Faculty of Land and Food Systems

This month, I had the pleasure of interviewing David Fraser, Order of Canada member and professor in Animal Welfare.

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Winnie: Could you describe your area of research and how you ended up there?

David: I’ve always had an interest in animals. As a child I couldn’t stay away from ponds, fields and bird watching. I went on to complete my Ph.D. in animal behavior in the United Kingdom in the 1970’s. Just at that time, there was an explosion of public concern over the ‘intensive’ raising of farm animals in that country, and people saw that we could improve living conditions by understanding the natural behaviour of the animals.

W: What did you do after graduating with your Ph.D.?

D: My first job was in Edinburgh where I was hired to do animal behaviour research on pigs to address concerns about animal welfare. After a few years I wanted to come back to Canada, but at that time the idea of applying science to improve animal welfare had not caught hold in this country. However, one of my young brothers, knowing about my interest in large animals, sent me an advertisement for a research position on moose. I had never seen moose at that point, but for some reason I was offered the job. That led to six years of field research on protecting moose habitat and reducing wildlife-traffic accidents. After that, I took a scientist position at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa where I worked for 17 years and recruited a wonderful young colleague named Dan Weary!

W: Oh! I see…and how did you both end up here?

D: In the late 1990s, there was a huge budget cut for agricultural research, and our entire institute, which was the largest concentration of farm animal research in the country, was closed. Just at that time, Jim Thompson, as chairman of the old Animal Science Department at UBC, had the funding to begin a program in animal welfare, and both Dan and I relocated here in 1997.

W: Was that how our Animal Welfare Program started?

D: Yes. There was a long-standing program in Animal Science dating back to the 1920s. But within that general area Dan and I (later joined by Marina von Keyserlingk) began the more specialized program focused on Animal Welfare, including post-graduate training, research and public outreach.

W: What kind of public outreach do you do?

D: The three of us do a lot of education and advising, all across Canada and the United States, plus South America and Southeast Asia, working especially with agricultural and veterinary organizations. I also work with organizations such as the FAO (the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) and the World Organization for Animal Health. Dan and Marina do a huge amount of continuing education with the dairy industry, and are of tremendous help to organizations like Dairy Farmers of Canada, the National Farm Animal Care Council, and the Canadian Council on Animal Care.

W: Why do you think animal welfare is so popular now?

D: Two things: one cultural and the other agricultural. In terms of culture, we have seen a huge growth in public attention to animal issues. Things we did 50 years ago – like exterminating wolves or capturing chimpanzees for use in research – are now unacceptable or controversial at least. This change in attitude has resulted in people questioning animal production practices and wanting to see improvements in the quality of life of animals on farms, in laboratories, in zoos and so on.

In terms of agriculture, there has been an interesting evolution. In the early days of UBC, people studied ‘animal husbandry’ which included the feeding, breeding, handling and management of animals. Over the years, the emphasis narrowed to some core areas of ‘animal science’ such as nutrition and genetics, with hardly any research on animal handling, housing and management. I think animal welfare is filling that important gap by creating a body of science to deal with the basics of good animal care and management.

W: What do you love most about your job?

D: It’s hard to choose just one thing so I’ll narrow it down to three.

1st are our undergraduate courses. Dan, Marina and I have created courses on ‘Animals and Society’, ‘Animal Welfare and the Ethics of Animal Use’, and soon a new one on ‘Animals and Global Issues’. We more or less live and breathe these topics, and it’s simply a pleasure to share our enthusiasm with a captive audience.

2nd are our graduate students. We attract excellent, motivated and passionate students who are already doing wonderful things in the world of animal welfare, and it is very rewarding to help them develop their skills to move on to the workplace.

3rd is the outreach activities that apply our research in practical ways. Over the years I have seen good science lead to tremendous improvements in animal care methods and animal welfare standards, and being part of this process gives a great feeling of accomplishment.

W: Could you offer some words of advice for students contemplating studies in Animal Welfare?

D: We get about 300 students per year enquiring about our graduate program, and we can accept maybe 3 or 4. Basically the students we accept need to be very committed to improving animal welfare, but they also have to be very focused on science and very good at research.

W: So just liking cats and dogs is not enough?

D: Liking animals is essential, but to be effective in animal welfare research you also need to be organized, scientific and an original thinker:

…basically a science geek with compassion!

W: What areas can animal welfare graduates work?

D: A number of our students are now employed with the BC SPCA and other agencies where their scientific orientation is making a huge difference. Others have gone into into the dairy industry and food companies. In fact, many companies now have animal welfare policies and staff who make sure that there are good animal welfare standards in their supply chain – companies like Whole Foods and Burger King.

W: Burger King?? Tell me more!

D: Burger King called me in 2001 because they wanted to create a program of animal welfare standards for their suppliers, and they have been very committed to this ever since.

W: Are you still consulting for them?

D: Yes, roughly twice a year I’ll meet with them to discuss what they are doing, and often we will visit one of their suppliers to see for ourselves how the animals are being treated.

W: Final question. You are a member of the Order of Canada! What was it like to meet the Governer General?

D: The most interesting thing was seeing the diversity of the people appointed to the Order of Canada. I was one of about 50 invested in the spring of 2007. Along with me, there was an agriculturalist who pioneered low-tillage crop production, a physician who contributed to the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease (now a good friend), the man who led the anti-tobacco campaign in Canada, and a nun who has fostered music education in the martime provinces. It’s a humbling experience to see what others have accomplished.