Hi! I’m Cathy Dwyer! I am Professor of animal behaviour and welfare at SRUC and I am also the Director of the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. I carry out research on a number of areas of animal welfare, including maternal behaviour, offspring development, pain assessment and mitigation, human-animal interactions and welfare assessment in livestock species, particularly sheep, and horses. My research has focused on understanding animal welfare and behavioural interactions, spanning neuroscience and early-life development to implementation of welfare assessment and identifying challenges to improving animal welfare. I also deliver animal welfare teaching and training in the UK and overseas, especially in Asia. I have contributed to a number of EU-funded projects, including AWIN, SheepNet and EUROSheep. In TechCare I lead the Animal Welfare work-package, and helps to develop a prioritisation of animal welfare issues for the project, as well as collecting, assessing and analysing welfare information collected alongside the technology.
