My vision of future research is within the area of Anthrozoology. Anthrozoology is a relatively new field of research on human-animal interactions, but has during the recent years exploded internationally. My vision have ascended from years at the university, where the experience of lack of knowledge among people about animals, about how to handle animals, about how to care for animals has truly struck my mind. It is clear that the research about how humans and animals interact, and how that relation can be improved is needed, and the knowledge needs to be spread.
We are in the middle of a FORMAS project where the human and animal interactions are in the very center. The aim is to study factors affecting both Pig and human welfare during a very stessful event - loading and unloading at time of slaughter.We will investigate the effects of loading and unloading on pig welfare, human wellbeing and work effectiveness of different methods and strategies, and further more study if the influence of education and training of stockpersons has an impact on the effectiveness of loading and unloading. This is that kind of project I would like to work with more and to concentrate on in the future. This requires a multidisciplinary approach with collaboration with researchers from medicine, pedagogy or social sciences. In this project with researchers from Lund University at the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
My next upcoming project is Learning at the Zoo. A project where we sent a FORMAS application this spring. This is a multidisciplinary project where researchers from a biology background at the SLU will work together with researchers from the department of pedagogics at Gothenburg University. The aim with this project is to improve animal welfare and increase the awareness among people concerning animal welfare, conservation, biodiversity and sustainable development by using the zoo as a learning platform tool. We want to improve the important role of zoos in educating people and creating awareness about animal welfare, conservation, biodiversity and sustainable development – there is a huge potential. To do that we need to assess how zoos fulfil the specific requirements in the Swedish animal welfare legislation and Species protection regulation, by performing a qualitative and systematic analysis of routines, performed activities, learning transfer and opportunities to develop knowledge and attitudes. With over 700 million visitors every year globally, zoos have a great opportunity to increase the public's knowledge of animals, nature and conservation. This project will focus on finding best practice and quality assessment strategies for zoos. Methods will be designed to assess the quality of activities performed in the zoo. Methods will facilitate the study of values, motivations, attitudes and behaviours that occur in social interactions.
My vision of future projects have one specific thing in common, and that is the approach of sustainability and environmental awareness. If we are to use animals for different purposes, we have to be clever to do that in an upright ethical and sustainable way, with respect for both animals and humans.
