Independence Pet Group Joins with HABRI to Champion the Human-Animal Bond

The Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) announced today it has awarded a $52,204 grant to the University of Missouri for a new study, Shelter Cat Adoption in Families of Children with Autism: Impact on Children’s Social Skills and Anxiety as well as Cat Stress. This study will examine the effect of the introduction of a shelter cat on social skills and anxiety in children with autism, and on stress levels for the cats themselves. “Preliminary research demonstrates the effectiveness of companion animal interaction on alleviating social skills deficits and anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD),” said the study’s Principal Investigator, Gretchen Carlisle, PhD, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Missouri. “While many studies have focused on the impact of dogs on children with ASD, this study aims to determine the beneficial impacts of a pet cat on children with autism and their families, as the temperament and the ease of care for cats compared to other animals may increase the likelihood of a positive outcome for the children, the cats and the family as a whole.” In addition to HABRI’s grant award, the PIs have also received funding from the Winn Feline Foundation in the amount of $25,000. The combined funding from Winn Feline and HABRI have enabled the PIs to expand the sample size and add the support of a statistician, which will greatly enhance the power of the study and hopefully result in more definitive and robust findings. “Winn Feline Foundation is thrilled to have initially supported this important study on the human-cat bond and to hear of HABRI’s grant award. Their additional support will strengthen the study’s findings”, commented Winn’s Executive Director Dr. Vicki Thayer. “This significant project evaluating the effects and benefits of adoption of cats by children and families with ASD fits our mission and values”. Using a two-group, randomized, repeated measures design with a delayed treatment...

The Human Animal Bond Research Initiative (HABRI) announced today it has awarded a $26,000 grant to Yale University for a new study, Interactions with Animals to Reduce Children’s Stress. The study will examine the effects of interactions with dogs on children dealing with stress and anxiety. “I am keenly interested in improving the quality of life among those who are experiencing stress, strains, and challenges of everyday functioning,” said the study’s primary researcher, Dr. Alan Kazdin, professor of Psychology and Child Psychiatry at Yale University, Ph.D, ABPP. “I am hoping to identify ways in which animal-child interaction can reduce stress and, furthermore, wish to understand precisely how that works, how the interaction can be optimized, and how it might translate to what’s being done in animal-assisted interventions and also in everyday life.” The two-year laboratory-based experiment on behalf of Yale University’s Department of Psychology will examine 73 children between the ages of 8 and 13 and randomly assign them support from a dog, support from an object, or no support. Researchers will then employ a series of tests and compare the stress levels in each group. “HABRI is committed to improving child health and development through the power of the human-animal bond,” said HABRI Executive Director Steve Feldman. “This study has the potential to provide necessary evidence on the specific benefits of human-animal interaction to children’s mental health.”

The Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) today announced a new grant for research that will apply methods in machine learning and data analytics, supported with data from human cohort studies, to gain a better understanding of the human-animal bond and the connection to pet and human health. This grant was awarded to a team of researchers led by Principal Investigator Dr. Nophar Geifman, Professor of Health and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Surrey. “The bond between humans and their companion animals offers significant health benefits for both sides,” said Dr. Nophar Geifman, the Principal Investigator for this study. “We aim to gain a better understanding of this bond and its effect on companion animal and human health and wellbeing, by applying artificial intelligence approaches to questionnaire data as well as data from other studies on health outcomes in humans.” Researchers will utilize data from the International Survey of Pet Owners & Veterinarians, commissioned by HABRI in partnership with Zoetis, for this research. First, using a range of computational techniques, researchers will investigate which measures are most associated with the strength of the human-animal bond, such as quality of life and veterinary care. Researchers will then use methods in machine learning to identify different subgroups or “types” of pet parents, based on their characteristics, and relate those subgroups to animal health outcomes and the human-animal bond. Researchers will rely on these data-driven insights to design and propose the deployment of a new survey within the UK-Biobank, a 500,000-person study on health and wellbeing. Information derived from this venture will be disseminated and can inform the wider population on the benefits of the human-animal bond. The availability of complementary data to the HABRI-Zoetis International Survey, including proposed access to the UK-Biobank, will allow future analyses to incorporate and control for...