Mental Health and Well-being in Animals

Franklin D. McMillan, DVM is the director of well-being studies at Best Friends Animal Society. Dr. McMillan is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the American College of Animal Welfare and was in private practice for 23 years as well as serving as clinical professor of medicine at the Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. McMillan's research concerns animal quality of life and the mental health and emotional well-being of animals who have endured hardship, adversity, and psychological trauma. Dr. McMillan lectures worldwide and has published dozens of scientific journal articles on the subjects of emotional health and suffering, stress, and quality of life in animals.

Franklin D. McMillan, DVM is the director of well-being studies at Best Friends Animal Society. Dr. McMillan is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and the American College of Animal Welfare and was in private practice for 23 years as well as serving as clinical professor of medicine at the Western University of Health Sciences College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. McMillan's research concerns animal quality of life and the mental health and emotional well-being of animals who have endured hardship, adversity, and psychological trauma. Dr. McMillan lectures worldwide and has published dozens of scientific journal articles on the subjects of emotional health and suffering, stress, and quality of life in animals.

Temple Grandin is Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. Dr. Grandin's work includes design of animal handling systems, research on livestock behaviour, and auditing animal welfare. She has visited 26 countries and has served on the OIE animal welfare ad hoc committee for slaughter. Her previous livestock books include Livestock Handling and Transport, Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals and Humane Livestock Handling. Her popular press books on animal behaviour have been both U.S. and international bestsellers. Throughout her career, Dr. Grandin has worked to combine scientific research results with practical application in the field. In the North America half, the cattle are handled in equipment she designed for meat plants. She has received awards for her work on animal welfare from both the livestock industry and animal welfare NGOs. She has awards from The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The American Meat Institute, American Society for Animal Science and the Humane Society of the U.S.

Michael Mendl is a Professor of Animal Behaviour and Welfare at Bristol Veterinary School. His research interests are in the area of animal behaviour and welfare, particularly the links between affective and cognitive processes, and the ways in which attention, memory and decision-making both influence and are influenced by affective state. He is also interested in the evolution and function of affective states, developing new measures of animal emotion and welfare that can be used under field conditions (including automated / machine learning), and understanding more about animal cognition, emotion, personality, and social behaviour with a view to identifying and minimising welfare problems for captive animals.

Professor Mills is an RCVS, European and ASAB recognised specialist in clinical animal behaviour, and was the first professor of the discipline in Europe. While his clinical and scientific work has historically focused on the disruptive effect of companion animal behaviour on owners and society (problem behaviour and its management) through his work as a clinical animal behaviourist, he has more recently pursued an interest in assistance dogs and animal assisted interventions through diverse collaborations. His research in this area has included the first longitudinal study of its kind (3 year follow up) examining the effect of the pet dog on families with an autistic child, the effect of reading to dogs in schools and the impact of dogs in the workplace (currently under review). Professor Mills is a well-known international speaker on companion animal behaviour/welfare and the role of animals in society , with around 100 peer-reviewed full scientific research publications, over 40 books and chapters, and over a hundred ISBN indexed conference abstracts. He heads up a large interdisciplinary group at Lincoln with 11 Post Graduate Research students and 3 Post Doctoral Researchers.

James Yeates is Chief Veterinary Officer of the RSPCA. He is a RCVS Specialist in animal welfare science, ethics and law, A European Diplomate of Animal welfare and behavioural medicine and a RCVS Diplomate in Animal welfare science, ethics and law. He has a BSc in Bioethics and a PhD in Veterinary ethics. He has worked in private and charity practice, and in a university. He was Chair of the British Veterinary Association Ethics and Welfare Group.