The Brooke - What makes a good Risk Assessment?

A Risk Assessment always investigates all the potentially relevant factors from the following areas:

Human

This looks at any potential influences of the humans involved with the animal such as behaviour, driving style, attitude, level of care of the animal, knowledge and understanding of care practices. It also looks at aspects such as age, gender, economics and availability of treatment by the Brooke and any other source.

Pakistan - Owner grooming his horse Pakistan team developing a questionnaire with a horse owner

Resource

Factors relating to physical objects are recorded, such as cart, bit, harness, padding, stabling and so on.

Measuring padding thickness in the Indian Wither Lesion Assessment Measuring wheel diameter in the Kenyan Breast and Shoulder Lesion Assessment

Environment

Environment factors may include temperature, season, road condition, journey length, topography and availability of resources for example.

Measuring sand depth in the Egyptian nose bridge lesion assessment Kenya - examining the terrain

Animal

The welfare issue is always measured in intricate detail. For example, a lesion may include up to twenty or so measurements of size, severity, location, complications and associated symptoms. Other animal factors may include age, dehydration, body condition (fatness), coat health, other lesions and height.

Dr. Mini and Dr. Zaman, measuring the length of a donkey - Indian wither lesion assessment Darlin and Luis examining tick loads on a horse in Guatemala (tick assessment)

A good Risk Assessment makes no assumptions about the causes of a welfare issue but uses informed decisions and first hand experience to decide what it is sensible to include, based upon the potential to influence the welfare issue. Some of the criteria of a good Risk Assessment are as follows:

Well-defined factors

It is no good simply recording the size of a horses bit as “big, medium or small”. Such subjective measurements would leave us with totally unreliable and meaningless data. We use objective, quantifiable measurements wherever possible so that the size of the bit would be measured in centimetres or millimetres rather than judged by eye. Similarly, where measurement is impossible, for example if we want to know if the horse is foaming at the mouth, we must first define our factor “what is foaming?” and then make a clear definition so that each Risk Assessor would record the same answer for the same animal. For example we might define foaming as “the presence of one or more saliva bubble on the lips”.

Marking an area defined by anatomical features within which the horse will be assessed for girth lesions - Indian girth lesion assessment

Standardised measurements

Measuring tightness of the halter - measurements must all be made in the centre of the nose, using the ruler to measure the furthest distance between the nose and the halter

It is vital that each Risk Assessor records the same as each other Risk Assessor carrying out that assessment and that the measurements taken from animals at the beginning of the assessment are done in exactly the same way as those done at the end. Otherwise, our data would mean nothing. To achieve this, every time that a new measurement technique is designed or a definition is made, the team tests their measurements on many different animals and the definitions and techniques are refined until every assessor comes up with the same recording as another, independently, every time.

To ensure that the measurements do not change during the course of the assessment, on every 10th or 20th animal assessed, the team carry out a “standardisation assessment” to ensure that they are all still using the same methods and achieving the same recordings as each other.

Efficient questionnaires

We must speak to the owner at some point in the assessment to ascertain their opinions and attitudes - things which cannot always be assessed through observation. We appreciate however that the owner’s time and cooperation is precious so our questionnaires are always designed to take up the minimum amount of time possible (usually no more than 10 minutes). They are also designed so that each question is not going to lead the owner towards giving a certain answer, is simple for the owner to answer and, if possible, can be carried out whilst the owner carries on with their work.

Dr. Ahmed and Dr. Amro asking a questionnaire to one of the boys who drives the donkeys and carts in the Egyptian Nose bridge lesion assessment

Ethical procedures

Caring for an exhausted mule during the development of the Indian Wither Lesion Assessment

Our driving force is always to reduce animal suffering. It would make no sense therefore if any of our methods caused the animals any discomfort or pain. Our techniques and methodologies are always designed with this in mind so that the animal is never hurt or worried in any way by anything that we do. All our Risk Assessors are trained in animal handling and are our policy is always to take as long as is necessary with each animal to permit us to measure things like lesions or harnesses without causing the animal any pain or fear.

Similarly, we recognise our responsibilities towards the owners and the importance of maintaining good and trusting relationships with them. Half our Risk Assessors therefore hold the role of “Community Interaction Specialist”. They regularly undergo training to give them the skills to set up and maintain healthy, trusting relationships with the communities in which we work and they hold responsibility for ensuring that all risk assessments are carried out in a way that considers the feelings of the animal owners, maintaining positive relationships and the good reputation of the Brooke.