NIVA members were given the fantastic opportunity to go and listen to Temple Grandin on the 11th May 2017.  We were given a limited amount of places by Queens University Belfast and found these places proved popular.  Everyone who went to the lecture was blown away by how amazing Temples lecture was and noted how informative the question and answer session proved to be.

Her topics on the evening included:

• Her unique perspective on the humane treatment of livestock for slaughter.
• Beef cattle behaviour during handling.
• Environmental enrichment for pigs
• Design of animal handling facilities, especially visual distractions and other environmental distractions
• Impact of good handling on production
• Familiarisation of animals to environmental distractions
• Simple ways of measuring animal welfare
• The importance of not allowing “bad” to become “normal” (in terms of welfare, breeding etc. – e.g. brachycephalic dogs, unacceptable percentages of lame dairy cows)