Resources on this portal are designed to support and enrich the learning and teaching of animal welfare and ethics for veterinary students in Australia and New Zealand. They have been developed in consultation with experts from all the veterinary schools in this region.

Materials are organized around eight key themes – two general themes: animal ethics; and animal welfare science; and six context-specific themes drawn from the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy (AAWS): livestock/production animals; animals used for work, sport, recreation or display; companion animals; animals in the wild; aquatic animals; and animals used in research and for teaching purposes.

On this site you will find – a summary of the important issues for each theme, interactive scenarios, a tool for reflecting on your attitudes to animals, award winning student essays about animal welfare, videos about important concepts in animal welfare science and ethics, and more!

Many of the resources on this site are publicly available, though others are only accessible by login or invitation. The latter include assessment resources for teachers and the discussion tool Chatterbox.

You should expect to be engaged and challenged by these materials, and we welcome your feedback to help us update, and further develop, refine and improve these resources.