On November 12 and 13, second-year MSU College of Veterinary Medicine students Rachel Baumgardner, Anne Meyers, and Kathleen Grace were awarded third place overall at the 2016 Intercollegiate Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment Contest in Columbus, Ohio. The conference is hosted each year by the American Veterinary Medical Association, and teaches veterinary students, graduates, and undergraduates how to assess the welfare of animals using scientific methods and reasoning.

The two-day conference includes one day of learning and one day of competition, during which teams are judged on their knowledge of welfare for four different species. During the first day, several experts were brought in to discuss this year’s species: laying hens, guinea pigs, meat sheep, and purebred dogs.

During the competition, students competed both as a team and individually. The team competition was a live examination of laying hens. Students traveled to The Ohio State University’s farms and assessed the living conditions for laying hens. They had 30 minutes to determine what could be improved upon and what the farm was doing well. Then they presented their findings to a team of judges in a 10-minute presentation in the veterinary student division.  

For the individual competition, the students were given three scenarios and had to determine which animal on which farm was in better living conditions. They had 20 minutes to prepare a 3-minute argument to defend their choice. CVM student Rachel Baumgardner earned first place in the individual veterinary student division. Baumgardner said that she enjoyed competing because of the hands-on experience.

“No matter what you’re interested in, your job as a veterinarian revolves around the welfare of animals,” said Baumgardner. “The competition encourages you to think about animal welfare early on and allows you to gain real skills, like effectively articulating your reasoning for a decision.”

The MSU Animal Welfare Team’s coach is Dr. Carla Carleton, associate professor of Large Animal Clinical Sciences. Dr. Carleton is assisted by Dr. John Parker of Novi, Michigan.