Ng Zenithson, Fine Aubrey
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, Knoxville, TN, United States.
Department of Education, California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, CA, United States.
Front Vet Sci. 2019 Feb 21;6:39. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2019.00039. eCollection 2019.
Assistance animals play significant roles in human therapy and well-being and represent a rapidly growing demographic of animals in society. Most research in the field of assistance animals has been focused on the effect of these animals on people. Only recently has there been a growing interest in the welfare and well-being of these animals and the effect of the work on the animals themselves. The concept of retirement, or withdrawing the animal from its working life, is an important welfare consideration that has received minimal discussion in the scientific literature. The notion of retirement is typically regarded as a reward earned after a lifetime of work, but this inevitable phase of an animal's working life has positive and negative implications for both animal and handler. Some of these implications include recognizing the emotional impact of this life-altering event on both animal and handler. The decisions of when and how to appropriately retire an animal are typically made at the discretion of the assistance animal agencies and handlers, but standard evidence-based guidelines for the proper retirement of assistance animals are currently unavailable. This review will provide considerations and recommendations for the retirement that assistance animals deserve.
辅助动物在人类治疗和福祉中发挥着重要作用，并且在社会中代表着一个快速增长的动物群体。辅助动物领域的大多数研究都集中在这些动物对人的影响上。直到最近，人们才越来越关注这些动物的福利和福祉以及工作对动物自身的影响。退休的概念，即将动物从其工作生活中撤出，是一个重要的福利考量因素，但在科学文献中却很少被讨论。退休的概念通常被视为动物一生工作后的奖励，但动物工作生活中这个不可避免的阶段对动物和饲养者都有积极和消极的影响。其中一些影响包括认识到这一改变生活的事件对动物和饲养者的情感冲击。何时以及如何适当地让动物退休的决定通常由辅助动物机构和饲养者自行决定，但目前尚无基于证据的辅助动物适当退休的标准指南。本综述将为辅助动物应得的退休提供考量因素和建议。
