home contact us site map
EMERGENCY contact
email this page register with RSPCA  
RSPCA Poll
Do you have pet insurance for your pet? 
Yes I have RSPCA pet insurance 
Yes I have pet insurance with another provider 
No but I would consider purchasing pet insurance in the future 
No and I wouldn't consider purchasing pet insurance 
Science Update Index

Subject

Summary Title - Issue #

Farm Animals

Cattle

  • Anaesthesia in the dehorning of calves: 11
  • Enrichment devices for feedlot cattle: 3
  • • Religious slaughter in cattle 15
  • Tail docking in dairy cattle: 4

Pigs

  • Aggression in pigs: 22
  • Behavioural and welfare considerations for individually housed pigs: 5
  • Breeding out stress in pigs: 4
  • Castration in pigs: 6, 14, 22
  • Environmental conditions and gilt behaviour: 9
  • Environmental enrichment for pigs: 9, 13, 15, 19
  • Feeding programmes for pigs: 3
  • Indoor housing for sows and their litters: 3
  • Nose ringing and exploratory behaviour in gilts: 5
  • Piglet crushing: 11
  • Providing pigs with straw reduces aggressive behaviour: 3, 16
  • Sow behaviour in outdoor farrowing huts: 6
  • Sow preferences for walls to lean against when lying down: 12
  • Space requirements in pigs: 6
  • Tail biting in pigs: 6
  • Tooth clipping in piglets: 8, 10, 14
  • Weaning: 18

Poultry

  • Broiler hen welfare: 1, 3, 7, 8, 11
  • Broiler watering systems: 20
  • Cannibalism: 19
  • Controlled atmosphere stunning/killing: 15, 19, 22
  • Dustbathing: 4, 14
  • Effect of mothering on chicken behaviour: 2
  • Factors influencing vent pecking in layer hens in alternative systems: 1
  • Feather pecking: 1, 2, 10, 19
  • Layer hen welfare: 1, 3, 19
  • Public expectations of broiler welfare: 20
  • Slaughter: 17
  • Water for ducks: 22
  • Welfare implications of deflighting procedures in captive birds: 1

Sheep

  • Assessment of pain and welfare in sheep: 13
  • Body temperature as a measure of stress in sheep: 3
  • Flooring for housed rams: 16
  • Forces involved with dragging sheep: 5
  • Malnutrition and sheep mortality during drought: 14
  • Mulesing: 17, 21, 22
  • Pain relief for newborn lambs before castration and tail docking: 1

General

  • Assessment of farm animal welfare: 8, 17
  • Assessment of mass-produced farm animal housing: 5
  • Beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of abattoir personnel: 7
  • Can fish suffer?: 11, 16, 19, 22
  • Characteristics of a good guard llama: 4
  • Genetics and animal welfare: 22
  • Housing: 17
  • How can farm animal welfare be improved?: 2, 17
  • Importance of the human-animal relationship for the welfare of farmed animals: 13, 17
  • Legislation: 18
  • Maternal deprivation: 18
  • Optimal group sizes for farm animals: 16
  • RSPCA UK Freedom Food scheme: 8
  • Shelter: 18
  • Slaughter: 21, 22
  • Space requirements of meat turkeys: 4
  • Stockmanship: 17
  • Vocalisation in farm animals as a measure of welfare: 12
  • Welfare of non-traditional farm animals: 14

Companion animals

Dogs

  • Aggressive characteristics of dogs and risk factors for dog bites in domestic households: 1
  • Anti-barking muzzles for dogs: 9
  • Behavioural problems in dogs: 2, 22
  • Behavioural rehabilitation of shelter dogs: 21
  • Biting: 20
  • Canine adoption: 7
  • Canine aggression: 22
  • Canine anxieties and phobias: 22
  • Do citronella spray collars reduce barking?: 1
  • Dog ownership in Australia: 7, 22
  • Dog training methods: 8
  • Effect of early development on dog temperament : 3, 18
  • Effect of scents on the behaviour of shelter dogs: 11
  • Environmental enrichment for kennelled dogs: 9, 22
  • Health benefits of dog ownership: 15
  • Human contact can reduce stress in shelter dogs: 13
  • Legislation concerning aggressive dog breeds: 21
  • Mental health: 22
  • Play and the dog-human relationship: 2
  • Prediction of problem behaviour in dogs after adoption from animal shelters: 1
  • Problems with pedigree dogs: 14, 18
  • Puppy school and retention of dogs in the home: 8, 17, 22
  • Shock collars: 9, 14, 16
  • Tail docking in dogs: 6
  • Temperament tests: 15, 18
  • Thunderstorm-phobia in dogs: 12
  • Treatment of separation anxiety in dogs: 11, 17
  • What happens to shelter dogs?: 9

Cats

  • Cat fear and anxiety: 22
  • Cat housing in rescue shelters: 6, 16
  • Cat behavioural therapy: 21
  • • Introducing children and other pets to new pets: 22
  • Requirements of domestic cats kept indoors: 12

General

  • Music in shelters: 4
  • Noise in the animal shelter environment: 14
  • Pet behavioural problems: 22
  • Vet training at animal shelters: 22

Animals used for Sport and Entertainment

Horses

  • Attitudes towards pain in horses: 5
  • Crib-biting and gastric inflammation in young horses: 5
  • Effects of stabling conditions on the social behaviour of stallions: 2
  • Equitation science: 19
  • Foraging enrichment for stabled horses: 12
  • Racehorse injuries in the UK: 2
  • Racehorse fatalities: 19
  • Self-mutilation: 22
  • Stereotypic behaviours: 18

Zoo animals

  • A review of environmental enrichment and aggression in primates: 13
  • Aggression in chimpanzees: 20
  • Aquatic zoos: 10
  • Carnivore home range: 7
  • Effect of zoo visitor numbers on stress in captive spider monkeys: 11
  • Human- animal relationships in zoos: 18
  • Stress in captive gorillas: 22
  • Tiger transport: 7
  • Training zoo animals: 9

General

  • Pain in fish: 22

Wildlife

  • 1080 Poisoning: 10, 19
  • Assessment of stress in non-human primates: 12
  • Bait acceptability: 6
  • Bait outcomes: 6
  • Contraception: 17
  • Counting feral horses: 4
  • Effectiveness of ROO- guards: 9
  • Elephant management in zoos: 15, 16, 20
  • Estimate of marine mammal by catch in U.S and global fisheries: 13
  • Feral cats: 22
  • Fox baiting and quolls: 7
  • Fox control: 10
  • Group housing of mammals in captivity: 14
  • Humane vertebrate pest control: 5, 9
  • Magpie management: 7
  • Maintaining behavioural diversity in captivity: 5
  • Protecting wildlife from owned cats: 17
  • Rehabilitation and release of injured wildlife: 2
  • Sea gull deterrence: 20
  • Stereotypic behaviour in captive wombats: 14
  • Tranquiliser trap for dingoes: 10
  • Translocated squirrels: 8
  • Wildcats and dingoes: 8

Animal Research and Experimentation

Lab animals

  • Assessing pain in lab animals: 6
  • Compassion for lab animals: 7
  • Evaluation and treatment of pain in rats and mice: 7
  • Laboratory animal stress induced by laboratory conditions: 11, 18, 20, 22
  • Maternal behaviour: 22
  • Stress in lab birds: 21
  • Training primates: 17
  • Weaning rodents early: 17
  • What do rats want in a cage?: 4

GM animals

  • Simplified method for producing transgenic animals: 4
  • Welfare of genetically modified animals: 10
  • Welfare of transgenic pigs: 6

General

  • Animal welfare science: 13
  • Ethics committees: 3
  • Exploring the inter-relationship between health, welfare and behaviour: 13

Humane Killing

  • Blood loss after religious slaughter or stunning: 10
  • Carbon dioxide for euthanasia: 15
  • Chicken stunners: 4
  • Comparison of the humaneness of methods used for killing fish: 4
  • Indicators of death in cetaceans: 8
  • Religious slaughter: 17, 22
  • Stunning fish: 4, 8

Transportation of Animals

  • Air transport and horses: 6
  • Bobby calf welfare during transportation: 11
  • Cattle transport from Australia: 7
  • Effect of journey and lairage time on steers: 6, 19
  • Food and water deprivation before livestock transport: 20
  • Head height and stocking density requirements for sheep in transit: 2
  • Hens and transport stressors: 5
  • Long distance transport of livestock for slaughter: 16, 20, 21
  • Pig transport: 19

General Welfare

  • Animal cruelty and child abuse: 16
  • Animal sentience: 15, 18
  • Animal training: 20
  • Animal Welfare Forum: 8
  • Animals and the law: 20
  • Assessing pain in animals: 3
  • Confinement: 20
  • Global animal welfare: 20
  • Is pain special?: 8
  • Reducing pain associated with animal husbandry procedures: 2
  • Science in the Service of Animal Welfare: 8
Use of this website is conditional upon your acceptance and compliance with certain Terms and Conditions.  Please click here .Copyright © RSPCA Australia