Hi Reddit,
Our names are Ruã Daros, João Costa, Marina von Keyserlingk, Maria Hötzel, Heather Neave and Daniel Weary. We are researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada and the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil. Our research focuses on animal welfare, how to use changes in behaviour to make inferences about the quality of life that animal’s experience.
We recently published a study entitled "Separation from the Dam Causes Negative Judgement Bias in Dairy Calves” in PLOS ONE.
Young farm animals, including dairy calves, are often separated from the dam far earlier than what occurs under natural conditions. Farms animals are also sometimes subjected to painful procedures like hot-iron dehorning. The aim of this study was to better understand the effects of these routine procedures on the emotions of animals. One way to investigate mood states is to look for evidence of judgement biases. We tested for cognitive biases in calves before and after separation from the cow and dehorning, and found diminished responding to intermediate, ambiguous stimuli (evidence of a pessimistic response) following both physical pain and social loss. This paper illustrates one approach to investigating emotional states in animals, and draws parallels in the emotional experience of physical and social pain.
We will be online at 1pm EST (10am PST), and we look forward to hearing your questions about our work!
Please also follow us in Twitter @ubcAWP.
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