Throughout its history, animal science has been dogged by questions concerning the proper treatment of animals.

For researchers, farmers and faculty members, the issue of animal welfare is as much a priority as anything else involved in their day-to-day operations. In dealing with that question, people involved in agriculture and research have developed complex policies to properly handle the treatment of animals.

Maynard Hogberg, professor and chairman of the animal science department, said researchers and agriculture specialists have made animal welfare a priority.

Before any projects involving animals can proceed at Iowa State, Hogberg said, they have to be authorized by a special committee on animal care. The committee examines the proposals to make sure they are in line with national guidelines set by leading experts in the field of animal care.

“There’s a pretty extensive bureaucracy,” he said. “Anymore, it’s part of the process … We have to be following those kinds of guidelines.”

As a result, concern about animal welfare becomes another part of the complex planning process involved in conducting research, he said. The added steps have caused faculty and staff members to reassess how animals are used in research and how they are treated.

“It’s forced them to do a better job planning,” Hogberg said. “To me, it’s kind of an evolving process. We have to do a lot of research to find what’s acceptable and what’s not.”

Lately, Hogberg said, the animal science department has stepped up its commitment to welfare by looking for a full-time animal welfare researcher. The hope, he said, is to find the delicate balance between progress in animal welfare and progress in agriculture and animal research.

“We’re heading in the right direction, and it’s something we’re not going to change overnight,” he said.

The focus on welfare at Iowa State, however, hasn’t always been as acute as it is today, he said.

According to Daily staff reports, the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited the College of Veterinary Medicine in 2003 of being in violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act. The college was one of 27 programs nationally named in a petition by the California-based Association of Veterinarians for Animal Rights.

Pam Runquist, director of companion animal issues for the animal rights association, said the petition concerned a type of surgery known as terminal surgery. The process, she said, involves using animals that were originally intended to be euthanized by local animal shelters as teaching examples. Once the procedure is over, she said, the animals are put to sleep.

In a recent nationwide AVAR poll, Runquist said, fewer than half of accredited veterinarian schools still practice terminal surgeries.

“We try to get them to move to a curriculum that is animal-welfare friendly,” she said.

“We feel that we kind of prompted or helped move things along.”

Martha Hawksworth, junior in veterinary science and a student representative for AVAR, said Iowa State still uses terminal surgery but allows students to arrange alternative methods beforehand.

Hawksworth said she thought the college had made good efforts in trying to improve animal welfare concerns.

Outside the university, other animal-oriented programs have also made strides in animal welfare, Hogberg said.

Cindy Cunningham, spokeswoman for the National Pork Board, said the organization has developed protocols for how animals are to be treated.

“I think that, as pork producers, we’re trying to do the right thing,” Cunningham said. “We care about the welfare of our animals.”

Hogberg said the policies, known as the Swine Welfare Awareness Policies, have helped focus how the organization looks at animal welfare.

According to the policy, both economic and ethical incentives are inherent to animal welfare. Hogberg said the group has taken the stance that it is better to be proactive in responding to the welfare of animals than to have someone like the USDA enforce it upon the group.