Overview of Science & Research Projects
Find out more about our ongoing and completed projects
All FOUR PAWS activities are supported by current, reliable scientific research. This knowledge helps guide projects, campaigns, and rescue missions, ensuring that every action taken is effective and responsible. Our goal is to protect animals and make sure they are treated with care, respect, and compassion.
FOUR PAWS takes pride in collaborating with several scientific institutions regarding innovative concepts for improving animal welfare, funding animal welfare projects, and developing our own research projects.
Here, you can find an overview of all ongoing and completed projects related to various animal welfare topics supported and guided by the Five Domains Model.1
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Our ongoing projects
Gentle Dairy 2
Dairy goat production continues to face animal welfare challenges. In order to produce milk, goats must become pregnant, which leads to the continuous birth of offspring. This results in an overproduction of kids, many of which have limited economic value. Gentle Dairy 2 is a research project exploring hormone-free lactation in non-pregnant dairy goats as an alternative to conventional milk production. Building on promising results from the first Gentle Dairy project, it investigates the biological processes behind induced lactation, develops practical solutions for farmers, and evaluates impacts on animal welfare, sustainability, and economic viability. This project will run from mid-2025 to mid-2028. Stay tuned for project updates and its potential to transform dairy goat farming.
Dark brooder
Exploring dark brooders for better chicken welfare. Dark brooders can enhance chick rearing by mimicking maternal care, reducing feather pecking, and improving overall health. Starting April 2025, our project will assess their impact on behavior, welfare, and farming economics in organic settings.
Find out more.
TransformDairyNet
Working together to upscale Cow-Calf-Contact dairy systems. TransformDairyNet is transforming dairy farming by promoting cow-calf contact to improve animal welfare and sustainability. With 26 European partners, including FOUR PAWS as the only NGO, TransformDairyNet is leading the way in this area. Find out more about this project here.
CatWell
To support the lifelong care of rescued lions and tigers in FOUR PAWS sanctuaries, CatWell built on the BearWell project to develop a scientifically validated welfare assessment protocol. The protocol uses animal-based indicators to enable objective and standardized welfare assessments. Find out more here.
Lifting Farm Animal Lives (LIFT)
Positive farm animal welfare. Discover the LIFT project in redefining farm animal welfare through innovative research and collaboration across Europe, laying the foundations for positive animal welfare. FOUR PAWS is a stakeholder and member of the working groups. Find out more here.
COWLEARNING
Transforming Austrian dairy and beef supply. Explore COWLEARNING, a five-year project tackling animal welfare, climate, and food security in Austria. Led by top universities and partners like FOUR PAWS. FOUR PAWS is a stakeholder and cooperation partner. Learn more about the project here.
European Union Reference Centre for Animal Welfare (EURCAW): Ruminants & Equines
Enhancing animal welfare. Discover how EURCAW Ruminants & Equines is advancing animal welfare across Europe through education, training, and collaboration. FOUR PAWS is a member of the Ruminants & Equines Reflection Board.
Find out more here.
European Union Reference Centre for Animal Welfare (EURCAW): Pigs
Advancing animal welfare. Learn how EURCAW Pigs promotes higher welfare standards across Europe through knowledge sharing, training, and cooperation. FOUR PAWS is a member of the EURCAW-Pigs Advisory Board. Find out more here.
Our completed projects
Gentle Dairy: Revolutionising dairy goat farming
Explore how inducing natural lactation in non-pregnant dairy goats could enhance the welfare of dairy goats and their offspring, as well as making farming practices more sustainable. Find out more about the ongoing project.
STRAYS: Determining sustainable, effective, and efficient methods for managing numbers of stray dogs
The STRAYS project was developed by the University of Leeds, FOUR PAWS International, and IZSAM (Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise 'Giuseppe Caporale'), with the aim to determine the most sustainable, effective, and efficient method of managing the number of stray dogs. Please find more details here.
Animal Boredom: Identifying symptoms and consequences of boredom-like states in domestic pigs
This project, led by Dr Sara Hintze from the University of Natural Resources and Life Science, aimed to understand the symptoms and effects of boredom in pigs.
Through targeted behavioural research in the areas of cognition and emotion, the project provides the basis for evidence-based animal welfare claims that we are strongly committed to communicating externally. Find out more here.
Welfeed: Improving pig welfare in terms of feeding behaviour
Wild and domestic pigs in a semi-natural habitat spend a large proportion of their active time foraging. The behaviours involved are exploration, grazing, manipulation and rooting. Pigs housed in a low-stimulus environment, commonly present in intensive indoor farming systems, without foraging opportunities, are more likely to exhibit behavioural disorders such as tail-biting. FiBL therefore aimed to investigate whether straw can satisfy pigs' motivation to root. Learn more about this project here.
Care4Dairy: Development of EU dairy best practice guidelines
CARE4DAIRY is a collaboration of 5 partners with a scientific background in animal welfare involved in EURCAW-Ruminants & Equines and other partners specialised in applied research and bridging science and practice in animal welfare. The main aim is to identify and disseminate best practice to improve the welfare of dairy calves, heifers, dairy cows and end-of-life dairy cows. The project has a farmer-centred approach with strong stakeholder involvement. The main output is the development of animal welfare best practice guidelines based on science, technical expertise and practical experience. In addition to the consortium, there is an Advisory Board made up of competent national authorities, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, former OIE) and key stakeholders. FOUR PAW is the only animal welfare NGO on the Advisory Board.
SchweinErleben: Keeping uncastrated pigs in a natural environment
This project offers a unique opportunity to study the behaviour of uncastrated domestic pigs in a semi-natural environment. Since 2023, 44 domestic pigs, three sows and their 41 piglets have been living on a farm in the canton of Lucerne with a large semi-natural outdoor area of over 1.8 hectares with meadows, trees, sleeping huts and even a forest. FiBL Switzerland is the scientific leader of the project and has the opportunity to investigate in depth a wide range of research questions relating to the behaviour of domestic pigs.
Find out more about this project here.
BearWell
This project developed animal-based measures for a standardized welfare assessment protocol for brown bears in FOUR PAWS sanctuaries. The project provides a scientific framework for ongoing welfare monitoring that can also be applied in other brown bear keeping systems. Find out more about this project here.
Contact us
FOUR PAWS intends on building up and maintaining powerful partnerships, raising awareness of the scientific community towards animal welfare concerns, hoping to shape future research into being more considerate towards animal needs.
Interested in working with us? Reach out to FOUR PAWS at science@four-paws.org.
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