Abstract
In this chapter we outline the need to develop ethical frameworks to guide research on the role of animal-orientated health, therapeutic, and service interventions. We discuss findings from our research on uses of animals in therapeutic settings and benefits of human–canine interactions for human health. These stories from the field reveal that current ethics review processes do not recognise the animal as an equal partner in the potential reciprocal benefits and risks of therapeutic human–animal relationships. We explore how these review processes frame research on the relationships between humans and non-human animals and use the ethical review system of Aotearoa/New Zealand as an example. We propose an ethical framework that goes beyond animal welfare legislation and recognises a range of non-human animal capacities.
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Notes
- 1.
Other ethical principles can be and also are used either to expand these four or to use a different framework altogether.
- 2.
For more information see: Harvard Magazine— http://harvardmagazine.com/2016/03/are-animals-things, March–April 2016.
- 3.
We draw here on Levinas ’ work on intersubjectivity between self and Other (Levinas, 1969).
- 4.
- 5.
Available from: https://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/welfare_en.
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- 7.
- 8.
The international organisation for riding for the disabled, Federation of Riding for the Disabled International (http://www.frdi.net/), includes both physical and psychological interventions. The Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association (EAGLA) is an example of a purely psychological intervention—http://www.eagala.org/.
- 9.
It is worth noting that such a shift necessarily raises questions regarding the underlying presumption of the use of non-human animals in these forms of activities and even as companion animals —if animals have a moral status akin to our own, how do we then justify their participation in such activities?
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the human and non-human animals in their lives who contribute to their understanding of the world, including their research participants from previous studies funded through support from the University of Otago Department of Gender, Social Work, and Sociology and from a University of Otago Research Grant.
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Smith, C.M., Tumilty, E., Walker, P., Treharne, G.J. (2018). Non-human Animals as Research Participants: Ethical Practice in Animal Assisted Interventions and Research in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In: Macleod, C., Marx, J., Mnyaka, P., Treharne, G. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Ethics in Critical Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74721-7_7
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