The moral basis of animal-assisted therapy

Soc Anim. 2006;14(2):179-99. doi: 10.1163/156853006776778770.

Abstract

Is nonhuman animal-assisted therapy (AAT) a form of exploitation? After exploring possible moral vindications of AAT and after establishing a distinction between "use" and "exploitation," the essay distinguishes between forms of animal-assisted therapy that are morally unobjectionable and those modes of it that ought to be abolished.

MeSH terms

  • Animal Welfare / ethics*
  • Animals
  • Animals, Domestic
  • Ethical Analysis*
  • Human-Animal Bond*
  • Humans
  • Paternalism
  • Philosophy*
  • Species Specificity
  • Therapeutics / methods*
  • Visitors to Patients