Sara Platto Email & Phone Number

I have been a veterinarian behaviorist for the past twenty three years, and for the last sixteen years I have been a practicing animal welfare expert, both in the private sector and in the academia, in China. Currently, I hold the position of Professor of Animal Behavior and Welfare at the College of Life Sciences of Jianghan University (Wuhan, China). I have been working in the academia for the past eight years, and my extensive work experience on the different aspects of the human-animal interface has given me an unique ample ability to approach any type of work in the animal studies area. In fact, my work experience outside the academic environment has ranged from that of a veterinarian in wildlife rescue centers, to the development of educational programs for rabies prevention, and to be an animal behavior and welfare consultant in China and abroad. This wide professional background has also allowed me to collaborate with different international and Chinese NGOs on different aspects of environmental and animal protection, as well as to deliver speeches on similar subjects to professionals and college students in China and abroad. In addition, I am one of the founders of the ICBT (International Conservation & Biodiversity Team), an international recognized NGO that gathers experts from different animal and environmental protection fields, where I cooperate to develop projects on wild animals’ welfare in collaboration with Southeast Asia research groups. As an academic, I have also been promoting the opening of animal welfare and behaviors courses in the university, as well as workshops for students on different aspects of animal welfare. My sixteen years of work in China have also been recognized by Chinese authorities. In fact, I have been awarded with the 2021 Chinese Government Friendship Award, and in June 2022 with the 第十四届“感动江大人物”(most influential people in the community - Nationwide award).Currently, I am interested in developing the field of Conservation Welfare in China, a task which aims to assess the impacts on the welfare of wild animals, at the individual and population levels, to gain information necessary to build conservation practices. In addition, I am carrying out a study on the welfare of the captive Yangtze Finless porpoises (Neophocaena asiaeorientalis asiaeorientalis), the critical endangered Chinese river dolphin.

Listed skills include Animal Behavior, Animal Husbandry, Animal Welfare, Veterinary Medicine, and 9 others.