Recommendations for Transdisciplinary Professional Competencies and Ethics for Animal-Assisted Therapies and Interventions

Melissa Trevathan-Minnis; Amy Johnson; Ann R Howie

doi:10.3390/vetsci8120303

Recommendations for Transdisciplinary Professional Competencies and Ethics for Animal-Assisted Therapies and Interventions

Vet Sci. 2021 Dec 2;8(12):303. doi: 10.3390/vetsci8120303.

Authors

Melissa Trevathan-Minnis^{1

2}, Amy Johnson², Ann R Howie²

Affiliations

¹ Psychology and Counseling Program, Goddard College, 123 Pitkin Rd, Plainfield, VT 05667, USA.
² Human-Animal Interaction Program, University of Chester, Chester CH1 4BJ, UK.

Abstract

AAI is a transdisciplinary field that has grown exponentially in recent decades. This growth has not always been synergistic across fields, creating a need for more consistent language and standards, a call for which many professionals in the field have made. Under the umbrella of human-animal interactions (HAI) is animal-assisted interventions (AAIs), which have a more goal-directed intention with animals who have been assessed for therapeutic, educational, or vocational work. The current article offers a brief history and efficacy of HAI, describes the limitations and gaps within the field and recommends a new set of competencies and guidelines that seek to create some of the needed common language and standards for AAI work to address these limitations.

Keywords: animal welfare; competencies; ethics; human–animal interaction; human–animal studies.