Every June the world celebrates Pride Month, marking the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and reflecting on how far we have come towards LGBTQIA+ rights and where we still need to go. At AnimalConcepts, we are celebrating LGBTQIA+ inclusion and championing diversity in the zoo and aquarium community with a brand-new free resource addressing the ways in which animal care and other facilities can support staff, students, and visitors no matter how they identify. You can download the free resource HERE

While we wear the rainbow flag for June, it is important to remember as a community that Pride is not something we think about only for one month of the year. There are always things we can do year-round, whether it is day-to-day changes like sharing your pronouns or using inclusive language, or systemic changes like rewriting our DEI policies or building new gender-inclusive infrastructure.

We presented a webinar on gender diversity and inclusion in animal care careers, which explore...

Platform overviews

AnimalConcepts welcomes May with new exciting topics in all platforms!

This month on the animal wellbeing platform is all about nutrition. Nutrition is crucial in captive animal facilities, such as zoos, aquariums, and wildlife sanctuaries, as it directly impacts the health, behaviour, and welfare of the animals. We will explore nutritional needs of different species and how this impacts their wellbeing, we will also investigate feeding enrichment, as well as a holistic and sustainable approach to animal nutrition in captive environments. You can download HERE a list of freely available resources created in 2022 on this topic.

Our focus for May in the space of human wellbeing is “Real love in the workplace”. Every human being has a primal need for love, but most of us fail to realise that this need continues into the workplace. Learn more this month about the eight principles for consistently effective leadership grounded in kindness and care. You can read HERE...

HOT OFF THE PRESS: 

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center, in collaboration with Kore Zoo, AnimalConcepts and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance recently published a groundbreaking study titled Environmental Enrichment Devices Are Safe and Effective at Reducing Undesirable Behaviors in California Sea Lions and Northern Elephant Seals during Rehabilitation 

The use of environmental enrichment with wild animals in rescue and rehabilitation facilities has not always been welcomed, appreciated for its opportunities, or utilised. This collaborative study was conducted by the staff and volunteers at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in California, USA on Northern Elephant seals and California sea lions. The positive outcomes hopefully encourage more organisations to use as well as study the benefits of environmental enrichment to support positive wellbeing through cognitive, social, physical, and other challenges. Enrichment devices can assist young animals during critical learning phases as well a...

Press release:

Subject:

DogPAWS - Dog Wellbeing: Applied Science, Practice & Training 

Today there is a big launch event celebrating a new platform dedicated to the care and wellbeing of dogs everywhere. DogPAWS - Dog Wellbeing: Applied Science, Practice & Training is a collaboration between AnimalConcepts, Sabrina Karl Dog Training and Dogs & Science. 

Purpose

Coming from a culture of care and compassion, and combining the most recent scientific literature and best practices, we strive to improve standards and promote excellent wellbeing for dogs in all forms of human care globally. We believe uniting science, practice and training helps to promote excellence in dog wellbeing. This trinity between science, practice & training is the core of our DogPAWS platform!

The founders of DogPAWS - Sabrina Brando, Dr. Sabrina Karl and Dr. Annika Bremhorst unite to promote excellence in dog care and wellbeing, together they have years of experience in research, practice, and training. Th...

Supporting excellence in dog care and wellbeing is the purpose of “DogPAWS - Dog Wellbeing: Applied Science, Practice and Training”. DogPAWS is a novel online platform that provides everyone with access to continuous science-based learning, sharing opportunities, and resources needed to support optimal dog wellbeing. This platform is an international collaboration between Sabrina Brando and the team at AnimalConcepts, Dr Annika Bremhorst, and Dr Sabrina Karl. More on the founders soon!

To this end, the DogPAWS platform will provide relevant knowledge in various formats such as webinars, reading material, journal clubs, courses, hands-on challenges, and more by invited thought leaders, experts, practitioners, and scientists from various fields related to dog and animal welfare, behaviour, cognition, medicine, ethics, training, and law. DogPAWS is a standalone platform in line with the philosophy and practice of everything and everyone being interconnected.

DogPAWS kicks off with a m...