Now Accepting Submissions
through February 5, 2026! Learn More
Registration Open through Friday, June 12!
Featured Speakers
Isabelle Fromantin
Institut Curie, Paris
Caroline Gilbert
National Veterinary School of Alfort
Keynote Talk:
The Story of a Shelter Dog
Who Became a Care Companion
Thursday, July 2 at 11:30 AM
Isabelle Fromantin is the head of the Wounds and Wound Healing research unit at the Institut Curie. She was the first nurse in France to earn a doctorate in science and engineering, and she has been developing innovative approaches to patient care since the start of her career. She and her team are the subject of the recently published book, Snoopy, un chien qui fait du bien (A support dog called Snoopy).
Caroline Gilbert is veterinarian and professor of ethology whose research focuses on animals’ physiological and behavioral adaptations to various environmental conditions and constraints. She has studied how dogs and cats adapt to human interactions, with a focus on individual coping strategies linked to animals’ personalities.
Isabelle Fromantin and Caroline Gilbert have worked together for over 10 years, first on the KDOG project (sniffer dogs against cancer) and more recently on the M-KDOG study dealing with the adoption of a service dog in the Curie hospital and medical research unit. M-KDOG is also known as the ‘Snoopy project’, named for the English setter that Fromantin brought into her team in 2022 to help improve the well-being of patients and hospital personnel.
Isabelle Fromantin and Caroline Gilbert will share the story of this trailblazing initiative anchored in the reality of the medical environment. They will highlight both the uniqueness of the project and the example it can provide for others. Caroline Gilbert’s assessment of the animal welfare component of this program and her study of the various human-animal interactions involved will complete the picture.
Keynote Talk:
Scientific outreach to improve animal welfare
Friday, July 3 at 11:30 AM
In recent years, increased comprehension of animal behaviour, consciousness, and pain, as well as NGO-driven campaigns, have given rise to greater public concern for animal welfare and new expectations of policy makers. This has led to new European and national regulations, as well as concrete improvements in livestock farming and food industry practices.
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Nonetheless, it would be a mistake to stop here. It is essential to raise awareness among a wider range of stakeholders by disseminating information that covers all the elements of the “One Welfare” concept. This means not only animal welfare and livestock farming, but also farmers’ duties and challenges, as well as the need to protect the environment.
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Clear, trustworthy information is critical to everyone: farmers, industry, policymakers, and private citizens, who also need to develop a more-informed understanding of agriculture and its challenges.
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Professor Luc Mounier has focused on animal behavior and welfare for over 20 years, conducting research on animal behavior and welfare in the context of breeding practices.
He is the head of France’s only Animal Welfare Unit (Chaire bien-être animal), which was created in 2018 through an agreement between the French Ministry of Agriculture and the National Veterinary School of Lyon.The Unit’s core mission is to provide a wide variety of audiences with reliable, easily-accessible science-based information on animal welfare from the “One Welfare” perspective.
Lauren Powell
University of Pennsylvania
School of Veterinary Medicine
USA
ISAZ Early Career Scholar Award Winner Talk
Friday, July 3 at 14:00 PM
Dr. Lauren Powell is an Assistant Professor in Animal Welfare & Behavior and the Director of the Powell laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine. Her research applies a One Health framework to understand how human-animal interactions impact both animal and human wellbeing to help improve the lives of companion animals and the people who care for them. She received a Bachelor of Animal and Veterinary Bioscience (First Class Honors) and a PhD in Public Health from the University of Sydney.