@janedunnett.bsky.social
Veterinary surgeon
Animal welfare and behaviour science
Evidence-based care for animals and their people
Strong opinions, softly held
Animal welfare and behaviour science
Evidence-based care for animals and their people
Strong opinions, softly held
Reposted
Sarah Chauncey @sarahchauncey.com has a beautiful post about the Venerable Buddhist monks who are walking for peace, and the dog who is walking alongside them.
counterintuitiveguide.substack.com/p/allow-mome...
counterintuitiveguide.substack.com/p/allow-mome...
Allow Moments of Peace and Joy
Following the Venerable Buddhist monks and their dog
counterintuitiveguide.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 6:31 PM
Sarah Chauncey @sarahchauncey.com has a beautiful post about the Venerable Buddhist monks who are walking for peace, and the dog who is walking alongside them.
counterintuitiveguide.substack.com/p/allow-mome...
counterintuitiveguide.substack.com/p/allow-mome...
Not my work world any more but I still enjoy seeing the implementation of meaningful changes gathering pace in the animal research world.
Small gestures, big impact: changing how laboratory mice are handled - Swiss 3RCC
Every day, in laboratories across Switzerland, mice are picked up, moved, weighed or examined. These small actions happen thousands of times, and for a long time, hardly anyone questioned how they wer...
swiss3rcc.org
January 28, 2026 at 5:16 AM
Not my work world any more but I still enjoy seeing the implementation of meaningful changes gathering pace in the animal research world.
Reposted
“We are essentially at the stage where the waters in south-eastern Tasmania aren’t fit for purpose for salmon” — marine ecologist Prof Stewart Frusher
▶️ www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
▶️ www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
Four million salmon died prematurely at Tasmanian fish farms in 2025, government data reveals
Death toll sparks calls for companies to be fined under animal welfare legislation over mass fish deaths
www.theguardian.com
January 26, 2026 at 3:57 AM
“We are essentially at the stage where the waters in south-eastern Tasmania aren’t fit for purpose for salmon” — marine ecologist Prof Stewart Frusher
▶️ www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
▶️ www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...
COMPASS Guidelines for Conducting Welfare-Focused Research into Behaviour Modification of Animals
www.mdpi.com/3674682
www.mdpi.com/3674682
www.mdpi.com
January 16, 2026 at 6:28 AM
COMPASS Guidelines for Conducting Welfare-Focused Research into Behaviour Modification of Animals
www.mdpi.com/3674682
www.mdpi.com/3674682
Reposted
You can’t spot an aggressive dog just from its looks or breed. Genetic testing could better predict which dogs will bite.
👉 Read the full story: theconversation.com/austral...
👉 Read the full story: theconversation.com/austral...
January 16, 2026 at 5:17 AM
You can’t spot an aggressive dog just from its looks or breed. Genetic testing could better predict which dogs will bite.
👉 Read the full story: theconversation.com/austral...
👉 Read the full story: theconversation.com/austral...
Frustration in dogs can be tricky to discern, behaviourally speaking, and is often conflated with fear. Maybe we just need to pay more attention to their faces.
An adapted Qualitative Behavioural Assessment of dogs’ facial expressions of fear and frustration
Qualitative Behavioural Assessment (QBA) involves the quantification of people’s holistic interpretations of the style and quality of movement and has…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 16, 2026 at 2:18 AM
Frustration in dogs can be tricky to discern, behaviourally speaking, and is often conflated with fear. Maybe we just need to pay more attention to their faces.
Like dogs, horses might be able to smell our fear.
Human emotional odours influence horses’ behaviour and physiology
Olfaction is the most widespread sensory modality animals use to communicate, yet much remains to be discovered about its role. While most studies focused on intraspecific interactions and reproductio...
journals.plos.org
January 16, 2026 at 1:24 AM
Like dogs, horses might be able to smell our fear.
CCDS is often missed in older dogs, particularly in the early stages when interventions might be most effective. Good to finally see some consensus guidelines for this common, debilitating condition.
avmajournals.avma.org
January 6, 2026 at 11:16 PM
CCDS is often missed in older dogs, particularly in the early stages when interventions might be most effective. Good to finally see some consensus guidelines for this common, debilitating condition.
Reposted
A lot of findings in this new paper, but one is the inevitable doom of traditional peer review:
1) AI creates a flood of papers, both good & bad
2) Paper complexity, a key screen and signal of quality for human work, is actually a signal of low quality for AI
There's no plan for what comes next.
1) AI creates a flood of papers, both good & bad
2) Paper complexity, a key screen and signal of quality for human work, is actually a signal of low quality for AI
There's no plan for what comes next.
January 5, 2026 at 9:05 PM
A lot of findings in this new paper, but one is the inevitable doom of traditional peer review:
1) AI creates a flood of papers, both good & bad
2) Paper complexity, a key screen and signal of quality for human work, is actually a signal of low quality for AI
There's no plan for what comes next.
1) AI creates a flood of papers, both good & bad
2) Paper complexity, a key screen and signal of quality for human work, is actually a signal of low quality for AI
There's no plan for what comes next.
Will require careful implementation of suitable alternatives to ensure welfare but this is important progress.
Hen cages and pig farrowing crates to be outlawed in England
Humane slaughter requirements for farmed fish and end to puppy farming also in new package of animal welfare laws
www.theguardian.com
December 23, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Will require careful implementation of suitable alternatives to ensure welfare but this is important progress.
Reposted
2026. A call for CARE in animal behaviour: an holistic ethical research framework. [Consult, Approve, Research and Evaluate framework] via @asab.org cc @asabeducation.bsky.social - www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A call for CARE in animal behaviour: an holistic ethical research framework
Despite increasing awareness of animal welfare, there are vast discrepancies between legal protections and recommended practices for different species…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 22, 2025 at 7:06 AM
2026. A call for CARE in animal behaviour: an holistic ethical research framework. [Consult, Approve, Research and Evaluate framework] via @asab.org cc @asabeducation.bsky.social - www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted
Interesting article on the possibility of pain in prawns and how these animals are treated in farming and fisheries #crustacean #animalwelfare
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
Do prawns feel pain? Why scientists are urging a rethink of Australia’s favoured festive food
Studies show crustaceans can learn, remember, solve problems and form relationships
www.theguardian.com
December 21, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Interesting article on the possibility of pain in prawns and how these animals are treated in farming and fisheries #crustacean #animalwelfare
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
We really need to rethink how we use animal models in neuroscience
Transfer to a naturalistic setting restructures fear responses in laboratory mice
Zipple et al. show that transferring laboratory mice to naturalistic outdoor enclosures
prevents and even reverses a canonical anxiety phenotype in rodents. The findings
underscore the value of studyi...
www.cell.com
December 16, 2025 at 10:19 PM
We really need to rethink how we use animal models in neuroscience
Reposted
The global appetite for factory farmed chicken was deliberately engineered by an industry searching for ‘efficiency’.
Who owns your chicken? We’ve mapped the corporate power behind the world’s favourite meat
The global appetite for factory farmed chicken was deliberately engineered by an industry searching for ‘efficiency’.
tcnv.link
December 13, 2025 at 12:40 PM
The global appetite for factory farmed chicken was deliberately engineered by an industry searching for ‘efficiency’.
I’ve got some issues with the big interpretive overreach - particularly considering several obvious weak points in the design - but this is kinda interesting all the same
Seeing both sides: dogs’ eyes reveal valence-sensitive shifts between emotional states
Abstract. Left-right asymmetries in behaviour, reflecting underlying asymmetries in brain activity, can serve as indirect markers of internal states. Howev
royalsocietypublishing.org
December 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM
I’ve got some issues with the big interpretive overreach - particularly considering several obvious weak points in the design - but this is kinda interesting all the same
Reposted
Scientific misconduct can waste public funds and harm human health. But views differ about the best way to tackle it.
Should Australia establish an independent body to investigate scientific misconduct? We asked 5 experts
theconversation.com
December 12, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Scientific misconduct can waste public funds and harm human health. But views differ about the best way to tackle it.
Reposted
December 8, 2025 at 8:07 AM
The Reith lectures are always worth a listen. This year’s series doesn’t disappoint.
BBC Audio | The Reith Lectures | 1. A Time of Monsters
Dutch historian Rutger Bregman delivers his first BBC Reith Lecture: Moral Revolution.
www.bbc.com
December 5, 2025 at 9:38 PM
The Reith lectures are always worth a listen. This year’s series doesn’t disappoint.