The 2015 winners of the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Animal Welfare Science were presented with their awards at the UFAW international symposium ‘Animal Populations – World Resources and Animal Welfare Science’, held recently in Zagreb, Croatia. Professor Georgia Mason of the Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Guelph, Canada received the UFAW commemorative medal and £3,000 in recognition of her exceptional achievements in the advancement of animal welfare over many years.
Professor Mason is highly regarded for her groundbreaking work on stereotypies in a variety of species, and is now widely recognized as the world authority on stereotypic behaviour. Georgia was also the first to use a multi-species comparative approach to address questions relating to animal welfare. She studied mink motivation in her early research, and has continued to work with mink farmers on practical ways to improve mink welfare, resulting in environmental enrichment now being a requirement for farmed mink in Canada. Georgia has brought a critical quantitative approach to the subject of animal welfare that has drawn admiration from a wide variety of scientists, and is an excellent role model for the next generation of animal welfare scientists.