The influence of dog ownership on objective measures of free-living physical activity and sedentary behaviour in community-dwelling older adults: a longitudinal case-controlled study

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Philippa Margaret Dall, Sarah Lesley Helen Ellis, Brian Martin Ellis, P Margaret Grant, Alison Colyer, Nancy Renee Gee, Malcolm Howard Granat, Daniel Simon Mills

Background There is some evidence to suggest that dog ownership may improve physical activity (PA) among older adults, but to date, studies examining this, have either depended on self-report or incomplete datasets due to the type of activity monitor used to record physical activity....

Determinants of the Level of Care Provided for Various Types and Sizes of Dogs in New Providence, The Bahamas

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): William J. Fielding

This paper reports the level of care offered 424 dogs, classified as small dogs, large dogs, pit bulls and potcakes (the colloquial name for the local mongrel) in New Providence, The Bahamas. Levels of care that meet the legal minimum –food water and shelter– as well as care...

Pets, Purity and Pollution: Why Conventional Models of Disease Transmission Do Not Work for Pet Rat Owners

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Charlotte Robin, Elizabeth Perkins, Francine Watkins, Robert Christley

In the United Kingdom, following the emergence of Seoul hantavirus in pet rat owners in 2012, public health authorities tried to communicate the risk of this zoonotic disease, but had limited success. To explore this lack of engagement with health advice, we conducted in-depth, semi-structured...

I Walk My Dog Because It Makes Me Happy: A Qualitative Study to Understand Why Dogs Motivate Walking and Improved Health

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Carri Westgarth, Robert M. Christley, Garry Marvin, Elizabeth Perkins

Dog walking is a popular everyday physical activity. Dog owners are generally more active than non-owners, but some rarely walk with their dog. The strength of the dog–owner relationship is known to be correlated with dog walking, and this qualitative study investigates why. Twenty-six...

Influence of low stress handling during clinical visit on physiological and behavioural indicators in adult dogs: a preliminary study

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Bruno Scalia, Daniela Alberghina, Michele Panzera

Low stress handling techniques or “Fear Free principles” in veterinary clinics are becoming an important research area aimed at improving small animal welfare, considering that the majority of dogs who undergo clinical examinations exhibit fear or anxiety signs. Objective of this...

Judgement bias in goats (Capra hircus): investigating the effects of human grooming

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Luigi Baciadonna, Christian Nawroth, Alan G. McElligott

  Animal emotional states can be investigated by evaluating their impact on cognitive processes. In this study, we used a judgement bias paradigm to determine if short-term positive human-animal interaction (grooming) induced a positive affective state in goats. We tested two groups of...

An unexpected acoustic indicator of positive emotions in horses

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Mathilde Stomp, Maël Leroux, Marjorie Cellier, Séverine Henry, Alban Lemasson, Martine Hausberger

Indicators of positive emotions are still scarce and many proposed behavioural markers have proven ambiguous. Studies established a link between acoustic signals and emitter’s internal state, but few related to positive emotions and still fewer considered non-vocal sounds. One of them,...

Earliest evidence for equid bit wear in the ancient Near East: The "ass" from Early Bronze Age Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Haskel J. Greenfield, Itzhaq Shai, Tina L. Greenfield, Elizabeth R. Arnold, Annie Brown, Adi Eliyahu, Aren M. Maeir

Analysis of a sacrificed and interred domestic donkey from an Early Bronze Age (EB) IIIB (c. 2800–2600 BCE) domestic residential neighborhood at Tell eṣ-Ṣâfi/Gath, Israel, indicate the presence of bit wear on the Lower Premolar 2 (LPM2). This is the earliest evidence for the use of a...

Human Facial Recognition by Northern Mockingbirds

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Jessica A. Stehlin, Janice Crook-Hill, Brad Bailey

A number of studies have examined the ability of various animal species to recognize individual humans, but only a few have focused on native, non-captive birds. Previous research demonstrated that American Crows learn to recognize individual human faces. Other research indicated that Northern...

Knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding rabies and exposure to bats in two rural communities in Guatemala

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): David Moran, Patricia Juliao, Danilo Alvarez, Kim A Lindblade, James A Ellison, Amy T Gilbert, Brett Petersen, Charles Rupprecht, Sergio Recuenco

Background Rabies is a fatal encephalitis caused by rabies virus, of the genus Lyssavirus. The principal reservoir for rabies in Latin America is the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), which feeds routinely on the blood of cattle, and when livestock are scarce, may prey on...

Validation of a Commercially Available Enzyme ImmunoAssay for the Determination of Oxytocin in Plasma Samples from Seven Domestic Animal Species

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Cecile Bienboire-Frosini, Camille Chabaud, Alessandro Cozzi, Elisa Codecasa, Patrick Pageat

The neurohormone oxytocin (OT) has a broad range of behavioral effects in mammals. It modulates a multitude of social behaviors, e.g., affiliative and sexual interactions. Consequently, the OT role in various animal species is increasingly explored. However, several issues have been raised...

The Days and Nights of Zoo Elephants: Using Epidemiology to Better Understand Stereotypic Behavior of African Elephants (Loxodonta africana) and Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in North American Zoos

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Brian J. Greco, Cheryl L. Meehan, Jen N. Hogan, Katherine A. Leighty, Jill Mellen, Georgia J. Mason, Joy A. Mench

Stereotypic behavior is an important indicator of compromised welfare. Zoo elephants are documented to perform stereotypic behavior, but the factors that contribute to performance have not been systematically assessed. We collected behavioral data on 89 elephants (47 African [Loxodonta...

Animal Bodies, Colonial Subjects: (Re)Locating Animality in Decolonial Thought

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Billy-Ray Belcourt

In this paper, I argue that animal domestication, speciesism, and other modern human-animal interactions in North America are possible because of and through the erasure of Indigenous bodies and the emptying of Indigenous lands for settler-colonial expansion. That is, we cannot address animal...

The effect of human interaction on guinea pig behavior in animal-assisted therapy

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Winnie Gut, Lisa Crump, Jakob Zinsstag, Jan Hattendorf, Karin Hediger

Guinea pigs are included in various animal-assisted interventions (AAIs), but no research has been published to date on behavioral changes in guinea pigs interacting with humans. The goal of this study was to evaluate the behavior in guinea pigs during animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and to...

Human-directed behaviour in goats is not affected by short-term positive handling

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Jan Langbein, Annika Krause, Christian Nawroth

In addition to domestication, interactions with humans or task-specific training during ontogeny have been proposed to play a key role in explaining differences in human–animal communication across species. In livestock, even short-term positive interactions with caretakers or other...

Can you spare 15 min? The measurable positive impact of a 15-min petting session on shelter dog well-being

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Ragen T. S. McGowan, Cynthia Bolte, Hallie R. Barnett, Gerardo Perez-Camargo, François Martin

It is well established that human interaction has positive effects on shelter dogs. This work set out to answer the question: “Does one 15-min petting session make a difference for shelter dogs?” Fifty-five dogs were subject to one 15-min petting session with one of five unfamiliar...

Animal-Assisted Interventions for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Survey of French Facilities

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Claire Philippe-Peyroutet, Marine Grandgeorge

Our survey of animal-assisted interventions (AAI) offered by French intervention facilities aimed to examine and describe the range of AAI for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children. We invited 2,302 facilities to reply to an online questionnaire. The responses to our survey (n = 386)...

Assessment of Recent Cases of Animal Hoarding in Germany: The Challenge for Animal Shelters and Public Authorities

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Sophie Arnold, Henriette Mackensen, Evelyn Ofensberger, Brigitte Rusche

Animal hoarding is a severe problem in the field of human-animal interaction. The goal of this study was to assess the current situation of animal hoarding in Germany. Reports of animal hoarding cases were collected from animal shelters and public media between January 2012 and December 2015;...

Human-animal interaction as a social determinant of health: descriptive findings from the health and retirement study

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Megan Kiely Mueller, Nancy Dreschel, Regina M. Bures

Background We focused on human-animal interaction (HAI) as an important aspect of social functioning at the individual level, framing this emerging field from a public health perspective. Methods Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2012 HAI module, we describe the...

Pinnipeds and PTSD: An Analysis of a Human-Animal Interaction Case Study Program for a Veteran

Journal Articles | Contributor(s): Rachel A. Wortman, Theresa Vallone, Michele Karnes, Christine Walawander, Dion Daly, Bonnie Fox-Garrity

The objective of this study was to examine the impact of a pinniped (grey and harbor seals) facilitated human-animal interaction pilot program on the self-reported PTSD-like symptoms of a veteran. This study analyzed preexisting, deidentified data that represented the participant’s scores...