IAT/LAVA Congress – Workshop on setting up and running a successful re-homing programme (2025)

Horan, L., Wilkinson, M.

Abstract

In a recent survey of 41 UK research establishments, it was found that re-homing was undertaken by less than half of them and the number of re-homed animals was low.1 At the University of Strathclyde we have a wellestablished and popular re-homing programme set-up by the named animal care and welfare officer (NACWO) and the named veterinary surgeon (NVS). Hence, we thought that preparing and presenting a workshop at the Institute of Animal Technology (IAT) and Laboratory Animals Veterinary Association (LAVA) joint Congress in March 2025 would be a good opportunity to share our experience and learn from others’ experience in this subject. As it turned out approximately 60% of our audience were already re-homing animals. The report below details how the workshop was structured and the interesting discussion and findings that emerged.