Worksop “Improving animal welfare - a practical approach”

The workshop entitled “Improving animal welfare - a practical approach”, was held in Warsaw from the 11^th to the 12^th of April. This event is one of several workshops, which are being organized by the European Commission with the aim of providing both freelance and official veterinarians with a deeper understanding of animal welfare.

The workshop, which lasted three days, was held at the Warsaw Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and was implemented in cooperation with the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE), the Polish National Chamber of Veterinary Surgeons (KILW), the General Veterinary Inspectorate (GIW), the Warsaw Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (SGGW) and the Warsaw Chamber of Veterinary Surgeons (WILW).

Thanks to theoretical and practical sessions, the participants could exchange opinions with each other about the themes concerning animal welfare, in particular the legislation applicable to animal welfare, the critical welfare issues and specific welfare assessment schemes for the evaluation of the welfare conditions of different species, e.g. pigs, horses, bovine, wild animals in captivity and zoos.

Two representatives of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale” (IZSAM) were invited to take part to the third day of the workshop, which concerned the improvement of animal welfare in shelters. IZSAM made an important contribution by describing only some of its activities for the management of the stray cat and dog population. In particular, the projectsCAROdog and CAROcat and the Shelter Quality protocol were presented. The projects CAROdog and CAROcat (launched respectively in 2010 and 2013) aim to promote and develop a culture of responsible pet ownership in Europe. The website is an immediate interface where all the information on the activities carried out in the previous years by the working groups are stored (workshops and conferences) and where the newest information about the future activities are displayed. CAROdog is furthermore a reliable and valid instrument for the promotion of responsible pet ownership (Official Journal of the European Union, 2013, p. 21).

The Shelter Quality protocol is an innovative tool developed within the framework of a research project financed by the Italian Ministry of Health in cooperation with the Institut de Recerca i Tecnologìa Agroalimentarias of Catalunya (IRTA) in Spain. The protocol allows the evaluation of the welfare conditions of sheltered dogs and represents a first step towards the evaluation of the welfare conditions of sheltered animals through an approach based on animals.