MADDEN, Alta. — A $5 million donation to support animal welfare research has been donated to the University of Calgary’s faculty of veterinary medicine.
The donation from Jack Anderson and his daughter Wynne Chisholm from W.A. Ranches at Madden, west of Calgary, promotes research and innovation in Alberta’s cattle industry as well as across Canada and internationally.
Given the size of the Alberta beef industry, the family believes this region should be a prominent force in animal welfare innovations and research.
“We believe the University of Calgary should be leading the world in animal care and welfare,” said Chisholm from the ranch.
Read Also
U.S. grains: Soybean futures jump on hopes for US export demand
Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures jumped on hopes for U.S. export demand on Wednesday, while corn futures rose for a third day to extend a recovery from contract lows, analysts said.
A gift of this size should support this research in perpetuity, said Ed Pajor, who will hold the Anderson-Chisholm Chair in Animal Care and Welfare with support from other faculty at the university.
“It endows this chair for the foreseeable future and that means 50 years from now there will be somebody studying animal care and welfare on Alberta ranches,” he said.
The funds will support research projects that focus on the beef cattle industry and could include an examination of the bond between a cow and calf or mothering ability of cows.
Pajor also anticipates working closely with other universities and Agriculture Canada to collaborate on studies into best practices like pain management, stress and transportation. The donation allows the university to hire more researchers and post doctoral fellows who will be working at the university as well as in the field.
“It is important to get that information out to the public and agriculture. There is an element here of getting that information out to the ranchers,” said Pajor.
Anderson, a Calgary oil and gas businessperson, has been involved with ranching all his life and in 2005 he and his daughter established W.A. Ranches. It consists of 18,000 acres of deeded and leased land where they run 900 cows.
