more work to do. 

The good news is that, since this is an animal behaviour project, the animals were already behaving or at least had the ability to perform various behaviours. I am just decoding that behaviour and communicating the information in written scientific language (instead of greedily keeping the knowledge in my brain) so that, hopefully, animals will benefit in the future. I hope understanding animal behaviour can improve animal welfare. The focus of this master's degree and the mission of animal welfare science is understanding animal behaviour to improve animal welfare. I know that as my understanding of my dog's behaviour improved, his welfare improved because we were able to work and live together more easily. I know that learning about my chickens' behaviour has helped me promote their welfare, and that modifications to my home that are in line with promoting normal cat behaviour have improved the welfare of my cat. 

Nothing is perfect, but a little by little, we can create positive change in the world. 

Virginia

Hello. I haven't written for a while as I have been adjusting to life in the USA and staying very busy with my dissertation research. The research is going well, so I'm taking a short break this evening to write a blog post and share a few photos from Virginia. 

This first photo is a Wood Duck feather sitting on the root of an old Oak tree. Wood Ducks are extremely beautiful and very rare birds. They nest in hollows in large, old trees. It is incredibly important to preserve old growth forests because many bird species (including the species that I'm researching for my dissertation, African Grey Parrots) nest in holes in trees. Large species of birds require large, old trees, especially trees with some decay - the birds can nest in the hollow area that is left after termites eat some of the wood or some of the wood has decomposed. I've been researching bird nesting behaviour, and I am constantly reminded of the importance of old growth forest ecosystems for the survival of beautiful birds. 

 This picture is a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly which is the state insect of Virginia. I have seen many beautiful Tiger Swallowtails in the past month. More animal welfare research is showing that insects may be sentient, cognitive beings. This research has led to discussions whether we prioritize animal (e.g. laboratory rodent) welfare over insect welfare due to biases in our thinking. Seeing beautiful butterflies and thinking about the conservation work that has been done to save butterflies like the Monarch, makes me wonder if we have a bias to protect insects that we find aesthetically pleasing. If bees looked like Tiger Swallowtails, would it be easier for us to save them? We should remember that insecticides impact beautiful insects too.

This is a picture of pink Dogwood blossoms on a sunny day. The Dogwood is the state tree of Virginia and is a native flowering tree. The blossoms are usually white, but there are pink varieties. I really like trees, especially the Dogwood. I think that my love of animals contributes to my love of the Dogwood Tree because the word "Dog" is in its name. 

This is the Rappahannock River. I sat at a table looking over the river and entered dissertation research data into spreadsheets. I watched Osprey and Crows and Herons fly over the river. I believe the osprey and crows were playing in the breeze - feeling the wind under their wings and somersaulting around each other. I would like to research this play(?) behavior someday. One of the assignments from the taught portion of the MSc was on Play Behavior and I read a paper about corvid play. Animal welfare and behaviour scientists are increasingly interested in studying play behaviour as a positive welfare indicator. 

 This is a picture of my own very high welfare chickens, engaging in natural foraging behaviour. My dissertation research involves foraging behaviour of African Grey Parrots.

Finally, this is a picture of a hardwood forest of native trees after a rain. There are frogs living in that water who probably have very high welfare. I recently saw a couple of foxes in this spot. There are many native Virginia reptiles, birds, insects, fish and mammals that live as part of this woods. 

Positives and Negatives

The main thing that I have learned during the taught portion of this course and during my time living independently in Edinburgh is that things are not just black/white or good/bad. It is important to remember that life is complex. Occasionally animal rights campaigns focus very specifically on a single, very emotive issue. It is easy to look at these campaigns and think that there are very clear right/wrong, good/bad sides in the debate. Usually, once you take the time to look more critically and talk to the parties involved, you will realize that the issue is more complicated and nuanced. We all have a psychological predisposition to categorize things, often into "good" or "bad". This categorization can occur very quickly in our minds, often as the result of our emotions or limited information. It is important to be aware of this tendency because black and white thinking can lead to a lot of problems.

I am a "clicker" trainer. I studied animal training with Susan G. Friedman, Ph.D. and the Karen Pryor Academy before applying for this MSc course. I also have a Bachelor's degree in Psychology (which included a course on animal training). The way that I train animals is often described as "force free", "science-based", or "positive reinforcement". Like most phrases in language, these descriptors don't fully explain or capture the entirety of my training methods and often cause confusion. 

Scientists are wonderful because they analytically and critically break down concepts and give these concepts names or labels. For example, entomologists give names to insects. We often say that these scientists, "discover" insects, but really, the insects already existed on Earth and contributed to the ecosystem and would have continued to live their lives regardless of whether they were ever seen by scientists. Scientists just describe them and give them names. 

Often, the names that scientists come up with have limitations. When Psychologist, B. F. Skinner named components of learning/training he gave them the names "Positive Reinforcement" "Negative Reinforcement" "Positive Punishment" and "Negative Punishment". For Skinner, Positive simply meant adding something and Negative meant removing something. Reinforcement simply meant causing a behaviour to increase and Punishment meant causing a behaviour to decrease. All of the four components are part of learning. None of them are inherently Good or Bad. Unfortunately, the words that Skinner used are emotionally charged and have other meanings. Many people see those labels and think that Positive is good and Negative & Punishment are bad. That isn't actually the case within Skinner's learning theory. 

I strive to be an ethical, scientific, respectful animal trainer who has a strong interest in promoting good animal welfare. It is ok to say that I do "Positive Reinforcement Training", but if I am teaching a dog to sit  - shaping that behaviour by giving treat rewards as the dog bends his rear legs and moves his rear closer to the ground (Positively Reinforcing the sit) - and the dog offers an unwanted behaviour like running toward me, I will not reward that running behaviour. The running behaviour will be Negatively Punished because I will put my treats away, removing them. 

A horse-trainer who taught us told me that she wishes Skinner had chosen the words "Additive" and "Removal" instead of Positive and Negative. I think she had a good point. 

Now, to make things more interesting - lets get into the debate over training devices...

Scotland is considering banning Electronic Dog-Training Collars (which deliver an electric shock) because they are thought to be bad for dog welfare. I once saw a husky with infected wounds on his neck that were  in the shape of the metal electrodes of an Electronic collar. This dog's owner had not noticed these wounds and appeared not to have noticed that the level of electric shock delivered to the dog was inappropriate and inhumane. Unfortunately, I don't have proof that these wounds were definitely from an electronic collar as the collar was not on when I saw the dog. I do have access to a few studies that have shown that owners and professional dog trainers often deliver shocks inconsistently using these collars (inaccurate timing and inappropriate level of shock). I also know that I could not use an electronic collar to train a bird. A primary interest of mine is training pet parrots and I choose not to spend my time practicing training methods that I can't apply to all species. 

The Kennel Club in the UK is calling for a ban on electronic shock collars. Veterinarian, Heather Bacon from the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education has also made a statement against electric collars and in favour of the ban. My MSc programme is affiliated with The Jeanne Marchig Centre for Animal Welfare Education, and I personally support banning electronic collars.

However, I have learned to read scientific literature and to think about welfare topics critically during this course. I have also interacted with people who I respect who train dogs using electronic collars. If you had asked me about dog training at the very beginning of this course, I would have said, "I am a positive, force free trainer and I am in opposition to trainers who use shock collars" and had a heated, emotional argument about why the type of training I had studied with Susan G. Friedman and The Karen Pryor Academy was Good and why other types of training were Bad.

Now, I have read the scientific studies of dog training and welfare. I have learned that there are too few studies on this topic, and the existing published studies are imperfect. I have also learned that if a shock is delivered at the exactly appropriate time and at a low level, it may not cause the dog to suffer. I have learned that electronic collars have been used to train dogs to avoid endangered animals in conservation programs (Dale et al. 2013), and I can see the benefit to the welfare of the endangered species in those cases. My view has changed from thinking that electronic collar training was all Bad to thinking that it is a more complex issue. I still support the Scottish ban because I think that there is potential to cause harm by using electronic collars inappropriately. One study (Cooper et al. 2014) indicated that even professional dog trainers who were chosen by electronic collar companies used the collars inconsistently and, in my opinion, incorrectly. 

It is important to read scientific literature, think critically, talk to people who have different opinions on animal welfare issues to prevent your good intentions from having unanticipated consequences.

References:

Cooper, J.J. et al., 2014. The welfare consequences and efficacy of training pet dogs with remote electronic training collars in comparison to reward based training. PLoS ONE, 9(9).

Dale, A.R. et al., 2013. The acquisition and maintenance of dogs’ aversion responses to kiwi (Apteryx spp.) training stimuli across time and locations. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 146(1-4), pp.107–111. Available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0168159113001020.

Thinking about America

Hello! I have recently finished writing a paper about sheep welfare assessment. :)

My last post included a link to a lovely livestream of manatees in Florida, USA. I hope you enjoyed that because wildlife camera livestreams are my favorite way to relax at the moment.

I just found a really nice livestream of beautiful bald eagles in Washington DC:

http://www.eagles.org/dceaglecam/

I assume that a lot of people reading my blog are my friends and family members in the USA. If so, you might not be very excited about all this American footage, but I am enjoying it as I plan my trip home to the USA.

I think that the US does a very good job working on wildlife conservation. (Shout out to anyone who worked on saving the California Condors!!) I am really looking forward to hiking on beautiful trails in the many wonderful American national and state parks.

I really love hill-walking here, but there is something special about old-growth hardwood forests that have never been felled for farming.

Scotland is unbelievably, incredibly beautiful, but it is shocking how much men have changed the landscape here. I like the move to "re-wild" Scotland by reintroducing plants and animals that were here centuries ago but have gone extinct in the wild. I think the Scottish did a great job reintroducing the beaver, but as someone who has a beaver living literally in her own back yard in the USA, I have a new appreciation of how many native species still live in the US.

I have heard encouraging news about mountain lions making a comeback on the East Coast. (They are stunning animals and will help control the deer population and help our ecosystems.) I really hope that more Americans will realize how lucky we are to have native species of plants and animals and continue to work to preserve them. I know that I have a new appreciation for animals such as beavers and skunks that are often considered to be "pests" in the USA after seeing them displayed in the Edinburgh Zoo and hearing zoo visitors excitedly exclaim about these amazing creatures. Beavers help the forests and broader environment. Every species of plant and animal plays an important role in the ecosystem. Animals like the Mountain Lion, Bobcat, Wolf and Bald Eagle are awesomely gorgeous and majestic.

We honour animals like bald eagles by using them as symbols of the US. Unfortunately, we need to remember that we almost killed all of the bald eagles in the USA and they are only just starting to make a comeback after lots of work and dedication from American wildlife conservationists and rehabilitators. Extremely tragically, thirteen bald eagles were recently found dead in Maryland .Work still needs to be done to protect even this iconic species.

 I hope to become a licensed wildlife rehabilitator at some point in the future, and for now, I am doing my part to conserve American species by owning and preserving 10 acres of pristine hardwood forest. I have "liked" a lot of parks and conservation groups on social media and I sign petitions and write to legislators to protect threatened species.

I have always loved the beautiful forests in the USA and felt patriotic about 'America the beautiful'. The trees, streams, grasslands and wildlife are what I most look forward to seeing again when I leave the UK. I really look forward to visiting national and state parks. I think that the incredibly diversity of our natural environments is the most wonderful thing about the USA. (Although, I admit that the main reason I travel to the UK is because I find it so incredibly beautiful here, too!)

I worry about our ecosystems, especially the smallest and most important parts of the ecosystems upon which everything else relies. We need to protect and value our insects. Wild animals, especially amphibians, are extremely threatened, and they need insects to eat. Larger animals eat smaller ones, so it could be catastrophic if amphibians actually became extinct.

We also need little creatures like bees and worms so that we can have food to eat (although we could actually eat these, I mean that they provide us with food indirectly by pollinating our crops and fertilizing our soil). Students from my MSc course will be doing important research with bees in America.

Even though there are many challenges to protecting wildlife which can make our work feel incredibly overwhelming at times, we can always start in our own smaller, local environments. I plan to work in my own country after I go home because I believe that bio-diversity makes America beautiful.

I believe that human diversity makes America beautiful too!

There are always rainbows...

Sometimes life is tough. Some mornings you wake up in the dark with high winds pummeling rain against your kitchen windows while you try to cook breakfast. Some days you wake, get yourself ready, and move your body outside only to be pelted in the face with horizontal ice-rain. Raindrops cover your glasses and you must remove them to be able to see. You finally get to your lectures which are spent arguing about the meaning of life and death or learning to quantify vast quantities of suffering. You learn the ways in which the problems that you are trying to solve are connected to larger global issues that are totally overwhelming. January has been a difficult and dark month, but it is now over.

Today is a beautiful, sunny day! I am getting work done on my assignments, including that manatee enclosure design one that I mentioned in a previous blog.
Manatees are vulnerable. Despite the fact that they have no natural predators, they are very threatened by habitat loss by people building developments in Florida which drain water from this beautiful river. They are also frequently injured by boats (cut by propellers) and ingest fishing hooks, lines and rubbish. Some people are working hard to save the manatees and conserve this species, and manatees are making a come-back. It is so nice to see so many wild manatees in this live webcam stream from Blue Spring State Park, but it is important to remember that there are very few total manatees alive in the wild. We need to continue to work to protect them.

It is all too easy to see these manatees and think, "Look how many there are! Everything is good! We don't need to worry about them anymore." It is also all to easy to read about the mass extinction of animal and plant species that is happening right now and feel completely depressed and unable to appreciate any good news. In order to work on challenging issues and help make the world a better place, it is important to have a balanced view and try to avoid black and white (all good or all bad) thinking.

Icy rain might pelt you in the face, but there are always rainbows. There are beautiful rainbows, but there is also rain. I think it's important to remember that suffering and happiness are both natural parts of life.

This is my opinion, and I'm not sure how it fits into Animal Welfare Ethics frameworks, but I will be discussing that during our final week of classes. 

International Edinburgh

I have 48 days left in Edinburgh before I go home to the USA where I will complete my dissertation. I say, "home to the USA" like "home" is a totally clear-cut concept. Edinburgh has begun to feel like my home just in time for me to move on.

Luckily, I'm not the only person in my course getting ready to travel. Many of us will visit different countries during the dissertation section of the degree. Edinburgh is extremely international and many of my friends here lived in multiple countries and continents before moving here. Most of us plan to continue traveling after completing our degrees. It is lovely to be surrounded by people who grew up as global citizens.We all have specific places that are part of us, but we don't have very simple answers to the question, "Where are you from?"

My response, "England/Wales and all the culturally distinct parts of Virginia, USA" is less interesting than hearing about all of the places that my friends call home. Now, Scotland feels like home even though it is surprisingly different than anywhere I've lived before. 

While I'm thinking about how Edinburgh has come to feel like my home, I'll share a few things that I love about living in this city. 

• There are a lot of rainbows here: 

• It snows just enough for it to be beautiful:
  

• Edinburgh is full of ground-breaking scientific research:

• There are many amazing events involving fire:

• The buildings are beautiful:

There are far too many wonderful things about this city to count. I am very thankful for my time here and for everything that I have learned. I especially appreciate the insight I have gained from discussing global issues with people from all over the world and learning about international animal welfare legislation during lectures.

Living in the Birthplace of the Enlightenment has been quite enlightening. :)

New Year's resolutions during a Master's degree

Today was our first day of lectures after the winter break. It was good to be back in my normal routine.

A few of my plans for a good routine this semester/year:

• Wake up at 6:00 am every day.
• Meditate for 10 minutes in the morning and again right before bed
• Print lecture slides in the veterinary library and study for an hour before lectures start.
• Read/write/work in the veterinary library after lectures every day 
• Take an exercise class at the gym every weekend
• Prepare lunches and snacks the night before lectures
• Work steadily, set small goals and allow plenty of time for work on assignments
• Run errands on Saturdays
• Walk up Arthur's seat regularly
• Care for myself (go to the doctor for a check-up, get my hair cut, and do little things I tend to put off)
• Drink lots of tea
• Shop at Jordan Valley (amazing grocery shop that sells lots of vegan food, herbal teas, dates, and health food) 

This semester looks really good - we are getting into animal welfare applications and applying what we have learned to practical work in the real world. We will be assessing the welfare of livestock at an auction/market and I'll be doing a poster project in which I'll design an ideal enclosure for a manatee. 

If you happen to know what type of housing manatees in zoos or aquaria really want, please let me know. 

Over the sea to Skye

I visited the Isle of Skye during my winter break. It was incredible! I hiked along the beautiful Fairy Pools to the Cuillin mountains. I toured Talisker Distillery and tasted whiskey for the first time since I've lived in Scotland. We drove through the highlands and were really pleasantly surprised that the roads were extremely well maintained and easy to navigate. It was an unbelievably beautiful drive. The sheep in the Isle of Skye have awesome curly horns and we saw wild Red Deer, feral goats, 'hairy coos' aka Highland Cows, and beautiful horses. Here are some pictures of the trip:

A fairy pool

Fairy pools below the mountains

Cuillin Mountains

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor! But I'm going to talk to you about surgery and medications anyway. Don't try this at home.

Hello again! I submitted a paper on Sunday (my second paper for this course which will count toward my marks/grade). We are heading toward the end of the first semester. It is a really busy time, and I have assignments to work on, but I'm taking a little break from assignments to write this blog post.


I had a really fascinating lecture on post-operative pain today.


'There's a debate about whether animals feel pain?!' exclaimed my friend when I mentioned an earlier pain lecture. My friend is studying art and grew up with pet cats. She was shocked and appalled to hear that anyone would question whether animals feel pain because it is so obvious to her that they can. She laughed as I tried to explain the fact that, yes, quite a lot of very educated people have argued that animals don't feel pain.
There was also time - the 1980s - when American medical doctors didn't believe that baby humans felt pain and performed open heart surgery on babies without anaesthesia or analgesia (pain medication). Those babies grew up to have problems later in life and those doctors were sued by very angry mothers. The babies couldn't tell the doctors that the surgery hurt because they were too young to know how to talk, and the doctors didn't notice behaviours the babies performed that would indicate that they were in pain.


Now, lets go back in history prior to that strange time in the 1980s to the 1800s.


Prior to the invention of anaesthesia, surgery was performed. One woman wrote about her mastectomy, performed in 1811 without any anaesthesia, and she said, as you might guess, that it really hurt.
I should mention that there was a time just after this when really cruel vivisection became trendy and rich white dudes started nailing their dogs to their tables and cutting them open while they were awake. The world gained knowledge about anatomy, but anaesthesia was being invented at the time and it would have been nicer for those dogs if they had been given some anaesthesia.*


In the 1840s, anaesthesia started being used for surgery.
When we Americans tell dark jokes about 'doing Civil War medicine' its actually incorrect/ironic because the time period during the American Civil War was the first time in history that 'best practices' like anaesthesia began.


In North America, Ether was the anaesthetic of choice. In Britain Chloroform was the most popular.
Chloroform killed quite a few young people (they were probably anxious about their surgeries and had high heart rates and high heart rate and chloroform don't mix well). This lead to laws that only a Doctor could perform anaesthesia in the UK. The Ether used in America only killed old people and was safer, so in America, nurses were allowed to anaesthetize. This is still true, even in veterinary medicine. In the UK only Veterinarians are allowed to anaesthetize animal patients. In the USA Licensed Veterinary Technicians can anaesthetize, although a supervising Veterinarian should be present.


Morphine, Lidocaine and Ketamine were all invented pretty early in modern history. These are still the most important drugs to manage post-operative pain in veterinary medicine, but they are used in different ways now.


For a while veterinary surgery was performed on awake animals. This is kind of where this story ends for farm animals who still routinely have surgeries without anaesthesia or analgesia.


Later, drugs were given to make dogs immobile so surgery was easier for the veterinarian (and for the poor assistants who had been holding down awake animals during surgery). Other drugs could be given to reverse the effect of the immobilizing drugs and wake up the dog. This was helpful for the people performing the surgery, but didn't really help the dog.


There is a natural pain response that is part of our bodies which helps us survive. Part of this is the stress response involving adrenaline. Part of this involves endogenous opiods (natural opiods in the brain that help stop you from feeling pain). This natural pain response is what gives soldiers the ability to keep fighting on the battlefield even if they have been badly wounded. It helps animals survive in the wild after being attacked by predators.


Unfortunately, when veterinarians were first using opiods to immobilize their canine patients during surgery, they would use an opiod-reversing medication to wake up the dog after surgery. This medication reversed natural endogenous opiods too. If the endogenous opiods are stopped by a reversal drug then the animal will not have the natural response to manage pain and the dog will likely feel more pain than if the surgery had been performed while the dog was awake.


(I'm writing this as if we've totally left this practice in the past and all veterinarians in the world are using better drug protocols now, but unfortunately that is not entirely true.)


Currently, it is best practice to use a variety of different types of analgesics and anaesthetics to manage pain in a multi-modal way.

Here is the most important word that I have learned from my biology of suffering pain lectures: SENSITIZATION

If you are a veterinarian or animal researcher I recommend reading about sensitization because it is really fascinating. I might write another post about the bio-mechanics of this process, but it is neuroscience heavy and I might lose some people if I do that now.


Very, very basically, sensitization is this crazy thing that happens in the body that makes pain more painful over time. And it can start as soon as you start to cut a patient.


Wound -> nerve signalling & a the release of a bunch of chemicals -> pain + stress response


The 'nerve signalling & release of a bunch of chemicals' part repeats.


The body becomes more sensitive. The chemicals at the area of the wound make the skin look red and feel hot to the touch and make the areas near the wound more sensitive.
This can cause allodynia - which is when a gentle touch feels painful. Sensitization can cause chronic pain.


This processing is really weird and magical and problematic for veterinarians because it happens even when patients are anaesthetized. It  can cause patients to feel more pain later e.g. after the dog has had surgery and gone home.


Luckily, sensitization can be prevented with appropriate pre-surgical analgesia and/or local anaesthesic blocks like local nerve blocks.


In human medicine, women who were given general anaesthesia to immobilize them for C-section surgeries and muscle relaxants to make the surgery easier for the surgeon, sometimes reported pain and/or memories of the surgical procedure after they had gone home from hospital. These women had no clinical signs of waking up during the C-section (no elevated heart rate, etc.).
Women who were given epidurals - local anaesthetic nerve blocks - did not have this problem. The local nerve block stops central nervous system sensitization.


Pre-operative pain medication should be given to stop local sensitization and the build-up of the inflammatory response. For example, an NSAID could be given prior to surgery and the timing should be such that the NSAID is acting fully on the tissue being cut as the incision is first made.
My lecturer was a really big fan of 'splash-blocks' (Shout out to MO if you're reading this!) which is when a local anaesthetic like lidocaine is sprayed or squirted into the surgical site as the surgery is performed. He was also a big fan of nerve blocks and even nerve catheters which deliver local anaesthetic, again usually lidocaine, directly into the nerve near the surgical site. Finally, it is extremely important to give post-operative pain medication. Our lecturer recommended that post-operative pain medication be given until the wound is healed (5-30 days!) The reason it is so important to give post-op analgesia is that sensitization can start as soon as the pain medication given near the time of surgery wears off.


Sensitization can lead to really bad chronic pain.


Instead of acting like the doctors in the 1980s who did surgery on babies without pain management, we should give patients the benefit of the doubt and try to manage pain appropriately even if when can't verbally tell us how they feel.






*At least one of these dudes was yelled at by his wife for nailing their dog to their table and cutting the dog up, but he was all like, 'Shut up, I do what I want!' because he thought women were inferior to men just like dogs were inferior to men. Unfortunately, this dude was Descartes and he had a huge role in shaping modern Western thought.

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.)