| Second Presentation of Research Results
on the Relationships Between Humans and Companion Animals |
| —Wide-ranging approaches
gaining notoriety— |
Four Scholarship Recipients Present their
One-year Research Results
We at the
Companion Animal Information and Research Center (CAIRC) have been
granting scholarships under the theme "Research on the Relationship
Between Humans and Companion Animals" since 1998. In June last
year we selected five recipients, and recently made public the resulting
research findings.
At a July
12 meeting held at Grand Ark Hanzomon in Tokyo's Chiyoda ward, findings
from the second research session on the relationship between humans
and companion animals were presented. Attendees included Ms. Yuki
Koba, Mr. Hajime Tanida, Ms. Masako Tsuzuki, Ms. Hiromi Keino, Mr.
Kunihiko Ito, Ms. Noriko Niijima, and Mr. Kotaro Taneichi, as well
as the selection committee, made up of Prof. Mitsuaki Ohta of Azabu
University, Prof. Yuji Mori of the University of Tokyo and Yoichi
Shoda, CAIRC President. Dr. Shoda delivered his address at the opening
of the meeting. (Ms. Haruka Takakura, last year's recipient, started
her project later and therefore will report her research findings
next year.)
Shoda said:
"Characteristic of this year's reports were research findings
in wide-ranging areas including the humanities such as sociology
and psychology. I am pleased that these research fields are expanding.
In 1998, the international conference on the relationship between
humans and animals was held in the Czech Republic, where about 100
people from Japan participated. But only two research papers from
Japanese were read on that occasion. However, in 2001 we can all
look forward to the Rio de Janeiro conference in Brazil. With progress
in research from a wide range of viewpoints including those to be
reported on this occasion, I hope that research in Japan will be
taken up at the next international conference, and that Japanese
researchers will play an active role."
There was
a time when humans benefited from animals merely in the capacity
of livestock cultivation. In time, that process evolved into the
process of domestication. However, now that our understanding of
and research on animals has made more progress, we have effected
the spread of a new concept of what it means to live with animals,
which can be regarded as more than mere possessions, but fully understood
as companions. It may be said that because we are now living in
a highly digitized society, we have come to pay more attention to
the effect of close contact with animals and the influences animals
have on humans. The new field of research that focuses on the relationship
between humans and companion animals emerged amid this kind of change
in the times in which we live. So far, research has centered around
veterinary medicine and animal ethology, but there is no doubt that
this field will diversify and thus become a more meaningful area
of academic work, bringing together the humanities and the natural
sciences.
The Study and Analysis of Animal-Rearing
at Kindergartens
—71.6% Encourage Contact Between Children and Animals
Research theme: "The Significance and Role of Companion
Animals in the Education of kindergarten Children — Thoughts on the Welfare
of both Humans and Companion Animals"
By Yuki Koba and Hajime Tanida
The researcher presenting this project, Yuki Koba,
is a doctoral student at Hiroshima University Graduate School, where
she is studying domestic animal behavior. The purpose of this project
is to study the current situation of animal-rearing and the use of
animals in education. Right now, many kinds of animals are being raised
at kindergartens. However, the realities of how they are actually
managed are not widely known. This research is thus quite meaningful
both from the perspective of animal welfare and from that of preschool
education.
This project consisted of research on kindergarten children and animals they are
rearing. A questionnaire concerning the raising of animals was mailed to all 342
kindergartens in Hiroshima Prefecture, of which 196 kindergartens, or 57.3 percent,
responded. As many as 169 kindergartens, or 86.2 percent, said they were keeping
animals. The questionnaire attempts to investigate the situation of animal rearing
at kindergartens and to analyze how these kindergartens think of the significance
and role of animals in education.
In response
to a question on whether the current attitudes of kindergarten children
toward animals has changed compared with the past, 17.8 percent
of respondents said either 'It has changed a little' or 'It has
changed greatly.' Typically, these respondents' comments included
remarks such as 'The children have abundant knowledge, but they
cannot touch insects,' and 'The way they hold animals is rough,'
or 'While some children show extraordinary interest in animals,
an increasing number of children show no interest,' and also 'The
children do not recognize the preciousness of life.'
In addition,
71.6 percent of kindergartens say they encourage kindergarten children
to make contact with animals they are raising. Reasons given for
this include: 'It can help develop the children's sense of responsibility,'
and 'It can teach the preciousness of life by having the children
understand the lifespan of animals,' as well as 'It can help nurture
compassion among children.
According
to a study by one kindergarten, the percentage of kindergarten children
who do not have pets at home is as much as 70 percent. In such a
situation, many kindergartens seem to have a desire to create for
the children opportunities for close contact with animals, and to
convey the importance of compassion for others, as well as an appreciation
of the preciousness of life. However, as many as 70 species and
breeds of animal are being raised for these purposes, and this entails
more than a few problems, Ms Koba noted.
She said,
"We would like to make two basic points. One involves the issue
of sanitary supervision. There are many cases in which animals are
being raised without the caretakers' understanding of the role of
sanitation. The result is a degradation of animal welfare. The second
point is on the issue of breeding management. There are cases in
which small birds and rabbits are breeding too rapidly, with inbreeding
resulting in an increasing number of deformed and stillborn offspring.
There was one kindergarten at which the school had to give up raising
animals inside classrooms because some children were allergic to
animal hairs. Almost all kindergartens recognize the significance
and role of raising animals, but none has prepared concrete educational
programs, so we find ourselves in a situation in which caretakers
are unable to make proper contact with animals. Due to these factors,
the welfare of animals is often hindered. I felt it necessary to
create an appropriate environment by methods such as producing manuals
on how to raise animals. I believe that the significance and role
of animal-raising in kindergarten education is first to provide
an environment agreeable to animals and then to teach children how
to make contact with animals, taking animal behavior into account."
Commenting
on this presentation, Selection Committee member Professor Ohta
said, "This is a very important piece of research. I would
definitely like you to study further and research what kind of education
programs will be needed in the future."
Toward Creating a Balance Index for the
Handicapped
— Measuring Balance During Horseback Riding
Research theme: Physiological Research on the Relationship between
Handicapped People and Horsesduring Horseback Riding
By Masako Tsuzuki, Hiromi Keino, Kunihiko Ito and Katsumi Mita
This research
was presented by Ms. Masako Tsuzuki, who works as clinical testing
technician at a medical and welfare research facility in Aichi Prefecture.
The Institute for Developmental Research Aichi Human Service Center
is a comprehensive medical and welfare research facility supporting
physically and mentally handicapped people in such areas as medical
treatment, education, vocational training and vocational aid. It
also provides consultation and advice to home-bound disabled people
and their families and conducts research into the causes of handicaps
and how best to treat or compensate for them. Horseback riding an
animal-assisted rehabilitative activity that is said to be effective
from the perspective of its medical, educational and social effects
as well as its role as a sporting activity. An increasing number
of facilities have adopted this activity into their programs in
the past few years. However, there is little or no data to gauge
its effectiveness, only descriptive information.
Ms. Tsuzuki
and her team have so far created several methods of evaluating the
effectiveness of horseback riding for handicapped people, and have
published some of them. A simple method to evaluate the mental effects
has also been presented as a HEIM score. This is a method based
on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, a standard by which autism
is evaluated. It sets 10 selected items such as interpersonal relations,
imitative action and sudden movement, and evaluates each item on
a scale of five degrees of intensity. As a more objective method,
the team also created a way of evaluating the manifestation of emotions
with respect to the way smiles appear. This method evaluates the
emergence of a smile in five stages. The subject's face is tested
by videotaping it before, during and after the exercise. The test
subject then judges the image of his or her own facial expressions
in still images randomly selected from the video capture board.
The team also created the HEIP score to judge physical effects of
the activity. In this testing method, manifestations of cerebral
palsy in the subject's upper body, hands and feet are divided into
8 levels, and then evaluated by breaking each level down into four
sub-levels. The team has proven that horseback riding therapy has
a strong effect on people with cerebral palsy.
This presentation
is part of a series of efforts by the team toward an interim report
aimed at establishing the best method by which to evaluate the effectiveness
of horseback riding for the handicapped. It has been found that
when handicapped people ride horses, their bodies becomes less tense
and can more readily relax. This is especially true of subjects
with cerebral palsy. Research team members thought that they would
be able to measure this effect more precisely by demonstrating the
physiological signals that indicate it. They therefore attached
accelerometers and electromyography sensors to the humans and horses
involved as they conducted their experiments in horseback riding.
The researchers measured
the acceleration velocity simultaneously of both the humans and
horses so that they could analyze recovery reactions that occur
when people lose balance. The measurement used a small three-dimentional
— back-front, left-right and up-down — accelerometer.
For the electromyogram data, they carried out differential amplification
using surface electrodes with a 15-milimeter diameter. Signals were
collected through telemeter devices via radio transmission. For
horse steps, they set a 6-meter run-up interval before the 21-meter
measurement section of the course. The horse's walking velocity
was measured at two different speeds, one at footpace (about 4 kilometers
per hour) and the other at quicksteps (about 13 kilometers per hour).
Six riders were selected — three able-bodied adults with horseback
riding experience and another three subjects without.
According
to the test results, the horse's acceleration velocity at footpace
showed complex changes in all three dimensions, while that of the
humans showed relatively simple waveforms. In addition, subjects
with riding experience clearly showed narrower maximum changes in
the up-down dimension. As a causative factor behind decreased acceleration
velocity for humans, it is possible to assume that they absorbed
the horse's movement with their bodies in order to maintain the
head at a specific position. On the other hand, the acceleration
velocity during quicksteps was five times as great as that at footpace.
From these data, Ms. Tsuzuki's team draws the assumption that as
they accumulate horseback riding experience, people learn to stabilize
their quickstep horseback riding through backward motions that conform
with the horse's up-and-down motion. In the future, Ms. Tsuzuki's
team aims to measure data for he handicapped and analyze and compare
it with that of healthy people, look for specific tendencies, and
contrast data obtained before and after horseback riding. Ms. Tsuzuki
said: "I would like to aim at creating an index for the effectiveness
of horseback riding for the handicapped."
The team
said the electromyogram failed to detect accurate numeric value
because of noise from the friction of clothing and the thighs touching
the horse's trunk. They are working on resolving these problems,
and the team said they would like to conduct this experiment again.
For the
experiment, they selected Kiso horses known for being placid, docile
and patient. These horses were once of primary importance in Japanese
agriculture and transportation, but have no such roles to play in
modern times. Prof. Mori said: "This is a breed that has experienced
the risk of extinction. I believe it is quite meaningful that this
horse may be given an active role in horseback riding for the handicapped."
Prof. Ohta commented: "Now, animal-assisted activities are
attracting increased interest. I would like you to thoroughly verify
their effectiveness."
First Sociological Approach!
Pets Can Be 'Others' That Influence Formation of the Ego
Research theme: "What do People Want from Pets? Why do Dog
owners Resemble their dogs? — A Sociological Inquiry into Changing Views
of Pets in Japan"
By Noriko Niijima
The past
few years have seen a drastic increase in media exposure of pet-related
stories. The new term "companion animal" is now here to
stay as the relationships between human beings and their pets undergo
major changes. The research by Ms. Noriko Niijima, who studies sociology
at the University of Tokyo Graduate School, addresses these changes
in the times. It analyzes the relationship between humans and pets
and humans' views of pets from the perspectives of sociology and
ego sociology. According to sociology, the human ego is formed through
interaction with others. However, so far in the field of ego sociology,
animals have not been viewed as others in the technical sociological
and psychological sense as having an essential role in the formation
of the ego.
Many have
argued that animals cannot be called important others influencing
the formation of the ego because they cannot communicate verbally
with humans. Yet there is research indicating that words are not
necessarily essential to this process. The argument presented by
this research is that mother and infant can establish emotional
relationships because emotional ties between the two grow through
visual contact — watching and being looked at by each other. However,
there has been no such research report that specifically recognizes
animals as others. The study by Ms. Niijima, who says animals can
be others that influence the formation of the ego, is an epoch-making
work, studying for the first time pets from the viewpoint of ego
sociology.
First, Ms.
Niijima presented her survey on the significance of the existence
of pets. In a keyword search of a growing database that was representative
of current research papers and magazine articles, the word "animal"
appeared 95 times in fiscal 1996, but that number increased to 679
in fiscal 1999. The word "pet" appeared in five places
in the database in fiscal 1996 and the frequency rose drastically
to 101 appearances during the same period. The words "companion
animal" yielded no hits at all until fiscal 1997, but registered
in five places in the database during and after fiscal 1998. Ms.
Niijima also commented on contemporary society as a background factor.
The rapidly
expanding and changing nature of contemporary society increasingly
presents us with the challenge of problematic situations that are
impossible to comprehend using conventional common sense. Under
such a problematic social milieu, there may be a significant gap
between the reality that one person perceives with respect to a
certain subject and the reality perceived by others. The same pet
dog might be thought of by one person as something like his or her
own child, while to another person, the pet is simply the cause
of noise that degrades relations between neighbors. Such clashes
of perception can be termed reality dissociation, in which the ego,
which is formed through interaction with others, tends to more easily
fall into crisis. A feeling of exhaustion with regard to human relationships
builds up, and as a result, a feeling that life is not worth living
can emerge.
Ms. Niijima
conducted face-to-face interviews with a total of 30 pet owners
and former pet owners in their 20s to 70s, and analyzed their relations
with and perceptions of their pets. People took issue with pet owners
who were overfond of their pets as a substitute for human relationships,
and those who disregard the rights of their pets and treat them
as objects. However, the survey showed that relations between pet
owners and pets were so diverse that they could not be fully comprehended
in terms of these two simple categories.
She found
that the meaning of the existence of a pet can be determined in
part by the perceptive reality of a given person or the reality
of a particular situation. She believes that in such human-animal
relations it is essential to view animals as animals, to understand
that they have a different existence and are not substitutes for
humans. It is also important to see pets themselves as others on
equal terms in some respects. Humans can make contact with animals
straightforwardly and without concern for social ranking. So it
can be assumed that by listening attentively to animals, humans
receive tremendous input into the formation of the ego. Since a
pet dog, for instance, has an equal sense of existence, it is possible
for owners to accept a pet dog's behavior, and therefore to come
to resemble the dog in certain respects.
Commenting
on Ms. Niijima's presentation, Prof. Mori said: "Unlike research
in natural science, accumulation of research results is important
in this field. I think this research holds promise and is fruitful."
Companion Animals Reduce Stress Among
Owners!
Research theme: "A Study of the Stress Relief Effects of
Companion Animals"
By Kotaro Taneichi
Mr. Taneichi
is a doctoral student at Waseda University Graduate School, majoring
in clinical psychology. In the past, he has tackled the question
of whether human support has a positive influence on health. This
led him to the current line of research. The project is an investigation
of whether keeping companion animals has stress relief effects for
the owners. Mr. Taneichi says his idea for the project emerged when
he asked college students the question 'Who do you confide in and
tell your worries to?,' and several subjects mentioned names of
their pets. More than a few people think having pets has psychologically
beneficial effects, but this question has not often been approached
academically. And approaches to the subject from the field of psychology
have been especially rare.
Mr. Taneichi
conducted a questionnaire survey of 239 students of Waseda University,
and also created the ACCS, a scale for characterizing human-animal
relationships. His research began with the creation of a provisional
ACSS. Based on existing scales in the United States and Europe and
on opinions from veterinarians and pet owners, 145 questions were
created, and after categorizing them, the provisional scale was
created with 30 items. Then in April-June, the questionnaire survey
was conducted during college lecture time. The outcome was a scale
comprising three groups of criteria — emotional support from pets,
perceived confidence of the pet in the owner, and interaction with
pets — and 10 items.
Comparisons
with ACSS scores revealed that those who own pets at home or at
their parents' homes tend to have higher scores the more time they
spend with their pets per day on average. The comparison also found
that cat owners showed a tendency to have higher scores in the 'interaction
with pets' item than those who own dogs and other animals. In addition,
Taneichi conducted hierarchical multiple regression analysis to
predict stress reaction scores by cross-referencing factors such
as whether the subject owns a pet or not, stress event scores and
total ACSS scores. The result showed that there was no relation
between whether the person owns pets or not and stress reaction
level. On the other hand, ACSS scores differed depending on whether
or not the person owns a pet. That is, in those who own pets, the
higher their ACSS scores are, the lower their stress reaction scores
are, while there was no relation between the two among non-pet owners.
From these findings, Taneichi thought it highly possible that affection
for pets and interactions such as taking care of pets are linked
with lowering of stress reactions.
In addition,
Mr. Taneichi said this result was actually a surprise to him. He
said he initially had a skeptical frame of mind when he studied
the correlation of health and having a pet. He seems to have thought
that the correlation merely comes from subjective judgment of pet
owners and or their illusions. "However, as a result of this
research analysis, my doubts were nullified," he concluded.
Commenting
on this research, Prof. Mori said: "It was quite interesting,
and I was able to understand it very well. I hope you will further
develop this kind of approach."
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