FOR RELEASE: April 21, 1997
Contact: Roger Segelken
Office: (607) 255-9736
Internet: [email protected]
Compuserve: Larry Bernard 72650,565
http://www.news.cornell.edu
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Institute for Animal Welfare has
been established to foster discussion and research on issues concerning
animals in agriculture, laboratories and the wild.
Based in the College of Veterinary Medicine, the institute will provide
financial support for studies by Cornell-affiliated researchers and will
bring to campus speakers on a range of animal-welfare topics. This is one
of the first university-based programs in the United States to provide
grants for animal-welfare research.
"Cornell has a long history of improving standard agricultural practices in
behalf of farm animals, as well as enrichment studies for cats, dogs and
monkeys in laboratory situations. We'd now like to extend those efforts
for other species," said Fred Quimby, V.M.D., director of the Center for
Research Animal Resources (CRAR) at Cornell. He said that more than 25
faculty members in three colleges at Cornell (Agriculture and Life
Sciences, Veterinary Medicine, and Arts and Sciences) have expressed
interest in participating in institute research and that an institute
director soon will be named. The first research grants will be issued this
fall.
Start-up funding for the institute comes from the Geraldine Dodge
Foundation and the Barbour Trust.
"These will be small grants, at least at first, but it's possible to make a
little money go a long way with the right kind of planning," Quimby said.
"We will encourage investigators to join experiments that are already under
way and ask animal-welfare questions in that context," he said, pointing
to a birth-control study with white-tailed deer. Cornell scientists are
evaluating two types of anti-fertility drugs on a large, enclosed deer
population at the nearby Seneca Army Depot -- as a suitable alternative to
reducing populations by controlled hunting. A researcher with a third type
of birth control could readily join that study for little more than the
cost of materials, the CRAR director said.
"It's often possible to design experiments so that the animal can make a
choice and tell us something important about what it prefers," Quimby said,
reporting results of previous and ongoing studies of the type to be funded
by the new institute:
-- Dairy cattle in studies of barn "comfort areas" for cows were given a
choice of bedding materials and voted with their hooves, so to speak, by
getting off them and resting on the material they preferred. Sometimes
animals surprise humans, however. In a classic Cornell study of poultry
preferences, chickens were given the choice of flooring materials (wooden
slats or wire mesh). The chickens chose to walk on wire mesh, apparently
because wire offers more points of support for their feet.
-- Laboratory rabbits were traditionally housed one to a cage because
researchers believed the animals would fight. In fact, wild cottontail
rabbits will fight others in the same cage, but rabbits that are bred for
research are not cottontails. Cornell researchers tried housing litter
mates together, and the sociable animals now appreciate the chance for
companionship.
-- When baboons in medical research appeared to be bored in their cages,
Cornell researchers designed an enclosed primate playpen. Now baboons can
get their exercise and lab workers can "break down" the playpen into
modules that fit in cage-washer machines. Lab primates also were shown to
prefer a challenge at mealtime. They would rather search for edible seeds
that animal attendants have hidden in pieces of wool fleece, compared with
receiving the same food in bowls. The extra effort to find their food is
reducing some stereotypical behavior of captive animals, such as cage
pacing.
-- Pregnant sows, once held throughout gestation in individual pens, are
now maintained in group pens. Special feeding stations allow each animal
to enter and eat undisturbed by the others. Farm managers can now set
ideal individualized feeding programs for each sow with the assistance of
computer monitoring. In addition, boars now enjoy safe socialization with
their neighbors since solid-wall wood pens have been replaced with airy
open pen dividers.
-- Hoping to enrich the lives of laboratory baboons, a Cornell student
researcher gave the primates their choice of videotapes, including natural
history documentaries featuring other primates. The baboons indicated
their displeasure with primate television by shrieking in fear and hiding
their eyes. However, they love television cartoons and sometimes choose to
watch the same cartoon over and over.
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