{"id":1400,"date":"2013-08-30T13:10:48","date_gmt":"2013-08-30T03:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1400"},"modified":"2013-07-30T19:33:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-30T09:33:26","slug":"adventures-in-anthrozoology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1400","title":{"rendered":"Adventures in anthrozoology"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Pauleen<\/a>How does owning a pet change us? How do animals impact on the health of their owners? How do we rethink the way we address human-animal relationships in natural disaster situations? These are the questions Pauleen Bennett and her students ponder.<\/i>\r\n\r\nWhen world anthrozoology expert Pauleen Bennett left high school, she had a passion for animals, an incredible amount of energy and a simple dream to meet and marry Prince Charming.\r\n\r\nLife didn\u2019t pan out exactly how she had planned. She turned her previous hobby of horse-riding into a job, but after several years of 5AM starts with no sign of Prince Charming this career path rapidly lost its shine.\r\n\r\nA careers advisor suggested she enrol in a behavioural science degree through La Trobe University. A decade later, Bennett had two bachelor degrees, a master\u2019s, a PhD and a position as an academic at Monash University. Most of her research activities were centered around behavioural neuroscience and clinical neuropsychology.\r\n\r\nBennett was working so hard she needed a break.\r\n\r\n\u201cI\u2019ve always had dogs and they were the only thing that made me stop working,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to stop and take them for a walk every day, so I thought I would do that a bit more seriously.\u201d\r\n\r\nBennett and her partner Ron began breeding Jack Russell Terriers before they became involved in breeding Australian Shepherds. That is where her foray into the study of animal welfare really began. She docked the tails of the first litter, as per the breed standard.\r\n\r\n\u201cI thought about that quite a lot and decided I wouldn\u2019t dock the second litter. I was teaching animal welfare and animal ethics and I could not come up with a good reason for cutting the tail off a dog.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe decision made her unpopular \u2013 she received hate mail and threats to poison her dogs.\r\n\r\n\u201cI became embroiled in the whole thing but really I wasn\u2019t trying to prove a point so much as understand a point: I was not anti-tail docking, I was anti-tail docking without a reason.\u201d\r\n\r\nIt was a tough time. That year, for Christmas, one of Bennett\u2019s students, Eloise Perini\u00a0 gave her a\u00a0 folder filled with research papers on tail docking and related issues.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere were papers on phantom limb pain, breeding and the human-animal relationship, it was wonderful. I spent the whole Christmas writing a paper about the issues around tail docking .\u201d\r\n\r\nThat paper was published in the Australian Veterinary Journal<\/i> in 2003, at a time when Governments were assessing the issues around tail docking.\r\n\r\n\u201cI was quoted as someone who had come up with evidence against tail docking, which I wasn\u2019t, but I had to wear that,\u201d Bennett said.\r\n\r\nThat cost her some friends \u2013 but won many more. Bennett found herself knee-deep in the field of animal welfare \u2013 and fascinated with the relationships people share with their pets. She embarked on a career in anthrozoology.\r\n\r\nAnthrozoology, taught in most Australian veterinary schools, is derived from the Greek \u2018anthropos\u2019 meaning human, and \u2018zoon\u2019 meaning animal. It is the study of human-animal interactions.\r\n\r\n\u201cFrom a scientific point of view, pet ownership makes no sense,\u201d she said. \u201cWe put all our resources and time and energy into looking after someone else\u2019s babies \u2013 we spend heaps of money on pets, let them disrupt our lives \u2013 I think the reason is we get so many benefits out of the relationship.\u201d\r\n\r\nAccording to Bennett, the human-animal relationship didn\u2019t evolve in a vacuum.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen we see animals that are contented we feel pretty safe \u2013 we look to animals for cues to assess the world,\u201d she said. \u201cOne advantage is that they don\u2019t get caught up in all the hype we get caught up in. They live their lives every day as if it\u2019s great \u2013 like you or I thinking \u2018Today is Thursday…how great is that?\u2019\u201d.\r\n\r\nIn the field of positive psychology, there are five components to a good life: pleasure, engagement, meaning, relationships and achievement. Bennett said that pets tick at least four of the five boxes \u2013 five for those who use their animals in achieving (for example those who show dogs or compete in agility).\r\n\r\nBennett is also fascinated by our somewhat irrational approach to animals.\r\n\r\n\u201cHere we are, thinking we are so smart and so much in control, when nearly all of us go totally gaga over a cute little piglet, at the same time as we chow down on a pork chop. This seems to make no sense.\u201d\r\n\r\nBut Bennett is no idle navel-gazer. When she poses a question like this, she answers it with a scientific study. Bennett is recognised as one of the world\u2019s foremost authorities on anthrozoology, reflected in her roles as the current president of the International Society for Anthrozoology and the Chair of the Australian Anthrozoology Research Foundation. She is Director of Regional Operations for the School of Psychological Science at La Trobe University and continues to supervise PhD candidates at La Trobe, as well as at several other Australian universities.\r\n\r\nBennett doesn\u2019t have a lot of time to run her own projects these days, but she supervises a large group of students.\r\n\r\n\u201cCynthia Brown and Pinar Thorn are looking at the relationship between humans and animals and whether the physical appearance of the animal impacts attachment. When we choose our pets we choose them on the basis of their appearance, but behaviour and temperament are more likely to affect the quality of that relationship long-term. We want to know how our perception of a dog\u2019s attractiveness maps onto our relationship with our dogs, and ultimately how we can help people choose the right dog.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cJanette Collier [is] completing a PhD on the way human-animal relationships can get in the way of human health \u2013 you\u2019ve got older people who won\u2019t go to hospital\u00a0 when they need medical attention because they don\u2019t want to leave their animal. She is looking into that, we want to know how we can use that relationship [with the animal] to help people.\u201d\r\n\r\nIn a similar vein, former Honours student Josh Trigg is looking at the role of pets in natural disasters.\r\n\r\n\u201cSome people are dying in these situations because they won\u2019t leave their pets when told to evacuate. But there may be some way we can encourage people to evacuate to save their animals \u2013 and we may save more human lives in the process,\u201d Bennett said.\r\n\r\nTammie King is evaluating tests of amicability, so this can be measured and bred for, while Kate Mornement is studying the way dogs are assessed in shelters. Mia Cobb is looking at ways to ease the transition from foster family to Guide Dog training for prospective guide dogs, who may otherwise find leaving a foster family after twelve months a stressful experience.\r\n\r\nDom Trescowthick is comparing attitudes to cats in Australia with New Zealand, where registration and microchipping of cats is not compulsory. Bennett is also co-supervising two Queensland University students who are investigating problems around re-homing cats, a major challenge for Australian shelters.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe\u2019ve also been involved in a project with the Victorian Bureau of Animal Welfare looking at how people look after their pets. In other animal industries such as farming we have regular audits, but when it comes to pets we have no clue as to how people are actually looking after them\u00a0 – so the aim was to do some benchmarking around issues like frequency of feeding and exercising dogs.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cOne benefit is to put together an auditing tool for pet owners so they can see how they compare,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that people are being bad, it\u2019s that we just don\u2019t know. For example, do most dogs sleep inside or outside? Does it matter? What does a dog need to have good welfare in our community?\u201d\r\n\r\nIn her spare time, Bennett breeds Lagottos.\r\n\r\n\u201cThat is because I got together with my students and brainstormed the best dog for today\u2019s world.\u201d PhD student Tammie King also did a big survey asking the Australian public what they want in a dog.\r\n\r\nNot all cat and dog breeds are suitable. Most traditional dog breeds, for example, are working breeds, with qualities such as barking at intruders, warding off strange dogs and people and killing rodents sought after traits.\r\n\r\nThese days, owners want the opposite \u2013 a friendly,\u00a0 not-too-energetic, easily managed and trained dog who fits in as part of the family.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe lagotto romagnolo fit the bill the most.\u201d\r\n\r\nBennett is hoping to raise more funds through the Australian Anthrozoology Research Foundation to support further research into human-animal relationships. While historically perceived as a somewhat \u201csoft science\u201d, anthrozoology\u2019s time has come.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe know now in human medicine that social relationships have a huge impact on outcome.\u00a0 We are just beginning to understand the importance of the human-animal relationship in relation to outcome. For example, having people come and visit their hospitalised animals can be very important.\u201d\r\n\r\nAnd acknowledging that human-animal bond is important to the bottom line.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf I don\u2019t like the vet or the vet doesn\u2019t seem to like my dog, I wouldn\u2019t go back. From a veterinary perspective, managing that relationship is really important.\u201d\r\n\r\nBennett may have started out without a roadmap, but she knows exactly what she hopes to achieve.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhat I am really trying to do is save the planet,\u201d Bennett says. \u201cWe can\u2019t save the planet without fundamentally changing how we think about the environment and animals in it. Most people think through their pets \u2013 they don\u2019t think about the polar bears in the Arctic going extinct, they don\u2019t think about the chickens in factory farms. But every single day they are confronted by their cats, dogs and rabbits \u2013 and forced to think about how these animals experience the world. So if the only hope of saving the planet is to change the way we think about things, our pets are absolutely instrumental in that. It\u2019s a fairly lofty goal when you think about it.\u201d\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nAnne Fawcett\r\n\r\nPictures Pauleen Bennett<\/b>\r\n\r\nReferences<\/b>\r\n\r\nBennett PC & Pereni E (2003) Tail docking in dogs: a review of the issues. Australian Veterinary Journal<\/i> 81(4):208-218.\r\n\r\nBennett PC & Pereni E (2003) Tail docking in dogs: can attitude change be achieved. Australian Veterinary Journal<\/i> 81(5):277-282.\r\n\r\nKing T, Marston LC & Bennett PC (2009). Describing the ideal Australian companion dog. Applied Animal Behaviour Science,<\/i> 120 (1-2),<\/i> 84-93.\r\n\r\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does owning a pet change us? How do animals impact on the health of their owners? How do we rethink the way we address human-animal relationships in natural disaster situations? These are the questions Pauleen Bennett and her students ponder. When world anthrozoology expert Pauleen Bennett left high school, she had a passion for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1143,1244,1248,306,1247,1249,1245,1246],"class_list":["post-1400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-animals","tag-anthrozoology","tag-disasters","tag-ethics","tag-human-animal-relationships","tag-lectures","tag-pauleen-bennett","tag-pet-ownership"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":1,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":67,"name":"Features","slug":"features","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":68,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":63,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":67,"category_count":63,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Features","category_nicename":"features","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"How does owning a pet change us? How do animals impact on the health of their owners? How do we rethink the way we address human-animal relationships in natural disaster situations? These are the questions Pauleen Bennett and her students ponder. When world anthrozoology expert Pauleen Bennett left high school, she had a passion for animals, an incredible amount of..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"67":{"name":"Features","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=67"}},"tags_names":{"1143":{"name":"animals","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=animals"},"1244":{"name":"anthrozoology","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=anthrozoology"},"1248":{"name":"disasters","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=disasters"},"306":{"name":"ethics","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=ethics"},"1247":{"name":"human-animal relationships","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=human-animal-relationships"},"1249":{"name":"lectures","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=lectures"},"1245":{"name":"Pauleen Bennett","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=pauleen-bennett"},"1246":{"name":"pet ownership","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=pet-ownership"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1400"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1419,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions\/1419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}