Relationships of people in the crisis of homelessness with animals: support and rooting or exploitation of animals?

The relationship between the homeless and their animals is treated as marginal, as an issue of little social importance. The most probable cause are “common sense” approaches that focus on the more urgent challenges that need to be addressed to increase the well-being of the homeless such as providing health care, financial support and employment. Contrary to these needs, relations with animals appear as a kind of a whim that creates problems and is not crucial. Indeed, in the social sciences in general, the value of human and animal companionship, as an important source of positive emotions, is being increasingly analysed. The role of animals in human societies increases as social consciousness changes. The role of animals in the lives of socially marginalized people is still being questioned. In this work I identify the emotional significance of the relationship with animals for the homeless people.

BETWEEN ALBEE’S DOG AND GOAT: IMAGES OF ANIMAL COMPANIONSHIP

Modern times seem to have been inflicted with a puzzling sickness that pervades humans’ existence on every possible level. The modern sickness of loneliness and loss of connection assumes center stage position whether in social contexts or personal spaces. This modern ailment is clear within the modern American setting particularly; therefore, many dramatic pieces try to dramatize its manifestations and consequences. The present paper attempts to explore the manifestations of this sickness in the representations of animal companionship. Such representations populate many modern American plays from the beginning of the twentieth century and moving on to the millennium. The paper suggests that images and representations of animal companionship are only expressions of modern individuals’ isolation and loss of connection. The paper examines two plays by Edward Albee, The Zoo Story (1959) and The Goat or Who’s Sylvia? (2000), that represent a new kind of companionship that may or may not sustain the struggle of their modern protagonists to establish some kind of connection with the world around them. Key words: Animal Companionship, Human-Animal Studies, Loneliness

(NON-HUMAN)ANIMAL COMPANIONSHIP: A CRUCIAL SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Background Human-animal interaction (HAI) offers benefits across physical, emotional, psychological, and social spheres of human functioning. The aim of this paper is to delineate how animal companionship, via provision of HAI benefits, offers vital support to people experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic and associated stressors. Method Each of the empirically supported types of HAI benefits – physical, emotional, psychological, and social – will be situated within a biopsychosocial framework of human functioning and considered in terms of how they may help to ameliorate stressors specifically related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings Benefits derived from animal companionship may help alleviate physical, emotional, psychological, and social stressors specifically related to experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic. Discussion Benefits of animal companionship may be particularly salient for well-being and coping when people are experiencing a dramatic increase in stressors via a pandemic crisis. Community responses need to include plans (pet food pantries, temporary foster care, veterinary access/zoonotic safety) for keeping people and their companion animals together during such difficult times. Originality/value This article is unique in that it delineates the animal companionship benefits in terms of how such may help alleviate stressors associated with a pandemic.

‘Being together really helped’: Australian transgender and non-binary people and their animal companions living through violence and marginalisation

This article explores the intersections of human and animal lives in the context of violence and marginalisation. It draws on two studies, the first involving a sub-sample of 23 open-ended survey responses completed by transgender and non-binary (TNB) people taken from a larger study exploring the intersections of animal- and human-directed violence, and the second involving eight interviews with TNB people focused on the meaning of animal companionship. Together, the findings suggest that animal companionship can be a protective factor for TNB people experiencing marginalisation and/or distress, whether in the context of domestic violence and abuse (DVA) or in the context of other forms of intra- or inter-personal points or adversity. The findings suggest that animal companions can provide TNB people with comfort and non-judgemental emotional interactions in the face of DVA and other life stressors. However, the risk of violence directed towards animals must also be considered. The article concludes with discussion of the implications for DVA service provision and research.

THE HUMAN-ANIMAL BOND: SOCIAL NETWORK COMPOSITIONS, ANIMAL COMPANIONS, AND HEALTH

Animal companionship has been found to be positively related to health, though less is known about the features of social networks that include animal companions and how these relate to health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between social network composition including animal companionship and health. A mixed methods cross-sectional descriptive, correlation study design was used. Eighty-nine people age sixty-five and older, living in the community, managing multiple chronic conditions, participated in telephone interviews. Animal companionship was common (42.7%) among the sample (66% lived alone) with at least one animal companion (M=1.57, SD=.903) and associated with improved health function (IADL scores) (r=.234, p=.028). Animal companionship correlated positively with health (SF12 General Health Scores) (r=.210, p=.048). Animal companionship is an important feature in social networks of older people that influences health. Social supports maintain these relationships and the animal human bond.

No pets allowed? Companion animals, older people and residential care

This article is concerned with a particular site of inter-species relationships. Using the lens of liminality, it examines forced separation of older people from their companion animals when they move to a residential or nursing home in the UK. Such residential spaces frequently either exclude companion animals or fail to make adequate provision for them to accompany their human caretakers. We see such separation as a major bereavement for an older person at a stage of life when they experience significant other losses, and suggest it is often experienced as akin to the loss of a family member. We deploy vulnerability theory to argue that exclusion of companion animals from care spaces exemplifies a failure to understand the relational vulnerabilities of older age and the significance of animal companionship in mitigating those vulnerabilities. Equally, such separation fails to recognise the implications for excluded animals who can end up in unsuitable homes, being signed over to already over-stretched animal rescues or euthanised. Vulnerability theory highlights how companion species are always already vulnerable, given their liminal position between person and property, while older people are rendered particularly vulnerable in the ‘liminal zone’ of the care home, denied the ability to shape their environment, control their private space or form/sustain relationships of their own choosing. This article explores the potential of law to respond to and mitigate these shared vulnerabilities, suggesting that human rights arguments grounded in shared vulnerability may be invoked to argue for a re-definition of the family to recognise the significance of the human–animal relationship. We draw on the reasoning in a recent Court of Protection case which hints at law’s ability to recognise the value of interspecies relations and their role in sustaining health and well-being, and the ability to live well in old age.

Finding healing through animal companionship in Japanese animal cafés

Animal cafés—businesses in which customers pay by the hour to have a drink and relax in a space filled with cats, rabbits or other animals—began to appear in Japan in 2004, as a part of the iyashi healing boom. The iyashi boom, in goods and experiences that offer emotional and physical healing, was a response to problems of economic and social precarity triggered by the end of the Japanese bubble and the changing economic situation, particularly among younger Japanese facing the loss of earlier forms of social support and community. Animal cafés offer iyashi to their customers by providing them a refuge from the stress of their everyday lives, where they can relax through engagement with companion animals, rather than returning to tiny, empty apartments. The focus of these businesses is to offer the opportunity to develop positive affective relationships with the animals, who offer stress relief, physical affection, and a listening ear to the visitors who come to spend time with them.This research explores the way that affective relationships with animals in these cafés are being used as a method to maintain emotional well-being and control stress levels. Based on 18 months of anthropological fieldwork in Tokyo, Japan, this paper draws on the narratives of café visitors to argue that the popularity of these businesses is indicative of a shift towards the commodification of care relationships, and that visitors are using animals to reduce their stress in order to further productivity, by investigating how affective connections with non-human animals helps them feel ‘healed”’, and to explore how this relates to larger social considerations about healing and wellness in modern Japan.