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Zoo Animal Welfare: The Human Dimension
Contributor(s):: Cole, Justine, Fraser, David
Standards and policies intended to safeguard nonhuman animal welfare, whether in zoos, farms, or laboratories, have tended to emphasize features of the physical environment. However, research has now made it clear that very different welfare outcomes are commonly seen in facilities using similar...
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Complexities of Using Wild versus Captive Activity Budget Comparisons for Assessing Captive Primate Welfare
Contributor(s):: Howell, Christian P., Cheyne, Susan M.
Activity budget comparisons between groups or individuals in the wild and those in captivity are commonly used to determine the range of wild-type behaviors that nonhuman animals in captivity perform. These comparisons are conducted with the view that individuals displaying a greater range of...
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Comparison of Subjective Well-Being and Personality Assessments in the Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia), and African Lion (Panthera leo)
Contributor(s):: Gartner, Marieke Cassia, Powell, David M., Weiss, Alexander
The study of subjective well-being in nonhuman animals is growing in the field of psychology, but there are still only a few published studies and the focus is on primates. To consider whether the construct of subjective well-being could be found in another mammal, this study aimed to assess...
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A Scoping Review of the Health and Social Benefits of Dog Ownership for People Who Have Chronic Pain
Contributor(s):: Carr, Eloise C. J., Norris, Jill M., Hayden, K. Alix, Pater, Rianne, Wallace, Jean E.
Chronic pain is a significant cause of morbidity and disability globally. One potential strategy for the self-management of chronic pain is interacting with companion animals; more specifically, dogs. While studies of dog ownership suggest social, psychological, and health benefits to humans, the...
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The Beginning, the End, and All the Happiness in Between: Pet Owners’ Wellbeing from Pet Acquisition to Death
Contributor(s):: Brkljačić, Tihana, Sučić, Ines, Lučić, Lana, Tkalić, Renata Glavak, Lipovčan, Ljiljana Kaliterna
The aim of this study was to provide deeper insight into the relationship between pet-related life events and the subjective wellbeing of pet owners, as well as to analyze definitions of happiness that included reference to pets. This research was conducted online as a part of the Croatian...
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We Are Family: Viewing Pets as Family Members Improves Wellbeing
Contributor(s):: McConnell, Allen R., Lloyd, E. Paige, Humphrey, Brandon T.
The current work investigated how viewing one’s pet as a family member improves wellbeing. We hypothesized that including pets in a key social ingroup (i.e., family) would increase ascriptions of socially supportive traits to these animals, enhancing their perceived ability to provide social...
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Pet Ownership and Human–Animal Interaction in an Aging Population: Rewards and Challenges
Contributor(s):: Enders-Slegers, Marie-José, Hediger, Karin
Older adults in most developed countries can now expect to live nearly 80 years without significant disability. To maximize the quality of the years after retirement, societies, governments, and organizations are seeking strategies to help older adults maintain their mental and physical health,...
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Human–Dolphin Interactions: Relationships, Connections, and the Reinforcement of an Ongoing Nature Relationship
Contributor(s):: Yerbury, Rachel M., Boyd, William E.
Although interactions between humans and wild animals have been explored in the literature, the mechanism for how such experiences influence wellbeing is an area needing further examination. This research used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to explore the narratives of wellbeing from...
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Exploring the Meaning and Experience of Chronic Pain with People Who Live with a Dog: A Qualitative Study
Contributor(s):: Carr, Eloise C. J., Wallace, Jean E., Onyewuchi, Chie, Hellyer, Peter W., Kogan, Lori
Pain is a significant burden for those with chronic disease and negatively impacts quality of life, causing disability and substantial work and health-care costs. Chronic pain has been identified as one of the most important current and future causes of morbidity and disability across the world....
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Exploring Wellness of Wildlife Carers in New Zealand: A Descriptive Study
Contributor(s):: Yeung, Polly, White, Bridey, Chilvers, B. Louise
The rescue and care of vulnerable wildlife is rewarding. Most people involved in animal rescue have a strong commitment to service but the work can be profoundly challenging. The ability to know and respond appropriately to an animal's needs depends on the professional skills and knowledge of...
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“All Those Ingredients of the Walk”: The Therapeutic Spaces of Dog-walking for People with Long-term Health Conditions
Contributor(s):: Smith, Catherine M., Treharne, Gareth J., Tumilty, Steve
We currently know little about how dog-walking contributes to health and wellbeing of adults living with long-term health conditions. Guided by a conceptual framework of “therapeutic mobilities,” we accompanied 13 adults with diverse long-term health conditions on their usual dog-walk. We...
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Measuring Quality of Life in Owners of Companion Dogs: Development and Validation of a Dog Owner-specific Quality of Life Questionnaire
Contributor(s):: Oyama, Mark A., Citron, Lindsey, Shults, Justine, Brown, Dorothy Cimino, Serpell, James A., Farrar, John T.
Numerous studies have examined the link between companiondog ownership and improved physical or psychological health outcomes; however, few have examined the association between dog ownership and owners’ overall wellbeing or quality of life (QOL). Moreover, the potential for dog ownership to...
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The Effects of Group-Administered Canine Therapy on University Students’ Wellbeing: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Contributor(s):: Binfet, John-Tyler
University students with elevated stress levels are at risk for experiencing compromised mental health and for underperforming academically. In an effort to support student wellbeing, post-secondary campuses are increasingly offering canine therapy programs. These programs provide students...
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Companion-Animals’ Effectiveness in Managing Chronic Pain in Adult Community Members
Contributor(s):: Bradley, Lahna, Bennett, Pauleen C.
Therapy animals have been found to alleviate pain in healthcare settings, but companion-animal owners report greater discomfort and use more analgesics than people who do not own one or more companion animals. To investigate this anomaly, 173 adults completed an online survey that included...
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Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris grampia) personality and subjective well-being: Implications for captive management
Contributor(s):: Gartner, Marieke Cassia, Weiss, Alexander
Research in animal personality has been increasing over the last decade, as scientists realize its importance to health outcomes. In particular, personality has sometimes been used, in conjunction with other tools, for aspects of captive management, including decreasing stress, increasing...
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Individual and environmental factors associated with stereotypic behavior and fecal glucocorticoid metabolite levels in zoo housed polar bears
Contributor(s):: Shepherdson, David, Lewis, Karen D., Carlstead, Kathy, Bauman, Joan, Perrin, Nancy
Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) are known to exhibit repetitive pacing behaviors, usually described as stereotypic, in zoo environments. However, little quantitative information exists about the prevalence of pacing in the zoo population. Similarly, large, multi-institutional studies conducted to...
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Housing of female mice in a new environment and its influence on post-surgical behaviour and recovery
Contributor(s):: Jirkof, Paulin, Cesarovic, Nikola, Rettich, Andreas, Arras, Margarete
The transportation of mice into a new clean cage after surgery is a standard procedure but might have detrimental effects during the critical post-surgical recovery phase. To analyse the effect of post-surgical housing, female C57BL/6J mice housed in their familiar home cage or in a new...
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Great ape cognition and captive care: Can cognitive challenges enhance well-being?
Contributor(s):: Clark, Fay E.
Given the close genetic link between humans and nonhuman great apes, the well-being of the latter in captivity is understandably controversial. Behavioural signs of boredom, anxiety and stress in captive great apes have been linked to being reared in small groups or by humans, and by having a...
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Physiological State of Therapy Dogs during Animal-Assisted Activities in an Outpatient Setting
Contributor(s):: Clark, S. D., Martin, F., McGowan, R. T. S., Smidt, J. M., Anderson, R., Wang, L., Turpin, T., Langenfeld-McCoy, N., Bauer, B. A., Mohabbat, A. B.
Therapy dogs are increasingly being incorporated into numerous clinical settings. However, there are only a handful of studies that have focused on the impact of animal-assisted activity or therapy sessions on the wellbeing of the therapy dogs. Furthermore, these studies show mixed results. The...
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Benefits, challenges, and needs of people living with cancer and their companion dogs: An exploratory study
Contributor(s):: Ingram, K. M., Cohen-Filipic, J.
