Human-Animal Relationships and Social Work: Opportunities Beyond the Veterinary Environment

The Human-Animal Bond and Older Adults: The Role of a Community-Based Organization's "Heart to Heart" Program

In the field of gerontological social work, there is growing interest in further exploring and understanding human-animal bonds and relationships, a trend that accelerated significantly during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Community-based organizations are promising partners as they provide acknowledgment and support for older adults' relationships with their pets and the strengthening of the human-animal bond. This brief report discusses the history, impact, and potential of one community-based organization's annual Valentine's Day event, Heart to Heart. Initiated at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic by Animal Advocates of Greater Lafayette (AAGL), an Indiana-based community organization, Heart to Heart recognizes, celebrates, and supports older adults' bonds with their pets through delivering pet presents directly to older adults' homes. Despite the mounting evidence that pets provide support and comfort for people of all ages, but particularly older adults, social service agencies and programs that serve older adults are often reluctant to recognize the power of the human-animal bond. Heart to Heart allows our community to see and appreciate the strength of these relationships, contributing to new conversations and possibilities for keeping pets and people together through the lifespan.

Attending veterinarians improve the research capability and psychological well-being of researchers in animal research institutes

The use of laboratory animals in biomedical research has significantly advanced scientific understanding, yet it raises ethical concerns about animal welfare and the mental health of researchers Recent research has highlighted the potential for stress and compassion fatigue among researchers working with distressed animals. Attending veterinarians (AVs) are crucial in mitigating the pain and stress experienced by animals and, by extension, researchers. However, the impact of AVs on researchers' psychological well-being remains understudied. This study explores how AVs contribute to researchers' research capability and psychological well-being in animal research institutions. AVs oversee animal housing, health, and welfare; their involvement is mandated or strongly recommended in developed countries. AVs enhance animal welfare by ensuring proper housing, nutrition, and social interaction. They monitor animal health, educate researchers on pain assessment, and promote compliance with post-surgical care. AVs also contribute to researchers' well-being by addressing euthanasia procedures, which can be emotionally challenging. Programs for rehoming animals after experiments offer an alternative to euthanasia and positively impact researchers' psychological well-being. Moreover, AVs promote workplace well-being by fostering positive workplace cultures, offering peer counseling, and providing social support. Programs considering animal welfare and researchers' emotions are crucial for a healthy research environment. In conclusion, AVs are essential in balancing scientific progress with animal welfare and researchers' psychological well-being. Therefore, their role should be recognized as vital in achieving social equity that considers the welfare of humans and laboratory animals.

An anthropologist's voice in a veterinarian's noise: gearing up for new cultural realities

Over the past three decades, the veterinary profession has faced a cultural shift towards postspeciesism that requires a reassessment of the foundations of the existing distinctions between human and non-human animals proclaimed by the speciesism paradigm, which represents institutionalized discrimination against species and recognizes only the subjectivity of humans. Based on ethnographic observations in anthropological fieldwork and using speciesism/postspeciesism distinction, we aimed to explain the main causes of small animal practitioners' work-related stress and apply humanistic knowledge to recommend ways to alleviate the negative effects of the work environment. The explanatory model of disease, illness, and sickness, the example of the concept of family, and the circumstances of the feminization of the veterinary profession are discussed to illustrate the divergence between speciesist naturalistic veterinary knowledge and the postspeciesist cultural framework and its consequences. By failing to accommodate the changing values towards animals and by failing to challenge the anthropocentric hierarchy of values, the speciesist rationale of the veterinary profession contributes to many of the problems faced by practicing veterinarians. The incorporation of a modern moral-philosophical mindset towards animals may not even be possible because veterinary science is subject to a paradigm that is irreversibly tied to institutional discrimination against species and defies reflection on veterinary science itself. However, the veterinary profession has a privileged position in establishing an alternative ontological thinking and an alternative conception of "animal life." Anthropological knowledge was applied to anticipate further intervention of social and cultural sciences in the problems of small animal practitioners. Rather than further diversifying and increasing expectations towards veterinarians by expecting them to acquire additional skills, we propose another practitioner who can support, mediate, and enhance veterinary performance - the cultural anthropologist. With their deep knowledge of cultural differences and social dynamics, they can collaborate with veterinarians to act as a liaison between cultures, paradigms, and species.

Grooming-Related Concerns Among Companion Animals: Preliminary Data on an Overlooked Topic and Considerations for Animals' Access to Health-Related Services

Grooming is an essential health maintenance activity that is fundamental to the welfare of many companion animals. Despite the potentially serious consequences of inadequate grooming for pets and their caregivers, few studies have examined the role of access to pet grooming services and supplies in promoting and maintaining companion animal health and welfare. The goal of this paper was 2-fold: (1) To provide preliminary findings demonstrating the scope of grooming and matting concerns among animals served by a large, non-profit animal welfare organization and (2) to provide a call for research to guide effective prevention of and responses to grooming-related omissions of care. We retrospectively extracted data from five American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) programs serving the New York City area: ASPCA Animal Hospital (AAH), Community Medicine (CM), One ASPCA Fund, ASPCA-NYPD (New York City Police Department) Partnership, and the Community Engagement (CE) Program. The prevalence of grooming–related concerns was relatively consistent across all three veterinary service programs (AAH: 6%; CM: 4%; One ASPCA Fund: 6%). Thirteen percent of the ASPCA-NYPD Partnership's cruelty cases involved general hair matting concerns and/or strangulating hair mat wounds (93% were long-haired dog breed types). Five percent of CE cases received grooming-related supplies to support pet caregivers' in-home grooming capabilities. Our findings underscore the need to understand the scope of grooming-related concerns among animals served by veterinarians and other community programs to improve animals' access to health-related services.

The Intertwined Well-Being of Children and Non-Human Animals: An Analysis of Animal Control Reports Involving Children

The well-being of children and non-human animals (subsequently referred to as animals) is often intertwined. Communities are unlikely to be able to best protect humans from abuse and harm unless they are working to ensure the safety of animals who reside there as well. This study is the first to utilize U.S. animal control report data and narratives to explore how children are involved in cases of animal cruelty. Children engage in abusive acts toward animals, alone, or along with peers and/or adults. Children were found to inflict abuse most often with their hands or feet as opposed to with a weapon or other object. A total of 85% of animal cruelty perpetrated by children was toward a dog or cat. Key differences between how children are involved in acts of cruelty to companion animals compared with acts involving wild animals are described and warrant further study. The cases of animal abuse or neglect reported by children were among the most severe in the study, and often involved an adult perpetrator known to the child. Neighbors rarely report child abuse or intimate partner violence in the United States, but 89% of the animal cruelty cases involving children in this study were reported by a neighbor or passerby. Although children involved in reports as a perpetrator or reporter were most often in early adolescence, children involved in cross-reports between child welfare and animal control were often under the age of 5. Improved cross-reporting and stronger partnerships between human and animal welfare agencies may provide opportunity for earlier intervention and is likely to better many human and animal lives.

Social Workers in Animal Shelters: A Strategy Toward Reducing Occupational Stress Among Animal Shelter Workers

Animal shelter workers (ASWs) are at disproportionate risk of moral injury, secondary trauma, compassion fatigue, and burn-out. While there is an emerging body of literature developing on understanding the nuances of these experiences for ASWs, little work has been done on developing strategies to ameliorate occupational stressors and the negative effects of such for ASWs. Within this paper, occupational risks and protective factors for ASWs are summarized, and the emergence of social work within animal shelter settings as one strategy for helping to ameliorate the occupational stress experienced by ASWs is delineated.

Is One Health a Viable Strategy in Animal Health Litigation: Evidence from Civil Lawsuits in China

Simple Summary

Strategic litigation launched to protect animal welfare worldwide branches out with several tactical themes: environmental protection, child abuse, veterinarian malpractice, product liability and quasi-family member. Currently, the litigation strategy themed in One Health has been observed in legal practice in Chinese mainland. Using 1520 zoonosis related civil lawsuit judgments, this study aimed to assess the effectiveness of this litigation strategy in animal health cases from Chinese mainland. It has been confirmed that using the litigation strategy themed in One Health results in more successful outcomes and larger damage awards, so there might be a practical value in using this strategy in animal welfare lawsuits.

Abstract

Several litigation strategies are used to gain support from courts in order to protect animals. While the emerging litigation strategy themed in One Health stimulates judicial protection in the animal health sector, little is known about whether and how such strategies are supported by courts. In this article, we investigate how animal welfare litigation strategies influence judge’s choices within their discretion. We argue that litigators equipped with the litigation strategy themed in One Health are placed in an advantageous position in animal health cases, but that this tendency varies markedly across zoonoses. Specifically, we suggest that litigators utilizing One Health’s litigation strategy are associated with higher probabilities to win, whereas normal litigators are not. Further, we propose that litigators equipped with the One Health litigation strategy are awarded more damages from judges. We test and find support for our predictions using a cross sectional dataset of civil lawsuit cases centering on the animal health industry in Chinese mainland. Our findings indicate that courts indeed were persuaded by the One Health litigation strategy, even when bound by the discretion rules. At the same time, we suggest that for advocates who would like to litigate for animal welfare in the animal health sector, the litigation strategy themed in One Health might have potentially positive implications.