Chicken happiness

Loading player for https://video.vt.edu/media/1_tu3clggw...

campus experience 0:59 Chicken happiness

By:

Clark Dehart

29 Aug 2024 391

Leonie Jacobs, Associate Professor in the School of Animal Sciences, led a workshop to help rural middle school students participating in the Summer Enrichment Experience at Virginia Tech (SEE VT) learn about chicken behavior and how to tell if a chicken is happy.

I am Leonie Jacobs. I am an Associate Professor in the School of Animal Sciences with a focus on animal welfare and behavior. During the SEE VT program, these middle schoolers got the chance to interact with some real-life chickens. Chickens can be easily scared. So you have to approach them calmly, slowly, handle them gently, keep them upright. So we wanted to make sure that these kids were familiar and comfortable with doing so. And this contributes to keeping the chickens happy and ensuring a positive relationship between humans and the chickens. Ethical treatment of animals matters. They can contribute either by learning how to ethically handle and interact with these animals or perform research in this field.

Academics

Campus Experience

Culture

Impact

Research

Global Impact