Our Ethical and Moral Responsibility

Handlers’ Representations on Therapy Dogs’ Welfare

“…However, this can be difficult when handlers are not trained and may also be biased because they want their dog to enjoy accompanying them to work. This positive bias has been highlighted in the article of Zenithson [ 10 ] and confirmed in the study of Haubenhofer and Kirchengast [ 35 ] where handlers used positive words (satisfied, relaxed, happy mood) to describe how their dogs feel after a AAI session.…”

“…These practices necessarily include an intervening dyad composed of a handler and his/her animal to benefit to a third party (the beneficiary); which is, in fact, different from assistance dogs where the benefits of the dog’s presence are aimed at his/her owner. While the benefits on human health have been well documented (i.e., [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]), the benefits for the animals are not obvious [ 10 ] yet taking into account animal welfare in AAI is ethically crucial and is decisive for the success of the interventions [ 11 ]. Indeed, as an interspecies practice, AAI should have an ethos of asking whether the integration of dogs in AAI to promote human wellbeing is at the expense of animal wellbeing?…”

“…On the behavioral observation side, according to the majority of studies, little or no stress behavior is observed in the dogs studied [ 11 , 29 , 39 , 41 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. This diversity of results could be linked to the diverse spectrum of types of AAIs including a heterogeneity in settings, as well as in the different characteristics of handlers and dogs [ 10 , 15 , 26 , 48 ]. Note also that program monitoring and ethical standards related to research effectively limit risks to dog welfare and generalization of results due to lack of fidelity to actual practice [ 41 , 49 ].…”

“…Several authors have pointed out that qualitative proxy measures can be reliable in providing a picture of the subjective experience of the animal and thus assess animal welfare [ 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ], however very few studies have made use of handlers’ perceptions in order to study the manifestation of stress in dogs working within AAI [ 35 , 36 ] despite their responsibility to ensure the welfare of their therapy dog [ 10 ]. An additional argument is that general recommendations are unlikely to be sufficiently acted upon if the handlers do not see the need for them or if they are not adapted to their working conditions.…”

Providing Humans With Practical, Best Practice Handling Guidelines During Human-Cat Interactions Increases Cats' Affiliative Behaviour and Reduces Aggression and Signs of Conflict

“…Concerns over the negative impacts of Cat Cafés to cats (e.g., due to their being constantly handled by unfamiliar humans) have been raised (31,32). Similar sentiments are also increasingly echoed in relation to the broader welfare implications of the inclusion of both companion and noncompanion animals in HAIs such as AAI (33,34), but also animal-based tourism (32).…”