Months of preparation and teamwork paid off for College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) students participating in the Fall 2024 American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Animal Welfare Assessment Contest. 

Members of the College’s Gold and Maroon teams swept all five individual awards in the veterinary student division and placed in the team division. The University of Minnesota has sent undergraduate and graduate Animal Science teams to the contest for several years, but this is only the second year a veterinary student team has participated. 

Second-year DVM student Shyanne Hall participated with the inaugural veterinary team and returned this year to serve as team captain. She placed fourth in last year’s individual veterinary student division. This year, she earned first place, but to her and the team, the contest wasn’t about winning. 

“Our goals were to build the clinical skill of welfare assessment—because it's a very applicable skill—learn about the species that we were working on, and have fun learning about all of it and participating,” Hall says. “I truly think that those things being our priorities drove us to perform the way we did. So the placements are great, but at the end of the day, I would be equally proud of the team regardless of whether we placed.”

The contest took place in late November at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls, with more than 270 registrants representing 27 universities from across North America and Europe completing in-person assessments of the welfare of animals in a variety of settings. The animal species are provided to the teams in advance. 

For the individual divisions, students were presented with slides showing two care and housing scenarios for three animal species—this year it was penguins, frogs, and dogs—and were able to take notes on an index card. Using these notes and research done prior to the content, they then prepared a three-minute speech for each species that outlined which scenario met the species' welfare needs best.

In the team competition, groups of three students inspected a series of rooms representing a simulated dairy cow facility and used their skills and research to identify welfare issues—such as the presence of a cattle prod and expired vaccines—and presented their findings and recommendations to a panel of judges. 

Preparation for the contest was key to success. Similar to last year’s efforts, CVM team members worked with the Animal Welfare Judging and Assessment class taught by Rielle Perttu, an assistant professor with the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences. In 2024, Hall and fellow student Mo Usavage also formed the Animal Welfare and Ethics Club and served as its co-presidents. Six club members comprised the UMN veterinary contest group, which was divided into two teams for that portion of the competition.   

Finnerel Schaeffer, a second-year DVM student and treasurer of the club, took second place in the individual division and shares Hall’s sense of pride in the team’s performance. 

“We came in with the goal of learning and developing professional skills—and having a good time,” Schaeffer says. “Even having one person on that podium was insane, an absolute dream come true. And then they just keep going through and naming more of our club members—it was incredible.” 

Students interested in learning more about the Animal Welfare and Ethics Club or participating in the AVMA contests can send an email to [email protected]. 

The CVM veterinary student team placements are listed below. For a complete list of Fall 2024 contest placings, click here. 

Individual Winners, Veterinary Student Division

• 1st place: Shyanne Hall, University of Minnesota, Team Gold
• 2nd place: Finnerel Schaeffer, University of Minnesota, Team Maroon
• 3rd place: Anna Mueller, University of Minnesota, Team Maroon
• 4th place: Katie Davis, University of Minnesota, Team Gold
• 5th place: Mo Usavage, University of Minnesota, Team Gold

Team Winners, Veterinary Student Division

• 4th place: University of Minnesota, Team Maroon
• 5th place: University of Minnesota, Team Gold