Maddie's Insights: The Animal Welfare Assessment Grid - On-demand
Recorded On: 11/13/2025
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Maddie's® Insights is our ongoing webcast series with practical tips based on current research to help pets and people.
Presenters
Rachel Malkani, BSc (Hons), MSc (AWSEL), PhD, CDBC, CCAB, ABTC-CAB
Sarah Wolfensohn, OBE, BSc (Hons), MA, VetMB, FRSB, DipECAWBM, FRCVS, Director, Welfare Assessment Technologies, Ltd.
Program Description:
The Animal Welfare Assessment Grid (AWAG http://www.awag.org.uk ) is a powerful, cloud-based tool designed to track and visualize the welfare and lifetime experiences of animals. By turning husbandry and veterinary records into clear, easy-to-read graphics, AWAG transforms complex welfare data into compelling visual evidence—making it easier to communicate with decision-makers, support strategies for change, or substantiate welfare-related marketing claims. Its unique time-based approach looks beyond single moments in time, providing a whole-life perspective that helps animal care professionals plan timely, targeted interventions to improve or safeguard quality of life.
Built around the five domains model, AWAG evaluates four key parameters—physical, behavioral/psychological, environmental, and procedural—each of which can be tailored to suit different species and animal-use contexts. The tool identifies significant events that impact welfare and calculates a Cumulative Welfare Assessment Score (CWAS) over time, allowing users to see trends in an animal’s quality of life at a glance. By highlighting specific areas for refinement, AWAG empowers carers, researchers, and organizations to make data-driven decisions that directly enhance animal welfare. This webcast will explore how AWAG works, its flexibility across settings, and how its lifetime approach to animal well-being sets it apart from other assessment methods.
Earn continuing education credit from The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement towards 1.0 CAWA CEs. This webinar has also been pre-approved for 1.0 continuing education credits by the National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA). It has also been approved for 1 hour of continuing education credit until 9/2/27 in jurisdictions which recognize RACE approval. Complete the quiz to earn continuing education credit.
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keywords Maddie's Insights, Rachel Malkani, Sarah Wolfensohn, Animal Welfare Assessment Grid, AWAG, animal welfare, online tools for animal care records
Rachel Malkani, PhD
Group Clinical Research Lead, Researcher
Welfare Assessment Technologies, Ltd.
Rachel is the Group Clinical Research Lead for IVC Evidensia and a researcher at Welfare Assessment Technologies. She is also a certified clinical animal behaviorist and is a founder and board member of the Dog Friendly Clinic scheme in the UK. Additionally, Rachel is a trustee and veterinary engagement officer for the British Veterinary Behaviour Association. She graduated with a first-class honors degree in Applied Animal Behavior and an MSc in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law with distinction from the University of Glasgow. She earned a PhD in veterinary medicine and science from the University of Surrey.
Sarah Wolfensohn, OBE, BSc, MA
Director
Welfare Assessment Technologies, Ltd.
Sarah's first degree in was in Physiology from University College London, she then read Veterinary Medicine at Churchill College, Cambridge. She spent a number of years in general practice, both small animal and mixed. She was Head of Veterinary Services at the University of Oxford for nearly 20 years, leaving there in 2010. She was then Professor of Animal Welfare at the veterinary school at the University of Surrey for 10 years. She is now an Emerita Professor, a Director of Welfare Assessment Technologies Ltd, and is an independent consultant on animal health and welfare advising various sectors, including government, on animal welfare. She is a European specialist in Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law. Her particular areas of expertise are assessment of animal welfare and lifetime experience and ethical evaluation of projects. She has published books, research papers and review articles; presented papers at international conferences and has extensive experience of working on committees. She was awarded an OBE for services to animal welfare in the Queen's birthday honors in 2012 and Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 2019.
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