INTERBEING by AnimalConcepts

In this episode Mirian Vilela guides us through the importance of sustainable development.  She is originally from Brazil, but now she works in Costa Rica as the Executive Director of the Earth Charter International Secretariat and Earth Charter Center on Education for Sustainable Development. She is also a professor in the University for Peace teaching in the areas of Sustainable Development, Environmental Governance, and Education for Sustainable Development.

Mirian discusses the Earth Charter document that articulates values and principles for a more sustainable, compassionate world, explaining the document’s vision that inspires a global movement for a better world and social justice with ecological integrity. “I fell in love with the work of the Earth Charter because of the possibility to meet people from all regions of the world,” Mirian comments, highlighting the truly inclusive nature of the movement.

She presents the Earth Charter Center on Education for Sustainable Development and shines a spotlight on, “the importance of education as a main driver for social transformation,” and the need to cultivate this thinking around global issues. She describes the courses for young leaders, educators and professionals to develop research in training between sustainability, values and education. Education is fundamental, and at its core we must have a base for contributing to the wellbeing of society.

Mirian also discusses the relevance of individual actions and how they truly do generate an impact. She believes that the more knowledge we have, the more of a sense of responsibility to care for others and for the common good we should have. Aditionally, she talks about the Earth Charter’s theme for this year "Turning consciousness into action” and comments on previous years.

Applying this Earth Charter vision to the natural world, she suggests to move away from the anthropocentric overview to a more ecocentric view. This vision can also be applied in animals, to see things in a more horizontal way, not in domination of other living beings. In conclusion, she inspires us with messages about transformative education and shares some practical examples.

Find out more about Mirian and the Earth Charter HERE. 

We are delighted to welcome Mark Kingston Jones on this next episode of the iBuzz podcast! Mark is a co-founder of Team Building With Bite, which aims to increase cohesion and animal welfare by having teams come together to build enrichment devices. He is also the workshop Coordinator for The Shape of Enrichment, a non-profit dedicated to promoting environmental enrichment around the world. The organisation is based on two key founding principles: goal-based and holistic welfare programmes. 

Having always wanted to work with animals, Mark originally planned to become a keeper, but a desire to pursue research sent him down the path of education. Throughout his time in the field, he has seen environmental enrichment shift from being thought of as simply toys and extras to being an integral part of animal welfare. By creating behavioural opportunities and giving animals some choice and control in deciding if and how they want to interact with a change in their environment (such as feeding devices, changes in physical habitat, sensory opportunities, etc.) we strive to cover all of an animals’ wants and needs in human care and provide them with holistic welfare. 

Mark highlights that goal-based programmes are crucial to interpreting success. Defining what you hope to achieve with enrichment and setting general and/or specific goals will determine how you assess enrichment and the decisions you make in your programmes. There is no one-size-fits-all enrichment, so in all programmes there must be a focus on the animals themselves (both as individuals and, if applicable, as members of their group) to make informed decisions. Monitoring is key for all new programmes because animals are often surprising in how they respond to enrichment.

Mark also discusses the importance of caring for animals 24/7 across lifespan and tailoring environmental enrichment to support animals at all stages of their lives. Looking at safety, he stresses the need to make the best decision from the animals’ point of view and measure the risks against the benefits. 

In conclusion, Mark shares some stories about enrichment, luck, and overcoming limitations, reminding us that limitations can appear in many forms, from institutional to in our own minds. 

Read more about Team Building With Bite HERE!

Support them on Patreon HERE!

Read more about The Shape of Enrichment HERE! 

In this episode, we are joined by Margo DeMello (PhD, Cultural Anthropology, UC Davis), Assistant Professor at Carroll College in the Anthrozoology Program. Margo has also been an adjunct professor in the Canisius College Anthrozoology program, she directed the Human-Animal Studies program at the Animals & Society Institute for 15 years, and she is the immediate past president of House Rabbit Society. She has published over a dozen books, most within the field of human-animal studies and body studies, and dozens of articles and book chapters.

To introduce us to her work and field, Margo explains the field of anthrozoology, the study of human-animal relationships, and what goes into pursuing a degree. She describes it as a lens through which we can look at other species in a way that challenges anthropocentrism and recognises that humans and animals have always been interlinked.

After working with the Animals & Society Institute for 15 years, Margo shares the main focuses of the organisation: exploring the question of violence in human-animal relationships, helping students and faculty to find and build the field, and using the field’s literature to shape policy about animals. Additionally, Margo tells us about another important organisation in her life, the House Rabbit Society, and how their work helped transform rabbits from a somewhat third class pet kept outside with limited medical care and companionship to being widely considered worthy of respect and compassion.

Margo has written many books on animals, and shares insights with us from several of her works. Her textbook, Animals & Society, was written to ensure the field was sustainable and had the resources it needed to succeed and grow. Why Animals Matter, written together with Erin E. Wiliams, is an overview of the issues facing animals and the main areas where humans and animals coexist, covering animals in entertainment, hunting and relationships with wildlife, meat consumption, and pets. Speaking for Animals questions who has the right to advocate for who, and what the implications are for everyone else.

Lastly, Margo tells us a bit about her book Mourning Animals that examines who gets to be mourned, how it is done with respect to cultural practices, and who doesn’t get to be mourned. in the animal care field death is unfortunately encountered regularly as the years go by and there isn’t always space for feelings of grief when we lose animals. Luckily, the field is shifting, and many beautiful rituals are emerging to help not only humans but the animals left behind to mourn their loved ones. Speaking to animal care professionals, Margo recommends reaching out to others when mourning an animal and having people to talk to who care about you and also care about animals so you can honestly express how you’re feeling.

For more info on Anthrozoology:
Society & Animals
Anthrozoös
Exeter’s PhD

Jorg Massen, assistant professor of animal ecology at Utrecht University and editorial board member at Animals, joins us in this next episode of the iBuzz podcast. Jorg talks in-depth about a topic we can all appreciate – friendships among animals. 

He begins by sharing a bit about his background and PhD-work studying friendship in macaques, where he found that the concept of friendship between macaques is, in principle, actually the same as it is between humans in terms of how they maintain friendships and what fitness benefits (i.e. survival and reproduction) they gain from these relationships.

Jorg went on to study several different species, including chimpanzees, common marmosets, and a number of corvids. His findings suggest that some animals do make an active choice in their friendships and tend to befriend individuals with similar characteristics, likely because their behaviour is more predictable. Moreover, animals who have friends and more meaningful relationships tend to live longer, so there are tangible welfare implications for being in good company.

Additionally, Jorg discusses the field’s current methods for evaluating self-awareness, such as the mirror self-recognition test, and highlights the need for a far greater number of methods that take into consideration how various animals experience and perceive the world around them.

How can one conduct experimental research with animals without harm to welfare? Jorg always creates situations in which animals can choose to partake, but they never have to. Often, he finds these experiments are actually enriching for animals, as cognitive challenges are a crucial component of positive welfare that many animals are eager to explore.

Jorg concludes with how to apply this knowledge of animal friendships in welfare, highlighting the importance of ensuring social animals have large enough groups in which to explore relationships and choose their friends.

Learn more about Jorg on his website here!

We are delighted to be joined by Al Kordowski in this episode of the iBuzz podcast! Al is an animal behaviour and training practitioner who has trained with 125 different species over the course of his influential career. Though his work training animals has spanned from marine mammals to service dogs to hawks, his number one goal with every animal is the same: building a trusting relationship.  

In our episode, Al begins by sharing with us the evolution of the animal training world from using adverse methods to using positive reinforcement and providing animals with as much choice and control as possible. When he started working as a professional animal trainer, methods for providing veterinary care were far less developed than they are today. Thanks to hard work, it is now commonplace to teach husbandry behaviour to animals, making care safer for both the animal and the animal care professional and further developing their relationship. 

To make animal training the best experience for the animals, Al points out the need for a common language to avoid confusion between animals and trainers. Additionally, he highlights the need for creating a balance of types of sessions (play, learning, exercise, socialisation, relationship), as well as the need for each trainer to consider their own faults in the training process and to recognise when they need help to avoid frustrating both themselves and the animals. 

Al dives into some personal anecdotes that highlight the importance of relationships with animals and shows how, through a small change in training, rather than being a “walking food station” he becomes a walking opportunity for something that is going to enrich the animals’ lives. 

After decades of animal training work, Al still learns something new every single day. He says this attitude towards learning is essential not just to animal care professionals, but to animals as well. Trainers should not work with their animals to establish followers, but life-long learners. Al clarifies that though some skills can be mastered, a true master always wants to learn more.  

In looking to the future, Al points out that it is vital to consider past information and to create a mix of both science and application. The future animal trainer is both a skilled training practitioner and behaviour analyst. He hopes that the animal care community will never lose focus on the importance of an effective training program for the success of an animal welfare program. 

In this episode the father of animal welfare, Donald Broom, Emeritus Professor of Animal Welfare at Cambridge University, Department of Veterinary Medicine and St Catharine's College, takes us on a journey through the emergence of animal welfare as a scientific field and discusses its role in the world today.

Donald is a long-standing pillar of the animal welfare community, having been Chairman or Vice Chairman of EU Scientific Committees on Animal Welfare 1990 – 2012. His many contributions to the field include scientific assessment of animal welfare, cognitive abilities of animals, ethics of animal usage, the evolution of morality, and sustainable farming. He has published over 360 refereed papers and eleven books including: 

"The Evolution of Morality and religion" (2003 CUP)

“Sentience and Animal Welfare” (2014 CABI)

"Domestic Animal Behaviour and Welfare, 5th edition" (2015 CABI) 

“Tourism and Animal Welfare” (2018 CABI) 

“Stress and Animal Welfare: Key Issues in the Biology of Humans and Other Animals”, 2nd edn (2019 Springer)

In our podcast today, Donald shares his experience in the field starting at a time when the scientific community viewed animal welfare as unmeasurable and the greater community viewed animals as machines. He walks us through his work at Cambridge where he raised funds to do scientific work on animal welfare and to develop it as a scientific subject area, and where he became the world’s first ever professor of animal welfare in 1986. Not only did he help to catalyse this scientific shift, but he also witnessed the shift of people starting to think of animals as individuals and not machines, as “we” is now coming to mean all of us sentient beings, not just “we humans”.

Donald shares with us some of the successes that have emerged from animal welfare science, and impresses the need to continue research in all aspects of welfare, particularly on learning studies to give animals more control of their lives. In the modern world, and especially in 2020 as we are confronted with COVID-19, Donald highlights the moral duty that “we the humans have to do something about we the sentient animals” to ensure welfare for all. Together, we can create a world where all we sentient beings are happy and healthy.

More info on Donald Broom is available HERE.

Jessica Dolce is a Certified Compassion Fatigue Educator via the Green Cross of Traumatology, receiving her training through The Figley Institute and Tend Academy. She brings seventeen years of experience working with and for companion animals to her online classes, workshops, and coaching.

Jessica is an adjunct faculty member at The Maddie’s® Shelter Medicine Program at the University of Florida and has worked with organizations such as the ASPCA, Maine Medical Center, Maine Department of Agriculture, Southern Maine Community College, and the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.

Jessica shares her personal stories of connecting with dogs and how she came to work in her education and communication company with 

Jessica discusses the importance of focusing on healthy boundaries and letting go, and taking good care of oneself, and reaching out for support. 

Jessica zooms in on the individual aspects of care and self-care, as well as the need of being heard and seen, and being validated of the experiences and the risks of the job. Jessica also discusses the aspects of providing support and resources. 

Identifying and understanding on an institutional level, and to focus on risk and resilience assessments, and shifting to by identifying occupational hazards and mitigating these, to decrease risk, and increase resilience. 

Jessica and Sabrina discuss similarities and differences between different animal care facilities and the need for psychological safety in the workplace. 

Jessica is the founder of the Compassion in Balance Program which is a year-long, online resilience-building educational program created specifically for animal welfare organizations.

Find out more about Jessica and her company HERE

De eerste Nederlandse podcast is met Dr. Ineke van Herwijnen!

Ineke van Herwijnen behaalde haar Master Nutrition and Health aan Wageningen University (Nederland) met een specialisatie in gezondheidspreventie in 2001. Terwijl ze werkte als communicatiemanager bij een grote multinational, begon ze haar carrière in hondentraining en welzijn, wat leidde tot haar werkzaam bij de Koninklijke Nederlandse Vereniging voor Hondenbescherming.

Ineke is opgeleid tot hondentrainer, tester en therapeut en heeft ruime ervaring op het gebied van hondenbezit en welzijn.

Ineke neemt ons mee naar de aanleiding van haar promotieonderzoek onderwerp en welke onderzoeksvraag er centraal stond.

Opvoedstijlen en visies van dieren en waarom deze belangrijk zijn voor mensen die honden hebben maar ook instructeurs en gedragstherapeuten en specifiek hoe deze van toepassing zijn op de houder-hond relatie wordt besproken en toegelicht.

Ineke verteld natuurlijk weer een paar mooie hondenverhalen en deelt haar ideeën voor vervolgstappen voor onderzoek en educatieve mogelijkheden.

Meer informatie en contact opnemen met Ineke kan HIER

Jim Guenter is the CEO of Species360

Jim has led Species360 since 2015. Before joining our organization, he served in technology leadership roles for major US corporations including Target.com, Best Buy, and Accenture, in computer systems and sciences. Jim also served 5 years in the US Army.

Species360 is a non-profit organisation and works with over 1200 member institutions worldwide, including aquariums, zoos, wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centers, governments, universities and colleges, and others. The member community curates and shares husbandry, welfare, medical, and population data for animals in their care, using a software system called Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS). 

A special module called Care and Welfare allows animal care professionals to record and communicate the welfare of animals in their care, watching the trends over time, being able to monitor different characteristics. From moving around the enclosure, how they interact with other animals and care staff, and more. 

The Species360 team is comprised of animal care and aquatics professionals, software engineers, and member support and training representatives. Species360 also has a team of conservation scientists, called the Species360 Conservation Science Alliance, who work in partnership with the IUCN, CITES, and other organisations. This team, based in Denmark and including a network of universities and research organisations around the world, is focused on how to use global data for species conservation. 

Jim shares success stories of the Species360 team and success stories of zoos and aquariums members, as well zoo associations, that have used for ZIMS for species conservation, and a newer development in collaboration with the IUCN Red List.

Carl Safina is an author and ecologist and founder of The Safina Center, fusing scientific understanding, emotional connection, and a moral call to action. Carl Safina's writing about the living world has won a MacArthur “genius” prize, Pew, and Guggenheim Fellowships; book awards from Lannan, Orion, and the National Academies; and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals.

Carl and talks about 'making a case for life on Earth', how people can help, what is at stake, and how we can make a difference for nature. Stories are what makes information stick, what the Safina Centre does is storytelling and story-making.

Carl talks about his books and the creative spirit of The Safina Center as an original blend of science, art, and literature in the form of books and articles, scientific research, photography, films, sound-art, and spoken words.

Carl shares stories about protecting seabirds, fisheries management, and about animals being able who they are supposed to be, including the animals we eat.

Carl says asking 'what is the meaning of life' is the wrong question, it is asking 'where is the meaning in life', which beautifully connects to animal experiences too.

Carl talks about being on a team, and to play, to take action. Everyone is 'just one person', what can you do, how can you make a difference and take action to affect change. Who do you want to be? What is it that you can do? Are you doing the right thing?

To Carl hope is the understanding that things can get better, and how things can get better. To be empowered, to feel empowered, and the power of hope. "Facts alone can't save the world. Hearts can. Hearts must. We're working to make sure that hearts do."

Follow Carl on Instagram
Find out more about The Safina Center