Describing adverse events in an animal-assisted intervention organization: Recommendations for prevention and management

Little is known about adverse events surrounding animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) since they are reluctantly reported and uncommonly discussed in the literature. Voluntarily reported adverse events occurring within an AAI program in the south-east United States over a 5-year period (2015–2019) were retrospectively reviewed. Thirteen adverse events were reported with four events resulting in injury to a human while engaged in AAI. Nine of the 13 animals involved in adverse events were reported in their first year of service. Outcomes of adverse events were based on severity of the event and likelihood of recurrence. All animal-handler teams involved in adverse events that occurred outside of the AAI setting (3/13) were retired and of the remaining 10 adverse events that occurred while engaged in AAI, three animal-handler teams returned to work, three returned to modified work, and four were retired. These findings indicate that adverse events do occur in AAI, although they are typically not severe in nature. When they do occur, retirement of the animal-handler team is not compulsory. Based on the findings of this study, recommendations are offered for potentially preventing, managing, and determining outcomes of adverse events.