Animal welfare resources

EAZA Welfare Webinars

EAZA Welfare Webinars are free and open to all, to support animal management professionals across the wider animal management community. Joining the webinars is a fantastic opportunity to gain professional development from experts in the animal welfare field, which you can apply within your own work to promote evidence-based positive animal welfare.

View the past welfare webinar recordings

Our next Welfare Webinar:

When? 5 February, from 1 to 2 pm (CET)

What? Despite gaining significant attention over recent decades, the topic of animal welfare remains heavily focused on terrestrial animals, particularly mammals, with far fewer studies addressing fish and reptiles. Among fish welfare studies, the majority focus on laboratory or farmed fish. Out of the 310 papers published by zoo and aquarium from 2008–2017, only two were dedicated to fish.

This talk aims to introduce the concept of fish welfare, emphasizing recent research that demonstrates fish are sentient beings capable of experiencing suffering, and to highlight the steps S.E.A. Aquarium is taking to address these welfare needs. The challenges, such as monitoring fish underwater and the diverse nature of fish species, should not deter our efforts to provide optimal care for fish.

Who? This talk is tailored to individuals working in institutions that house fish, encouraging a greater focus on their welfare.

About the speaker

Claudia Tay is the Manager of Animal Welfare and Behaviour Science at S.E.A. Aquarium, Singapore, where she oversees efforts to enhance the welfare and care of the aquarium’s diverse aquatic species. Her role focuses on implementing evidence-based practices and developing behavioral management programs to promote optimal wellbeing. Claudia also contributes to advancing animal welfare globally through her involvement with the EAZA Animal Welfare Working Group, WAZA Animal Ethics and Welfare Committee, and SEAZA Animal Welfare and Ethics Committee, reflecting her commitment to driving progress in animal welfare standards within and beyond the aquarium industry.

What is coming in 2025? Get a sneak peek and save the dates!

Provisional dates	Webinar titles	Speakers	Roles and affiliations
13 January 2025	Behind Closed Doors: Considering 24-hour Welfare	Emily Hanley	Lead Keeper (Asian Elephant Team) at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo (UK), EAZA Animal Welfare Working Group Member, EAZA Academy Instructor (Welfare Assessment)
5 February 2025	Swimming Towards Better Welfare Practices for Fish	Claudia Tay	Manager of Animal Welfare and Behaviour Science at S.E.A. Aquarium (Singapore), EAZA Animal Welfare Working Group Advisor
12 March 2025	(TBC) Identifying and managing pain in zoo animals	Heather Bacon	University of Central Lancashire
2 June 2025	The importance of human-animal interactions for zoo animal welfare	Samantha Ward	Associate Professor of Zoo Animal Welfare at Nottingham Trent University (UK), EAZA Records Working Group
date tbc	(TBC) Learning and cognitive abilities in aquatic species	Kai Mattson
date tbc	(TBC) Coral welfare: What does a coral tell you?	Max Janse	Aquarium Curator at Royal Burger's Zoo, EAZA Aquarium Representative and Chair of the European Union of Aquarium Curators (EUAC)

Animal Welfare Assessments

The ability to assess animal welfare within our zoo and aquarium collections is a very valuable tool. Periodic assessment will not only provide understanding of the current state of welfare for the animals in our care, but it will also allow for monitoring of welfare changes and identify areas for welfare improvement.

To help support our Members to fulfil EAZA Standards, the EAZA Executive Office and the EAZA Animal Welfare Working Group (AWWG) have created a guide on how to develop your own institutional welfare assessment programme.

We encourage you to read this guide and believe this will be a helpful resource to your zoo / aquarium to move forward the aim of excellent welfare for all animals in EAZA Members.

Download the guide

Library

The EAZA Animal Welfare Assessments Library is a collection of previously established animal welfare assessments / auditing tools that have been kindly shared from researchers and animal management institutions.

The established assessments all take slightly different approaches to welfare monitoring and therefore this gives the opportunity to align your organisations needs with the appropriate pre-established assessments. A decision-making tool has been provided for the full library by the EAZA Animal Welfare Working Group in order to support Members in selecting the most appropriate assessment for their needs.

A number of institutions have offered to share their welfare assessment tools publicly. Please see below the welfare assessment library for public use. It will continue to grow with more institutions offering their assessments and more translations of the current assessments being submitted.

BIAZA Animal Welfare Toolkit: