Animal-assisted therapy benefits human participants but creates welfare obligations for the animals involved. Ensuring therapy animals have choice and control protects their wellbeing.
Therapy animal welfare is an emerging area of concern as the human benefits of animal-assisted therapy have led to rapid program expansion without equivalent attention to animal welfare. Therapy animals work in inherently challenging environments - hospitals with unfamiliar smells, sounds, and equipment; schools with excited children; care facilities with unpredictable movements and behavior. Even willing, socialized animals accumulate stress from extended sessions without breaks and choice. Animals that cannot leave interactions when they want to - confined to a bed or chair alongside a patient - cannot exercise behavioral control that is fundamental to welfare. Well-designed programs recognize that therapy animal welfare is non-negotiable: regular break opportunities, sensitive reading of stress signals, appropriate session length limits, and retirement from work before the animal shows chronic stress.