In the afternoon session of SCAS 2024, Dr. Rise VanFleet presented a workshop which focused on ethical considerations in animal assisted services (AAS). This discussion revolved around rethinking the human-animal relationship in animal assisted services, focusing on a relation of partnership and mutual respect as opposed to one of exploitation and control.
In looking to materialise this, Dr.VanFleet discussed the need to reconfigure the hierarchical ‘human-animal’ dynamic, noting how important it is to ‘involve’ and ‘invite’ animals into sessions, as opposed to ‘using’ them as a mere ‘tool’ or ‘resource’. The idea of ‘reciprocity’ is of particular importance here, to recognise both the human and the animal as unique individual actors with their own agency and willingness to consent. This workshop ‘connected the dots’ between different concepts which frequently re-emerged throughout SCAS 2024, namely matters of consent, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and the pressing need for standardised guidelines – and this report seeks to expand on these links in more depth.
‘Consent’ is integral to human-animal relations, particularly within the context of AAS, as seen within Dr. Janet Hoy-Gerlach’s morning workshop surrounding emotional support animals. This gave insight into how consensual companion animal emotional support services can function, with these animals having undergone no formal training or certification, simply providing care through existing alongside their owner. Considering the informal nature of this ‘service’ being provided, there is greater flexibility for the animals to exercise choice and agency in engaging with their owner, in contrast to that of a formally trained assistance animal.
Integral to this process of identifying ‘consent,’ as suggested by Dr. VanFleet, is adequate understanding of animal body language and behaviour, and the importance of remedying the disconnect between human understanding of animals, and the actual needs of animals themselves. Here, we can draw from Dr. Brinda Jegatheesan’s workshop on cross-disciplinary collaboration in companion animal studies, and the necessity of combining academic disciplines to effectively utilise a variety of viewpoints and expertise. To gauge understanding of what constitutes ‘consent’ on behalf of an animal, academics may need to engage with practitioners and vice versa, to consult on matters of animal body language and behaviours that indicate comfort. As such, to maximise ethical consideration within AAS, cross-disciplinary collaboration is a necessity to establish a standardised understanding of what it means for animals involved in AAS to be ‘comfortable’ and ‘consenting’. This, however, is of course not without its respective difficulties, as cross-disciplinary collaboration is accompanied by various obstacles, lack of knowledge on one another’s disciplines, and differences of opinion are merely a few Dr. Jegatheesan outlined. Despite the difficulties of cross-disciplinary collaboration, the value of being able to understand when animals are ‘comfortable’ is worth the trouble. Respecting the boundaries, limitations, and desires of animals involved in AAS is crucial to maintaining not only their legitimacy, but also the safety of all beings involved. Moreover, Dr. VanFleet noted how relationships formed around mutual consent are uniquely productive and fulfilling, as opposed to interactions wherein the animal appears ‘forced’ or less willing to engage. As an example of consent-based interaction, Dr. VanFleet states the value of innovating these services to incorporate natural animal behaviours – with a particularly humorous anecdote of a dog named Jake who naturally enjoyed ripping and chewing up paper. As such, this became an inventive means of working through trauma, with intrusive thoughts and traumatic experiences being written on pieces of paper – to be given to (and eaten up by!) Jake. This demonstrates how services can be informed by experts on animal behaviour and effectively adapted to take on a more ethically ‘consent-based’ approach. Further links can be drawn between this emphasis on incorporating ‘natural behaviours’ in animal assisted services, and Dr. Claire Guest’s discussion of medical detection dogs. This correlates with the deliberate recruitment of dogs with a ‘high hunt drive’ who enjoy constant action and activity – perceiving their work more as a game, in the same way that they would enjoy ‘searching and hunting for toys’.
Thus, even in human-animal relationship dynamics such as that of the medical detection dogs where formal processes of training are undertaken, in contrast to that of the emotional support animals discussed by Dr. Hoy-Gerlach, it is still crucial to incorporate the perspective of the animal in question. Dr. Guest detailed various instances of dogs being able to detect shifts in human health based on scent, and how this can materially better the lives of humans who are suffering. The extraordinary capacity for dogs to be able to pick up on human illness and disease through scent was exemplified through Dr. Guest describing the incredibly sophisticated sense of smell held by dogs, even being able to smell a mere teaspoon of sugar in 2 Olympic sized swimming pools!
Beyond diagnosis, however, these dogs can also aid individuals in their daily lives. The example drawn upon by Dr. Guest was POTS, and the role of dogs in being able to warn patients before they collapse, giving them time to get to a safe location and lay down to minimise injury severity and frequency. To end the workshop, there was an incredibly heartfelt moment of appreciation for Dr Guest’s own dog Daisy, who had detected and warned of her own breast cancer, saving her life. This inspiring talk was entrenched in optimism for the future of human health and illness detection, and the heroic role dogs play in medical futures.
Yet, even within this broader discussion of how significantly dogs can transform human well-being, sight was not lost of the well-being of the dogs involved. This calls back to the opening keynote address provided by Emeritus Professor Sam Ahmedzai who started off by giving a comprehensive genealogy of palliative care. This included the eventual involvement of animals in palliative care, and the roles of resident cats and dogs in influencing the well-being of patients. Kindred to the medical detection dogs, while these animals may be playing a key role in ensuring the well-being of humans, it is important to also foreground their own well-being when providing these services.
This became particularly clear in discussions surrounding the flexibility and range of scenarios in which these human-animal interactions can take place, from more obvious examples of in-person visits, to digitised services such as Youth and Pet Survivors Program (YAPS) wherein afflicted animals became the ‘pen pals’ of children with similar illnesses. This discussion around the role of new technologies reshaping the role of companion animals in palliative care (such as robotic animals), particularly in circumstances where the animal visiting in-person may be inappropriate (i.e., children perhaps not knowing their own strength, squeezing/pulling the animals ears/tail). Here we find another example of how animal assisted services can adapt and orient themselves toward the needs and safety of the animals, without necessarily compromising the interactive experience of the human.
The key takeaway from many of the powerful workshops of SCAS 2024 was to always incorporate the perspective of the animal, and frame communication as from one sentient being to another, on horizontal rather than hierarchical grounds. This stance calls back to the presentation in the morning session by Dr Elizabeth Ormerod and Dr Evangelos Diamantakos in discussing the need to move toward a UK-wide consensus for Minimum Standards in Animal Assisted Interventions. This involved a brief history of the role of companion animals in institutions and a broader appreciation for how far we’ve come, where we are today, and what is to be done. In part of looking at what is ‘to be done’, is the ethical considerations as outlined by Dr. VanFleet. As Dr Ormerod and Dr Diamantakos noted, this standardised regulatory framework must be oriented toward safeguarding the welfare of the animals involved. Taking responsibility and accountability for the treatment, safeguarding, and protecting of the animals is crucial for services involving animals to retain their legitimacy in a professional sense, as well as to prevent the interspecies relationship becoming exploitative, illegitimate, and harmful.
Finally, looking ahead at both companion animal studies as a discipline as well as SCAS, discussions emerged regarding the potential for a global minimum standard for all the reasons mentioned above, as well as to streamline the quality and design of human-animal programs. Thus, the inclusion of the ‘animal perspective’ as outlined by Dr. VanFleet can be found to not only be in the backdrop of the other workshops and discussions, but also as the foundation to the future, with the SCAS Code of Practice looking to establish a consensus of animal ethical considerations both at the UK level and ideally, in the future, globally.
Sources:
- https://www.medicaldetectiondogs.org.uk/about-us/frequently-asked-questions-about-bio-detection-dogs/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6843928/
- https://www.scas.org.uk/animal-assisted-interventions/code-of-practice/
Libby Hooper
University of Cambridge, UK, An undergraduate (Bachelor’s degree) student. Human, Social, and Political Sciences (Politics and Sociology)
About me:
I am beginning my third year as a HSPS student at the University of Cambridge, and I have capitalised on the relative flexibility of my degree to tailor my research thus far to my interests in Anthrozoology and Critical Animal Studies! This has included the impact of climate-related displacement on rupturing human relations with their companion animals, as well as strain theory’s application to domestic animal abuse. Beyond my studies, I have worked as an editor for my university’s politics journal, and have co-founded an academic magazine which looks to platform early-stage researchers.
Regarding future goals, I seek to pursue a career in animal advocacy, as well as to continue my studies beyond undergraduate level, researching human-animal relations further – particularly focusing on when traditional companion animals become disposable (as with recent BSL developments with the XL-Bully ban in the UK, and the mass culling of stray cats and dogs recently seen in Türkiye).