Investigator: Olivia Sinclair (Veterinary Science)
Supervisor: Carri Westgarth, Chair in Human-Animal Interaction and Deputy Head of Department of Livestock and One Health
This project aims to investigate the public’s perception of feline obesity through analysing online fora and comments on YouTube videos. This is important as feline obesity is highly prevalent and a major welfare concern. This project aims to understand how owners recognise whether their cat is overweight, why they may or may not want to do something about it, and what they do to manage their cat’s weight. This project would be an exciting opportunity to increase my research experience and learn additional qualitative research methods such as inductive coding of transcripts into themes via thematic analysis, in order to investigate people’s perceptions and beliefs. I am very interested in a career in research and expanding our current understanding of science and key welfare issues. I hope that this project will enable me to further explore my interest in research and provide skills so that I can participate in more projects in the future. I am very passionate about welfare and this project will be important in understanding why members of the public may allow or encourage obesity in their cats, and the likely challenges they may face when attempting weight reduction. This will help inform veterinary surgeons in their approach to these difficult conversations with such clients.
Funding for the 2025 student grants was made possible thanks to a large grant from the Benefact Group’s Movement for Good Awards.