Why UFAW's work is important

Humans have been farming animals for a very long time (over 10,000 years) and, over the past few decades, considerable progress has been made in improving farm animal welfare (such as better-quality veterinary care, enhanced nutrition, and a greater understanding of animal behaviour and genetics). However there are still some long-standing welfare issues facing today’s farmed animals that have proved difficult to deal with.

For instance, did you know that in the UK it is estimated that the prevalence of dairy cow lameness is 22.1%? Given that the UK has a dairy herd of approximately 1.9 million cows, 419,900 dairy cows may be suffering from lameness at any one time in the UK alone.

To see some examples of UFAWs work in this area (and to show why it is so important to support animal welfare research and to disseminate important findings) the following examples have been selected to highlight a number of welfare issues that still affect many millions of animals every day:

1. Lameness in dairy cattle
2. Keel damage in laying hens
3. Castration in pigs
4. Farmed fish welfare

 The Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) is an internationally recognised, independent scientific and educational animal welfare charity. It works to improve knowledge and understanding of animals’ needs in order to achieve high standards of welfare for farm, companion, research, captive wild animals and those with which we interact in the wild.

To find out more about the work we do please click here, or if you want to donate to UFAW please follow this link thank you for your support.