Workshops for veterinary students on free-roaming dog population management and animal welfare in the modern husbandry system
Students of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Belgrade had the occasion to participate on workshops dedicated to free-roaming dog population management and animal welfare in modern husbandry. These workshops were held in June by the experts from the project “Reinforcement of animal health and welfare”.
The workshops were an informal talk where students had the chance to express their views and concerns on the topics, the experts stimulated the debate and the students were very curious and responsive, they complained about the cultural gap in society with the Animal welfare thematics.
Some of the topics of the lectures were “Free-roaming dog population management: from a social problem to job opportunity for veterinarians” and “Animal welfare in the modern husbandry system: an ongoing challenge”. These topics were discussed by international and domestic experts Antonio Di Nardo, Andreas Haidoussis and Antoni Dalmau Bueno.
During the workshops the veterinary students expressed concern about the cost of animal welfare, and who will be paying for that, as the standard Serbian consumer is already under pressure and overburdened. They were also interested on the topic of the economic affordability of a strict non-killing policy in the management of free-roaming unowned dog population. “Going back to dog euthanasia in case of unwanted and unclaimed dogs, as it was in the past, is technically IMPOSSIBLE also on ethical and moral grounds. The civil society and the policy makers together MUST find the economic resources to finance such an ambitious task”, said Key Expert for Animal welfare, Antonio Di Nardo.
The project „Reinforcement Animal health and welfare“ supports the Veterinary Directorate of the Ministry of the Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management in harmonizing national legislation with the European Union and international standards in the field of animal health and welfare and biosecurity.