UC Davis experts: Animal welfare
The following list of UC Davis faculty members are available to comment on various aspects of animal welfare.
- Poultry welfare
- Livestock welfare
- Economic issues
- Dairy cattle housing
- Health and welfare of large populations of animals
Poultry welfare
Joy Mench, an animal science professor and director of the UC Davis Center for Animal Welfare, has found that conventional cage systems restrict hens' movement and natural behaviors, but that free-roaming chickens are more likely to fall victim to cannibalism, health problems associated with increased exposure to their manure, and broken bones. She suggests that so-called "furnished" cage systems, which provide areas for nesting, perching and dust-bathing, may be a humane and cost-effective solution. Contact: Joy Mench, Center for Animal Welfare, (530) 752-7125, .
Livestock welfare
Carolyn Stull, a UC Cooperative Extension animal welfare specialist in the School of Veterinary Medicine, specializes in the welfare of domestic large-animals. Her studies have focused on dairy-calf management practices and alternatives, identifying stress factors for growing hogs on commercial facilities, and the physiological responses of horses to long-distance transportation. In 2000, she assisted in developing a program to certify and label food products that meet animal-welfare standards, launched by the American Humane Association. Contact: Carolyn Stull, Veterinary Medicine Extension, (530) 752-0855, .
Economic issues
Daniel Sumner, the Frank H. Buck Jr. Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics and director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center, is an expert on California's $337 million egg industry. He is an author of a July report issued by the University of California Agricultural Issues Center, "Economic Effects of Proposed Restrictions on Egg-laying Hen Housing in California," which concluded that Proposition 2 would have the effect of shifting most if not all egg production in California outside the state. The study did not address issues of animal welfare. Contact: Dan Sumner, Agricultural and Resource Economics, (530) 752-1668, .
Dairy cattle housing
Cassandra Tucker, an assistant professor in the Department of Animal Science, studies animal welfare issues, with an emphasis on dairy cattle housing. She is particularly interested in how housing design and environmental conditions, such as heat stress, affect dairy cattle behavior and physiological function. She works with both adult dairy cows and dairy calves. Her current research examines how to cool cattle during summer and evaluates the comfort of alternatives to concrete flooring. Contact: Cassandra Tucker, Animal Science, (530) 754-5750, .
Health and welfare of large populations of animals
Kate Hurley is director of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program in the School of Veterinary Medicine. The program applies herd health principles in developing the best management practices for animal shelters, much as a rancher would use these principles for raising livestock. This approach emphasizes the impact that the group environment has on the health of individual animals. Hurley has a particular interest in population health, and infectious- and animal-disease epidemiology. In 2006, she was named Shelter Veterinarian of the Year by the American Humane Association. (She has taken a public position in favor of Prop. 2.) Contact: Kate Hurley, Koret Shelter Medicine Program, (530) 754 4967, .
Media contacts:
- Pat Bailey, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9843, .
Last updated March 15, 2012
