Animal-Assisted Therapy: Ensuring Welfare for Therapy Animals

Animal-assisted therapy benefits human patients, but the animals used also deserve careful welfare consideration and protection from overwork and stress.

Key Facts

Therapy animals visit hospitals, schools, care homes and crisis centres to support human wellbeing
Dogs are most common, but horses, cats, rabbits and even miniature pigs serve as therapy animals
Therapy animals can experience compassion fatigue, stress and burnout if sessions are too frequent
The IAHAIO guidelines recommend maximum visit durations and mandatory rest days for therapy animals
Handler education in reading animal stress signals is critical to prevent welfare problems
Some facilities overuse popular therapy animals without adequate recovery time
Welfare-conscious programmes track behavioural indicators and retire animals showing chronic stress

Welfare Considerations

Therapy animals are often selected for calm temperaments, but even naturally tolerant animals can be overwhelmed by repeated, intense human contact. Signs of stress in dogs include yawning, lip-licking, turning away and whale eye. Horses may show tension, reluctance or skin twitching. Ethical programmes give animals genuine choice about participation, allow them to disengage, and ensure ample rest. Animals should never be forced to continue sessions when showing stress signals. Regular veterinary and behavioural assessments protect long-term welfare and therapy effectiveness.

What You Can Do

Choose therapy animal programmes that follow IAHAIO or Pet Partners welfare standards
Advocate for animal choice and the ability to disengage from sessions
Support mandatory rest periods and session length limits in therapy animal guidelines
Ask programmes about handler training in animal stress recognition
Encourage organisations to retire animals showing signs of chronic stress with full care