The Social Implications of Improved Animal Welfare 27
Responsible dog ownership
Caring for animals can contribute to creating a sense of responsibility,
which helps people overcoming social issues. There are positive impacts on
people from owning or caring for a pet and nowadays there are increasing
examples and projects supporting pet ownership in different ways. However,
it is important to note that not everyone is able to care for pets properly
and not every pet might be suitable for a given individual. This may be due
to a number of reasons, including the physical space where they live, their
mental health condition or the education and knowledge they have about
the pet they intend to keep.
There is a direct benefit from using cases of improvements in animal
welfare to aid social intervention. For example, hospital admissions for bites
and strikes by dogs amongst people living in the most deprived areas of
England are reported to be three times as high as in the least deprived areas
(NHS, 2014). By improving responsible dog ownership there could be a
positive impact both on the welfare of dogs, owners and those affected by
the bites or strikes.
Community dog programmes are now widespread across the world to
encourage responsible dog ownership. Some of these are already linked to
social service providers, such as housing, or animal infectious disease con-
trol programmes, such as rabies control. It would be helpful to help dis-
seminate best practice examples of these collaborative approaches although
they are not generally well documented in a systematic, evidence-based
format. It would also help to build up tools to effectively and systematically
within Rosie’s personal situation and their impact on her well-being, and also the
impact of Harry’s behaviour on relationships within the local community.
Changing Harry’s emotional response to his owner’s absence will take time and
in the meantime Rosie does not have the financial capacity to take advantage of
pet sitting or dog walking services, which may have been beneficial.
Talking to her neighbours face to face and explaining that she was getting pro-
fessional help to deal with Harry’s behaviour helped to improve understanding
and empathy. It also opened up conversations which had practical benefits, such
as finding out that one of her neighbours who was retired and at home all day had
recently been bereaved, and would relish the opportunity to have Harry for com-
pany while Rosie was at work.
The community’s perception of Harry changed overnight – rather than being
seen as the annoying howling dog he became seen as a canine social worker.
Rosie became integrated into her community and found social support which
made an enormous difference to her life. Harry was given the social interaction
he needed to change his expectations and alter his emotional response to
spending shorter periods of time at home alone while Rosie worked.
Case Study 4. Continued.
