University of Guelph students continued their strong representation at an annual intercollegiate animal welfare assessment competition bringing home individual and team honours.
Graduate and undergraduate student teams from the Ontario Agricultural College and the Ontario Veterinary College, as well as an OVC DVM student team, earned spots in the top five for overall results. Graduate and undergraduate students also came away with top five individual awards.
The 16th annual Intercollegiate Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Contest was hosted, for the second year in a row, by the Ohio State University on November 12 and 13.
This year the
University of Guelph took 4 teams to the competition: an OVC DVM team; two
undergrad teams; and a graduate student team. A total of 15 students from the U
of G competed, the maximum allowed for any individual institution.
Dr. Derek Haley with, left to right, Rebecca Chant (OVC 2019), Laura Hartman (OVC 2019), Sara Stewart (OVC 2020) at the Ohio State University football stadium.
In the student sections, Caroline von Waldburg-Zeil placed second and Allison Moorman placed fourth in the graduate division, and Sierra Vigna placed fourth in the undergraduate section.
In team assessments, the graduate student team placed second overall, two of the undergraduate teams placed second and fifth respectively overall, and the veterinary student team place fifth overall.
Dr. Derek Haley, OVC’s Department of Population Medicine, coached the DVM student team; Dr. Ian Duncan, Professor Emeritus, coached the undergraduate team; and the graduate student team was coached by Dr. Tina Widowski, Professor in Animal Biosciences and Director of the Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare. The teams have all trained together since the start of the fall semester.
The animal
welfare assessment contest promotes awareness and critical thinking, while
enhancing participants’ communication skills. The contest leads individuals and
teams through comparative scenarios where they analyze the welfare of the
various animals presented. Four species are typically included in the contest –
this year, scenarios about lab guinea pigs, meat sheep, purebred dogs, and
laying hens, were evaluated.
This year’s event again brought teams from across North America including the Atlantic Veterinary College, the University of Florida, University British Colombia, Colorado State University, and many from institutions in the mid-west USA.