User Testimonials

"I like having the long-term view of welfare – because sometimes things change so gradually that you don’t realize it."

"It’s good to see the graphs… sometimes they flag something that we weren’t aware of."

"If the use of this tool was extended over several years, one could see how well-being changes over a lifetime. This could be really fascinating and useful."

"The tool provides a way to quantify the qualitative observations that keepers are already making. This tool adds precision to the keepers’ observations..."

"I can read the dailies, but reading the reports is quicker & easier… I can breeze through these pages and know what the animal has been doing for the past few weeks."

"By watching the patterns, we started paying more attention to how we could change their behavior and how to eliminate the negative trends."

"The best part about WelfareTrak^® is putting some sort of quantitative analysis on what a lot of keepers would refer to as gut feelings."

"I learned more about what Opie Okapi does with his time… I spent more time looking at how HE spent his day."

"It made me think and pay attention more. This is a good learning tool for anyone new to the field – or anyone period - to get them to hone in..."

"Before, I looked at their condition overall rather than breaking down welfare by categories. There was more of a refinement in how you looked at them."

"It’s helpful to have the behaviors broken down by categories. Here’s what animal welfare means to us."

"WelfareTrak^® helped staff make better observations."

"It made me more observant of their ‘whole selves’… it made me look at every aspect of the animal."

"It was good just to sit down and think about welfare… to sit and focus on it rather than while cutting up veggies."

"The best part of this is that there is time set aside for everyone to get in one room and talk about welfare – to look at the reports."

"We normally wouldn’t have these documents in front of us. So, we learned how to communicate a little better AND were a little more detailed and a little more organized… it helped provide a little structure."

"Having WelfareTrak® available prompted discussions that we may not have had… A lot of the things WelfareTrak® asks about aren’t logged daily or aren’t discernable from the logs. If I could pull up both, I would choose to look at WelfareTrak®."

"I liked the discussions that it led to with my coworkers. It brought up some things that we hadn’t talked about before. It was good to have a discussion about our opinions and why we felt a certain way."

"This tool allows keepers to better understand their coworkers – to understand how their coworkers may interpret the same behaviors differently and how they interact with each individual animal."

"The best part of it was the insight into how my coworkers think."

"This helps you get to know the keepers who you thought you’ve known for years – and may help to give you a different perspective... this helps you understand where they're coming from."

"This forced me to pay attention to little details which helps me. This threw me into the mix of Senior Keeper status more quickly."

"WelfareTrak would help completely green keepers. This would help their observation skills."

"We had brand new zookeeping students use the system with no issues – it isn’t difficult."

"It was very easy to click through the site. I’m not computer savvy and it was easy for me."