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While pets may be protective for some people at risk of suicide, they may also become a risk factor or even become co-victims when humans end their own lives. It is important to protect against simplistic approaches to human–animal relationships, especially where simplification may endanger human and/or animal lives. Using publicly accessible online media articles between 2010 and 2020, this research sought to progress our understanding of suicidal acts involving pet animals. Sixty-one articles from six countries were identified; a mixed-methods qualitative descriptive (QD) approach to analysis was undertaken composed of descriptive statistical mapping followed by thematic content analysis. Almost 90% of the articles reported the deaths of multiple humans and 23% reported the deaths of multiple animals. A total of 116 animals were identified: mainly dogs, but also 8 cats, 2 rabbits, and 2 non-specified pets. Most animals died, with only nine surviving. Five key categories of scenarios were identified: extended suicides, mercy killings, suicide pacts, family annihilators, and unique. A further level of analysis was undertaken focused on the family annihilator reports (44/61 articles) using a published homicide-suicide typology. Key points to emerge from this analysis include the possibly higher vulnerability of dogs compared with other species. The terms “extended suicide” and “peticide” are discussed with the recommendation that the killing of pet animals be linguistically aligned with that of other killings. A focus on human–animal relationships reveals commonly unexplored intersections across criminology, mental health, and domestic violence and suggests the potential for collaboration across these fields driven by multi-species awareness. This research adds to arguments for data on animal presence in scenarios of human violence to be collected so that responses to protect vulnerable animals, and humans, can be developed. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

(2018). The Animals Among Us: How Pets Make Us Human. Anthrozoos: Vol. 31, No. 5, pp. 649-651.

There is a mismatch between the widespread belief that human-animal interaction (HAI) interventions work and the empirical evidence supporting the effects of these interventions. Research on some types of HAI interventions has advanced in terms of both quality and quantity in recent years, but not all areas of HAI research have seen this type of improvement. In this chapter, we examine some problems with existing research on the use of HAI in therapeutic situations including basic design problems, questions about whether the animals really constitute the active ingredient(s) in HAI interventions, low statistical power and variability in procedures, researcher bias, the file drawer problem, and spinning research results. We conclude by highlighting key steps researchers can take to continue to improve the evidence base for HAI interventions.

There is increasing interest among social and behavioral scientists in brief measures of attitudes and personality traits. Based on factor analysis and using an existing data set (n = 400 adults), we constructed a 5- and a 10-item version of the widely used animal attitude Scale (AAS). Both versions were highly correlated with the original 20-item AAS (rs > 0.95, p < 0.001), and both versions demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity. The AAS-5 and the AAS-10 have excellent psychometric properties and offer alternatives for researchers who need convenient and short measures of attitudes related to animal welfare.

Attachments between non-human animals of different species are surprisingly common in situations involving human agency (e.g., homes, zoos, and wildlife parks). However, cross-species animal friendships analogous to pet-keeping by humans are at least rare and possibly non-existent in nature. Why has pet-keeping evolved only in Homo sapiens? I review theories that explain pet-keeping either as an adaptation or an evolutionary by-product. I suggest that these explanations cannot account for the wide variation in the distribution and forms of pet-keeping across human societies and over historical time. Using fluctuations in the popularity of dog breeds in the United States, I show how shifts in choices of pets follow the rapid changes in preferences that characterize fashion cycles. I argue that while humans possess some innate traits that facilitate attachment to members of other species (e.g., parental urges, attraction to creatures with infantile features), pet-keeping is largely a product of social learning and imitation-based cultural evolution.

Because of extensive media coverage, it is now widely believed that pets enhance their owners’ health, sense of psychological well-being, and longevity. But while some researchers have reported that positive effects accrue from interacting with animals, others have found that the health and happiness of pet owners is no better, and in some cases worse, than that of non–pet owners. I discuss some reasons why studies of the effects of pets on people have produced conflicting results, and I argue that the existence of a generalized “pet effect” on human mental and physical health is at present not a fact but an unsubstantiated hypothesis.

Individual and litter differences in the number of attacks directed by Mexican garter snakes (Thamnophis melanogaster) at a threatening stimulus were studied over the first year of life. Newborn snakes born to wildcaught females from the same population were tested the day after they were born and at 7, 16, 31, and 54 weeks of age on reactivity to a potent nonmoving and moving stimulus (a human finger). There were significant individual and interlitter differences in number of strikes directed at both stimuli but no significant effect of sex. Intercorrelations among the strike scores of individuals across test days averaged .54 for the nonmoving stimulus presentations and .63 for trials with the moving stimulus. Strike scores to the moving and nonmoving stimuli were significantly correlated at each age, however, attack responses to the moving stimulus declined over the year while those to the nonmoving stimulus remained constant. Measures of concordance showed that both individual strike scores and litter means were highly consistent, whereas consistency within litters was reduced. The results indicate that litter and individual differences among newborn snakes in the tendency to engage in antipredator behavior (“defensive temperament”) remain relatively stable from the first day after birth throughout the first year of life.

Relations between humans and nonhuman animals are morally significant, intense, enduring, and pervasive. Presented here are current perspectives on social and psychological aspects of human–animal interactions. The articles in this issue focus on three broad themes—attitudes toward the use of other species, the effects of relationships with companion animals on human health and well-being, and the ethical and policy implications of our interactions with other species. The article represent a mix of theory, qualitative and quantitative empirical approaches, review, and policy recommendations on a topic that has historically been neglected by social scientists.

Why do some people and not others become involved in social movements? We examined the relationships between a moral emotion—disgust—and animal activism, attitudes toward animal welfare, and consumption of meat. Participants were recruited through two social networking websites and included animal activists, promoters of animal use, and participants not involved in animal-related causes. They took an online survey which included measures of sensitivity to visceral disgust, attitudes toward animal welfare, and frequency of meat eating. Animal activists were more sensitive to visceral disgust than were promoters of animal use or nonaligned participants. Disgust sensitivity was positively correlated with attitudes toward animal welfare but not with meat consumption. The relationship between animal activism and vegetarianism was complex; nearly half of animal activists ate meat, and half of the vegetarians did not consider themselves to be animal activists. We argue that conflicts over the moral status of animals reflect fundamental differences in moral intuitions.

Pet-keeping is highly variable across cultures in both frequency and form. Cultural group selection offers a plausible explanation for the development and spread of this uniquely human phenomenon in that pet-keeping involves an inheritance system, socially transmitted norms and preferences, substantial between-group variation, and (albeit indirectly) intergroup competition.

Almost by definition, “popular culture” reflects the effects of most people imitating those around them. At the same time, trends and fashions are constantly changing, with future outcomes potentially irrational and nearly impossible to predict. A simple null model, which captures these seemingly conflicting tendencies of conformity and change, involves the random copying of cultural variants between individuals, with occasional innovation. Here, we show that the random-copying model predicts a continual flux of initially obscure new ideas (analogous to mutations) becoming highly popular by chance alone, such that the turnover rate on a list of most popular variants depends on the list size and the amount of innovation but not on population size. We also present evidence for remarkably regular turnover on “pop charts”—including the most popular music, first names, and dog breeds in 20th-century United States—which fits this expectation. By predicting parametric effects on the turnover of popular fashion, the random-copying model provides an additional means of characterizing collective copying behavior in culture evolution.

I review the direction and magnitude (effect sizes) of gender differences that have been reported in several areas of human–animal interactions. These include: attitudes toward the treatment of animals, attachment to pets, involvement in animal protectionism, animal hoarding, hunting, animal abuse, and bestiality. Women, on average, show higher levels of positive behaviors and attitudes toward animals (e.g., attitudes towards their use, involvement in animal protection), whereas men typically have higher levels of negative attitudes and behaviors (e.g., hunting, animal abuse, less favorable attitudes toward animal protection). The effect sizes of gender differences range from small (e.g., attachment), to medium size (e.g., attitudes toward animal use) to large (e.g., animal rights activism, animal abuse by adults.) In most areas, there is considerable overlap between men and women, with much greater within-sex than between-sex variation. Research on the roles of gender in human–animal relationship...

Like other cultural variants, tastes in companion animals (pets) can shift rapidly. An analysis of American Kennel Club puppy registrations from 1946 through 2003 (N = 48,598,233 puppy registrations) identified rapid but transient large-scale increases in the popularity of specific dog breeds. Nine breeds of dogs showed particularly pronounced booms and busts in popularity. On average, the increase (boom) phase in these breeds lasted 14 years, during which time annual new registrations increased 3,200%. Equally steep decreases in registrations for the breeds immediately followed these jumps in popularity. The existence of extreme fluctuations in preferences for dog breeds has implications for understanding changes in attitudes toward companion animals, veterinary epidemiology, and canine evolution.

We evaluated the reliability of peer review ratings of 218 proposals that were submitted for presentation at the 2004 meeting of the International Association of Human–Animal Interaction Organizations (IAHAIO). Each proposal was evaluated on four dimensions by different sets of three raters who were blind to the identity of the authors. Single measure intraclass correlations between the evaluations of raters indicated that the reliabilities of judgments were poor for abstracts submitted as research presentations and as descriptions of applied human–animal programs, and fair for abstracts submitted as critical reviews. Reliability of the selection system was considerably improved by averaging the scores of the three raters and using the combined scores to make accept/reject decisions. We suggest modifications to the review process that may enhance the reliability of the selection process for proposals submitted for meetings and for journal submissions in anthrozoology.

The geneticist Dobzhansky (1973) once wrote, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” A growing number of social scientists believe that the same could be said of psychology. Based on the theoretical foundations laid by sociobiologists in the 1970s and 1980s, evolutionary psychology has emerged as a recognized paradigm in the behavioral sciences (Buss, 1999; Tooby & Cosmides, 1992). Although evolutionary psychologists are not always of like mind, most of them would agree with the following tenets

Much of the research on attitudes toward non-human species has been conducted with non-representative samples. Largely ignored in the literature on human/animal interactions are surveys conducted by commercial polling organizations using large probability samples of Americans. Many of these surveys contain information relevant to attitudes about animals and animal welfare issues. This information is available to researchers electronically at little or no cost through organizations such as the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research and the National Opinion Research Center.

Mail-in surveys were distributed to animal activists attending the 1996 March for the Animals. Age and genderdemographic characteristics of the 209 activists who participated in the study were similar to those of the 1990 March for the Animals demonstrators. Most goals of the animal rights movement were judged to be moderately to critically important, although beliefs about their chances of being realized varied considerably. Movement tactics judged to be least effective included the liberation of laboratory animals and the harassment of researchers. Education was seen as being a particularly important instrument of future social change. Demonstrators' scores on the Life Orientation Test - a measure of dispositional optimism - were significantly greater than scores of comparison groups of college students and of patients awaiting coronary bypass surgery. There was a significant positive relationship between levels of optimism and activists' perceptions of the achievement of movement objectives.

(1997). Pets and Paradoxes: Review of In the Company of Animals (second edition) James Serpell. Anthrozoos: Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 236-240.

Messages sent over Animal Rights-Talk, an electronic mail network devoted to the discussion of issues related to the animal rights movement, were analyzed. Messages typically fell into the following categories: questions and information, discussions of philosophical issues, ethical problems associated with the treatment of particular species, the politics of the animal rights movement, problems of moral consistency, the ethics of particular uses of non-human species (e.g., meat consumption, biomedical research with animal subjects), and matters pertaining to the internal life of the network (e.g., efforts at control of perceived norm violations). Debates between animal activists and animal researchers over the network often reflected the conflicting cosmologies of scientists and animal protectionists. We argue that computer bulletin boards offer a potentially important avenue for qualitative research.

The authors examined the relationship between personality and attitudes toward the treatment of animals by administering the Sixteen Personality Factor Inventory and the Animal Attitudes Scale to 99 college students. The personality scales were only weakly related to attitudes about animal welfare issues. Two personality factors, sensitivity and imaginativeness, were significantly correlated with attitudes towards animals. Gender and sensitivity explained 25% of the variance in attitudes, with most of the variance accounted for by gender.

We examined the relationship between personal moral philosophy, gender, and judgments of the effectiveness of materials designed by advocacy groups to sway public opinion about biomedical research using nonhuman animals. Twenty-six male and 74 female undergraduates evaluated 16 advertisements or brochures developed by groups which either supported or opposed animal research. The subjects also completed the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) and were offered the opportunity to sign postcards urging their congressperson to either support or eliminate federal funding of animal research. Females perceived the anti-animal research materials to be more effective than did the males, a difference that was not found in the case of the pro-animal research materials. The idealism dimension of the EPQ and gender accounted for a significant portion of the variation in judgments of the effectiveness of the anti-animal research materials but not the pro-animal research materials. The pattern of postcard signing was predicted by the subjects' evaluations of the stimulus materials but not gender or the EPQ variables.

The purpose of these experiments was to examine the effects of eye spots and stimulus movement as mediators of antipredator responses in garter snakes. In Experiment 1, 13 Eastern garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) at 6-8 weeks of age were confronted with a series of threatening models that varied in the configuration of the eyes (artificial glass eyes, circular black spots, elongated black bars, or no eyespots). There were significant differences in the number of strikes elicited by the models, and the model with realistic glass eyes elicited the most strikes. In Experiment 2, we examined the effects of erratic and consistent stimulus movement on defensive behavior in 12 garter snakes at 12-16 weeks of age. The snakes delivered significantly more strikes to an erratically moving model than to a model oscillated at a regular rate. Animals of most species are prey for other animals, and it is critical that they can identify potential predators at a distance. Although a wide variety of cues are used in predator recognition (e.g., Edmunds, 1974; Endler, 1986), the involvement of visual cues has received most attention. (See Curio, 1993, for a comprehensive review.) Eyes and eyelike markings play a particularly important role in interactions between predator and prey. For example, eyelike stimuli have been shown to prolong tonic immobility in a number of species under laboratory conditions (e.g., Gagliardi, Gallup, & Boren, 1976; Gallup, 1971; Hennig, 1977) and produce increased flight distances in animals tested in nature (Burger, Gochfeld & Murray, 1991, 1992). Despite the apparent importance of the eyes of predators as a trigger of defensive responses, there has been little research on the role of eye markings as releasers of defensive behavior in snakes. Burghardt and Greene (1988) found that direct gaze by a human experimenter potentiated deathfeigning response in neonate hog-nosed snakes. Herzog and Bern (1992) recently reported that juvenile garter snakes direct a disproportionate number of strikes toward the eyes of predator models. Herzog, Bowers, and Burghardt (1989) found that the size and movement of a threat stimulus affect antipredator responses of neonate and juvenile garter snakes and that realistic models elicited higher levels of defensive strikes than nonrealistic models. In this study we examine the role of eye markings in mediating antipredator responses. In Experiment 1, we tested the hypothesis that eyespots would enhance a model's ability to

1 used a qualitative research approach to investigate psychological aspects of involvement in the animal rights movement. Interviews were conducted with 23 rank-and-file activists, focusing on cognitive and emotional aspects of involvement with the movement, concomitant lifestyle changes, effects on interpersonal relations, and the happiness and well-being of the participants. Three main themes emerged from these interviews. First, there was a surprising degree of diversity in attitudes and beliavior of the activists. Second, animal rights activism usually entailed major changes in lifestyle: almost all interviewees strove to achieve consistency between their ideals and their actions. Third, there were several parallel.^ between an involvement with the animal rights movement and religious conversion. The potential for increased communication between the animal protection and scientific communities is discussed. The animal rights movement has been spectacularly successful at drawing public attention to the ethical issues involved in our relationships with other species. Animal protection organizations have proliferated in number, membership, and influence since the publication of Peter Singer's book .Animal Liber

In two studies, we used the Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) to investigate the relationship between individual differences in moral philosophy, involvement in the animal rights movement, and attitudes toward the treatment of animals. In the first, 600 animal rights activists attending a national demonstration and 266 nonactivist college students were given the EPQ. Analysis of the returns from 157 activists and 198 students indicated that the activists were more likely than the students to hold an "absolutist" moral orientation (high idealism, low relativism). In the second study, 169 students were given the EPQ with a scale designed to measure attitudes toward the treatment of animals. Multiple regression showed that gender and the EPQ dimension of idealism were related to attitudes toward animal use.

This paper characterizes the portrayal of animals and human-animal relations in one genre of American popular culture—the “supermarket” tabloid press. A total of 789 animal-related stories and photographs in 82 issues of four tabloid magazines were analyzed according to theme. The items fell into nine categories in which animals were portrayed as objects of affection, saviors, threats, victims, things to be used, sex objects, imaginary and mythological beings, surrogate humans, and objects of wonder. It is argued that these themes represent archetypes reflecting the roles that animals have had in human cultural and psychological life since the historical origins of our species.

The ontogeny of antipredator responses in five species of Natricine snakes was examined. In a split-litter experiment, neonates were given a standardized defensive behavior test at 1 and/or 20 days of age. Thamnophis sirtalis and Thamnophis melanogaster showed a significant increase in both striking and fleeing from a threatening stimulus. Thamnophis butleri was not reactive in terms of striking at either age but did flee frequently at both ages. Thamnophis radix showed low rates of striking and high rates of fleeing; only fleeing increased significantly between the two tests. Nerodia rhombifer exhibited moderate rates of both striking and fleeing at both ages with no developmental effects. Subsets of most of these species tested at 40 or 60 days of age found no further developmental changes. © 1992 Wiley & sons. Inc.

To examine the relationship among gender, sex role orientation, and attitudes toward the treatment of animals, 144 male and 222 female college students were administered the Bem Sex Role Inventory, a Likert-scale questionnaire designed to assess attitudes toward animal welfare issues, and a measure of perceived comfort touching animals of a variety of species. There were significant gender differences on all of the animal-related measures with the exception of self-reported comfort touching positively perceived animals. Gender and the expressive (feminine) dimension of sex role orientation accounted for a significant proportion of the variation in attitudes toward animal welfare issues and comfort with other species. Correlations between the masculine and feminine dimensions of sex role orientation were related in opposite directions on all animal attitude measures.

Objective—To determine whether winning best in show at the annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show was associated with a subsequent increase in breed popularity. Design—Analysis of archival data. Study population—Breed-specific numbers of individual purebred puppies registered with the American Kennel Club between 1946 and 2002. Procedure—For breeds that had won the Westminster Show, the slope of the curve for number of new registrations per year for the 5 years prior to winning was compared with the slope of the curve for the 5 years after winning. In addition, the annual percentage change in number of new registrations for the breed that won each year was compared with the annual percentage change in number of new registrations for the nonwinning breed most similar in popularity to the winning breed. Results—For breeds that had won the Westminster Show, the slope of the curve for number of new registrations per year for the 5 years prior to winning was not significantly different from the slope of the curve for the 5 years after winning. Annual percentage change in number of new registrations for the breed that won each year was not significantly different from annual percentage change in number of new registrations for matched nonwinning breeds. Conclusions—Results do not support the view that being named best in show at the annual Westminster Show results in a surge in popularity of winning breeds. ( J Am Vet Med Assoc 2004;225:365–367)

A simple model of random copying among individuals, similar to the population genetic model of random drift, can predict the variability in the popularity of cultural variants. Here, we show that random drift also explains a biologically relevant cultural phenomenon--changes in the distributions of popularity of dog breeds in the United States in each of the past 50 years. There are, however, interesting deviations from the model that involve large changes in the popularity of certain breeds. By identifying meaningful departures from our null model, we show how it can serve as a foundation for studying culture change quantitatively, using the tools of population genetics.