Dr Pete Goddard is an Honorary Fellow of the James Hutton Institute. He is a veterinary surgeon with a particular interest in animal welfare, focusing especially on investigating behavioural and physiological correlates of welfare in ruminants under extensive systems of management. This has included the development of test protocols for assessing behavioural responses of these species. The health and welfare of wild and semi-managed animals is also an interest and is being pursued in a new programme of work for the Scottish Government, alongside work on controlling animal disease outbreaks in livestock.
He participated recently in an important Defra-funded project jointly held with SAC and ADAS which investigated the economic, husbandry and welfare drivers for improved welfare on extensively-managed sheep flocks. Recent Scottish Government-funded research was directed towards exploring methods to monitor deer performance and health across Scottish open hill estates.
He has authored numerous scientific papers and book chapters on animal behaviour, physiology and welfare and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the international journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science. In addition to conducting research, he has responsibility for animal health at the Institute’s research farms in Scotland.
He has been involved in the organisation and successful delivery of meetings and workshops, involving both individuals and interest groups. For example, he chaired a stakeholder workshop in Cambridgeshire on the welfare of unbroken ponies at markets and during transport which involved representatives from organisations including charities and the wider horse transport industry. He has also led discussions on animal welfare with a wide range of deer industry representatives for the Deer Commission for Scotland, during one of their Best Practice demonstration events and has provided animal welfare advice to the DCS (now incorporated into Scottish Natural Heritage).
In 2005 he was a member of the international research review panel for CSIC (Spanish Research Council). He took the lead in developing a professional short course on animal welfare for IAMZ / CIHEAM (Spain) with the first course held in March 2007. For the two years until April 2010 he was chair of the Animal Welfare Science Ethics and Law Veterinary Association (AWSELVA) and in 2009/2010 was President of the North of Scotland division of the BVA.
He is currently a trustee of the BVA Animal Welfare Foundation, secretary and treasurer to the Veterinary Deer Society and external examiner in Animal Health, Welfare and Food Safety at the Dick Vet. School in Edinburgh. He is a Diplomate of the European College of Small Ruminant health Management.