Animal-Assisted Therapies: An Animal Protection Perspective

Abstract

When talking about therapies with animals, alongside the scientific verification of the therapies, all the literature turns to the benefits of the human animal that participates in them. This viewpoint also covers the possible risks of animal contact for the human and the costs of such therapies. However, little literature analyzes these therapies with a protectionist view of the animal, although it is clear that the animal is often affected, since it is usually separated from its habitat, subjected to cruel trainings, to unnatural conditions and abuse. The fundamental objective is to make the animal visible as a living being that feels, suffers and deserves a series of rights that must be respected within the therapies in which it participates. On this occasion, although the research partly recognizes some benefits of animal therapies, it delves into the characteristics and conditions that these therapies must have in order to be friendly to the animals that participate in them. This constitutes a reflective and sensitive reading for therapists, animalists, patients and relatives alike. The review includes a legal approach to the situation of animal abuse and its repercussions in therapies with dogs, dolphins and horses.