River Falls, WI
The Eyes Have It
Did you know that despite having a large field of vision of more than 300º, cattle have tunnel vision because the edges of the visual field are blurred and fuzzy, and, that because they have a different color perception than humans; they cannot see red?
The Goal:
Better Stockmanship Through Empathy
Funding provided: $15,000 + $10,000 from Temple Grandin
Animal caregivers trained each year: 200
Empathy is rooted in relating to the experience of others. The best animal handlers seem to have an innate ability to understand and react to the distractions and attractants that exist in animal handling facilities. This additional sense is unique among animal handlers and seems to be rooted in a combination of intuition and experience.
Technology is now available to help animal handlers see the world in ways that more closely resemble what cattle, pigs, and horses see.
This grant supported the purchase of a virtual reality system that allows trainees to see livestock handling facilities through the eyes of the animals they move. The Animal Eye Simulator is the first commercially available virtual reality system that allows animal handlers to see the world in ways that mimic what we know about the visual perception of cattle, pigs, and horses.
The Outcomes:
Better Stockmanship
This project is ongoing. The HHI team has already begun incorporating the technology into their training and will be joining Kinder Ground in California in March for our Small Ruminant Stockmanship Field Day.
What Paloozers Are Saying
“I was shocked to see how bright the yellow reflective vest looked on the cattle vision simulator."
- Ashlyn, Program Manager, Humane Handling Institute
The opportunity to walk through and navigate a system the way a cow or sheep will shed new light on ways we can improve our current systems to make them less stressful and easier to manage.
