Anth rozoo logy TIlE NE\V SCIENCE OF HU\IAN-ANIi\IAL I N I ER ACTIONS Our failure to study our relationships with other animals has occurred for many reasons.. .. Much of it can be boiled down to two rather unattractive human qualities: arrogance and ignorance. —CLIFTON FLYNN The thirty-minute drive from the Kansas City airport to the conference hotel was much more interesting than the three-hour flight from North Carolina. I had flow n in for the annual meeting of the International Soci— ety of Anthro7oologv. I found myself sharing a ride with a woman named Layla Esposito, a social psychologist who tells me she recentk completed her Phi) dissertation on bullying among middle school children. Puziled. I ask her wh she was attending a meeting on the relationships between people and animals. She tells me that she is a program director at the i\a tional Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She is at the conference to let researchers know about a new federal grant program that will fund research on the effects that animals ha’e on human health and well-being. The money is coming from the National Institutes of Health SOME WE LOVE, SOME WE HATE, SOME WE EAT ANTHROZOOLOGY (NIH) and Mars, the corporate giant that makes Snickers for me and human-animal interactions is that for many’ of Tempting Tuna Treats for my cat, Tilly. NIFI is particularly interested them the topic seems triv ial. This attitude is wrong-headed, Understanding the psychology in the impact of pets on children: Is pet therapy an effective treatment lying our under attitudes and behaviors toward for autism? other species is ‘What role does oxytocin (the so-called love hormone) play in several reasons. important for About two out of three Americans our attachment to pets? Are children raised with pets less susceptible to live with animals, and many people have deep personal asthma? relationships with their pets. our beliefs about In addition, how ‘ye should treat other species “Flow much money are you giving out?” I ask. Two and a half million are changing. and a lot of us are torn over whether animals dollars should be used as subjects a year, she says. “Fantastic! This is just what the field needs,” I say. medical research, in bio or killed because they taste I am thinking that Layla is going to have a very full dance card for the next good. The debate over the moral status of animals has become such a divisive social couple of days. officials issue that FBI has e called radical animal rights actis isn America’s greatest inestic terrorism threat. do Finall, people are fascinated research. by’ anthro700logical \ hen I tell someone that WHY OUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH ANIMALS MATTER I study human-animal interactions, almost inex itahl they’ begin to tell me stories about their their wacky dogs or objections to meat or how their While Aunt Sally loves to hunt bears $2.5 million is paltry’ compared to the $6 billion that NIH doles her Plott hounds. with out every year for cancer research, the funds will be a shot in the arm for anthrozoology, a field you have probably never heard of. Anthrozoology is a big tent. It includes the study of nearly all aspects of our interactions ith THINKING LIKE AN ANTHROZOOLOGIST other species. For example, the Kansas City conference included talks on how caring for chronically ill pets affects the quality of lives of their Anthrozoology transcends normal academic ow ners; the effect of pet ownership on surviving a heart attack; how chil boundaries, Among our numbers are psychologists, veterinarians animal behas iorists, dren decide whether a strange dog is friendly or dangerous; sex differences Sociologists, historians, and anthropologists. As in in cat behavior (neutered males every’ science, anthrozoologists are more affectionate to humans than are don’t ahsays see eye to eye. We differ in our spayed females); and the existence of morality in non-human attitudes toward some of the species. thorny moral issues that arise in human-animal relationships. While animals are important in so many aspects of human life, the men agree We don’t on the name of’ our discipline. study of our interactions with other species has, until (Some prefer to call it human- recently, been ne animal studies.) But, despite these differences, researchers glected by scientists. Take my field. psychology. For a hundred years, psy who study’ our relationships ith animals base chologists a lot in common. We all believe have concentrated on uncovering behavioral processes such as interact ions s that our ith other species are an important motivation, perception, and memory, and have neglected important component of human life facets and hope that our research might make the lives of animals of daily life such as food, religion, and how we spend our leisure time. Our As better. academic disciplines go, anthro700logy relationships with animals, especially our pets, also fall into the is a small pond, hut in the category last tu() decades ‘se have come a long way. Several of things that everyday people care about but psychologists usually.’ don’t. to journals are devoted publishing research on human-animal interactions, and One reason behavioral scientists have shied away from studying tional Society the Interna for Anthrozoology. holds annual meetings where researchers ANTHROZOOLOGY SOME WE EAT SOME WE LOVE, SOME WE HATE, whether walking your dog will ailments. In most (but not all) of the studies, the subjects did measurably report their latest findings and argue about have been domesticated. In benefit from interacting with their nonhuman therapists. And, on average, cause you to lose weight and ho long cats interactions are taught in the degree of their improvement was about the same as depressed people the United States, courses in human-animal University from taking drugs like Prozac. and universities, and institutions such as the get over 1 50 colleges of Missouri have established Dolphin therapy, however, is more controversial than AAT involving of Pennsylvania, Purdue, and the University dogs or horses. Dolphins used for therapy are, after all, wild animals held anthrozoological research centers. research, here are a few examples of in captivity against their will. In addition, many of the claims made about fo get a sense of anthrozoological interactions. Take, for ex the curative powers of dolphins are over the top: Interacting with dol hot issues in the new science of human-animal how we select our pets, and phins. it is alleged, can alleviate Down syndrome, AIDS, chronic hack ample, the effectiveness of dolphins as healers, animals and adult violence. pain, epiiepsy, cerebral palsy, autism, learning disorders, and deafness, the connection between childhood cruelty to and can even shrink tumors. Among the presumed healing mechanisms are hioenergv force fields, the high frequency clicks and grunts that dol THERAPISTS? phins use to communicate with each other, and even the ability to directly DO DOLPHINS MAKE GOOD alter human brain waves. is whether interact Dolphin therapy sounds great. Go swimming, get well. But before you One of the most important topics in anthrozoology suffering. Animal-assisted therapy sign up for a couple of weeks in a dolphin tank, you should check out ing with animals can alleviate human for decades. The term the science behind these claims. Most of them are based on anecdotes, (called AAT by anthro’zoologists) has been around Leinson, a child psychiatrist self-reports, or poorly designed experiments conducted by individuals who “pet therapy” was coined in 1964 by Boris work with would open have a vested interest in the results. l)olphin therapy is particularly attrac who found that some children who were difficult to residents in my ninety-two- tie to desperate parents who will pa’ whatever it takes to help their kids up when they played with his dog, Jingles. The when the therapy dogs with disorders such as autism and Down syndrome. They flock in droves year-old mother’s assisted-living facility perk up spilling my guts to our cat, Tilly, to the more than one hundred therapeutic swim-with-dolphins programs visit a couple of times a week. I find that tough love approach to in places like the Florida Kes, Bali, Great Britain, Russia, the Bahamas, helps me work out my little problems. (Till’ takes a just sniffs and walks away. I would Australia, Israel, and Dubai, all of them hoping that, through some un counseling. When I start to whine, she with watery eyes—a known force, these creatures with perpetual Mona Lisa smiles will work probably do better ith a low-energy golden retriever their magic. Dolphin therapy is expensive. Two weeks at the Curacao canine ersion of Dr. Melfi, Tony Soprano’s shrink.) stroking a cat really cure Dolphin Therapy and Research Center in the Netherlands Antilles costs But does riding a horse, playing with a dog, or children with autism? roughly 700 bucks for each hour in the water. Is the money well spent? depression or enhance the communication skills of of Utah analyzed the \7 ill their hopes he fulfilled? Janell Miner and Brad Lundahl of the University effectiveness of AAT in chil Nature does not give up its secrets easily. Scientists have to work hard results of forty-nine published studies on the ranging from doc to get beneath the veil. Just like everyone else, researchers can be duped, dren, adolescents, adults, and elderly people in settings facilities. They found that dogs particularly when they’ have a horse in the race. That’s wh graduate stu tors’ offices to long-term residential care was used most dents take courses in research methods and statistics: to learn the tricks of ere the most common animal therapists and that AAT rather than physical the trade that will help keep them honest.