ZLI & ZAWEC Partner for Animal Welfare

NEW YORK January 27, 2021 /3BL Media/ - The Zoological Lighting Institute™ announced today new partnership initiatives with the Zoo Animal Welfare Education Center in Bellaterra (Barcelona, SP), to underscore the importance of light for animal welfare, and animal welfare for human well being. The partnership includes co-sponsoring of professional course-work, the creation of data-driven preventative healthcare stations in aquariums and zoos, and related ex-pat public outreach initiatives around the globe.

The international partnership recognizes light to be of fundamental importance to animal welfare, across the five areas highlighted by the Five Domains Model of Animal Welfare. As species specific understanding of animal welfare continues to grow, the subject is rapidly becoming seen to hold key importance for wildlife conservation and environmental sustainability. ZLI and ZAWEC’s partnership recognizes the important role that zoos have to play in the appreciation of light, for both animals in managed care as well as in the wild. With enormous audiences and outreach potential, preventative care animal welfare monitoring stations in zoos have the potential not simply to improve care within these facilities, but also to drive significant conservation action in the communities they serve.

ZLI’s Dr. James Karl Fischer PhD stressed the importance of the partnership, stating “Data-driven metrics, facts that support science, are incredibly important for community well being. This is particularly true for light, which needs to be measured if the impacts on animals are to be more fully understood. We are thrilled to partner with ZAWEC, not only because the partnership raises awareness of how important natural light is for animals, but also to emphasize the need and ability of people to explore animal welfare in a rigorous way. ZAWEC is a fantastic international leader in the field of data-driven animal welfare assessments, and we hope that through partnership, we are able to improve animal care and associated wildlife conservation initiatives around the globe.”

ZLI ZAWEC Animal Welfare Stations are slated to provide zoos and aquariums with preventative care health facilities. The data-driven monitoring of animal welfare has been growing in importance over the past decade, and such stations are intended to complement existing veterinary facilities through preventative assessments. ZLI and its Zoo/Aquarium Lighting Assessment program, or ‘ZALA’, takes animal care one step further, by articulating the complexity of photobiology in a simplified and actionable way, highlighting the importance of light for animal biology, sensory ecology, and integrative biology.

To aid zoos in serving a much needed educational, sustainability and community health need, ZLI ZAWEC Animal Welfare Stations are being conceived as CSR marketing opportunities. Multi-national and bilingual in character, it is also hoped that the Stations serve the diversity of ex-pat communities in addition to animals themselves. For more information about the ZLI ZAWEC partnership opportunities, or to initiate, sponsor or support a ZLI ZAWEC Animal Welfare Station, please contact either ZAWEC or ZLI today.

About The Zoological Lighting Institute:

A unique charitable 501 c(3) with a mission to ‘Support the Sciences of Light and Life through the Arts for Animal Welfare and Wildlife Conservation,’  The Zoological Lighting Institute embraces the concept of ‘PhotoDiversity,’ referring to the importance that the diversity of natural light holds for living things, as well as the importance of cultural, social and human diversity has for science and its application. With an international Board of Directors overseeing four departments, including Film & Media, Education, Sustainable Design and the PhotoSciences, The Zoological Lighting Institute is breaking new terrain in the application of science to address the under appreciated realm of light and life. Current Campaigns include Beached, Bearanoia, Insect Apocalypse, Otohime’s Time, Precious Light and Save a Billion Birds!. Please visit www.zoolighting.org  or zli.org for more information on Sponsorships, Donor Advisory Fund (DAF) Giving Opportunities and Matching Contribution Programs.

About Zoo Animal Welfare Education Center (ZAWEC)

The Zoo Animal Welfare Education Center (ZAWEC) is an initiative of the animal behavior and welfare group of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. ZAWEC has as essential objectives the training and research in the welfare of wild animals, including those that are under human care (in zoos, aquariums and recovery centers, among others) and those that live in freedom, in order to protect the welfare of individuals and thus contribute to the conservation of species. ZAWEC carries out training, research and advisory actions on the welfare of wild animals and their relationship with the conservation of fauna. Please see the website www.zawec.org for more information about ZAWEC.

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