For animal rescuers, working with different community groups to improve outcomes for their companion animals can be challenging. But we are not alone, this is a challenge shared around the world. In our view, One Welfare in a nutshell focuses on providing solutions for pets to stay with owners, instead of trying to enforce punitive laws and more often remove pets from owners, with the pets likely being euthanased.
Australia has a few great examples with: the free desexing program completed within the Banyule Council Vic, where an Animal Management Officer engaged and supported the local community with desexing their pets; and anecdotally we are aware that in Campbelltown NSW local volunteers in a rescue group have performed a similar engagement and assistance for pet owners in a low socio economic area to ensure pets are desexed.
This blog provides an introduction (slim overview) to the One Welfare initiatives and some of the interesting research underway. Think of this blog as a skipping stone, skipping across the top of some of the reference material available.
We’ll start with some more recent interesting findings, which explain why this focus area is of interest. Then, back to basics of explanations by various organisations.
DECISION MAKERS NEED TO CONSIDER SUPPORT SERVICES RATHER THAN ENFORCEMENT
LRC provided a link to a study from the USA in 2020 in an earlier post:
ROAMING CATS, CAT COLONIES, AND THEIR CARERS NEED TO BE SAFE
The study (reference below) recommends that is it far better practice to offer support services to enable solutions, rather than enforcing laws/legislation which may be seen as brutal in taking away and euthanasing loved pets. This is important in communities involving low socio economic categories, and/or ethnic groups implying different country of origin cultural backgrounds.
“Person-centered and culturally competent policies and programs that focus resources on addressing root causes of pet health and welfare issues as opposed to an emphasis on code enforcement can create more positive, scalable, and sustainable improvements in human, other animal, and environmental health and welfare outcomes. This shift from punishment-oriented approaches to support-based models of animal control aligns the animal welfare field with the modern human social justice movement.”
“…Shifting animal control policies from punishment to support is intended to act on the recognition of the physical and emotional benefits of the human–animal bond and incorporating animal control agencies into a more robust system that supports pet ownership“
ONE WELFARE FUNDAMENTALS FOR PET OWNERS
“One Welfare serves to highlight the interconnections between animal welfare, human wellbeing and the environment.”
“A One Welfare approach promotes the direct and indirect links of animal welfare to human welfare and environmentally friendly animal-keeping systems.“
One of their initiatives includes “One Welfare Phoenix is a new project designed to support the sustainable development goals and global reduction of violence by supporting the production and dissemination of practical guides to professionals to help identify and report the link between animal and human abuse and neglect, including the relation to their environment.”
RSPCA AUSTRALIA ON ONE WELFARE FOR THE COMMUNITIES / PET OWNERS
“In practice, this concept calls for veterinarians and related animal services such as trainers, an animal’s owner, environmental scientists and human psychiatrists to collaborate and share expertise in order to care for the welfare of both animals and their owners.”
Note that animal owners are an integral role in the approach.
“Community health programs for pet owners – The bond between owners and their pets can decrease social isolation, increase a person’s sense of purpose and bring joy to someone’s life. This is especially true for more socially isolated groups such as elderly people or people struggling with homelessness. However, these circumstances can also make it difficult for these people to give their pets adequate care.”
REFERENCED INFORMATION
Punishment to Support: The Need to Align Animal Control Enforcement with the Human Social Justice Movement
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/10/1902
ONE WELFARE
https://www.onewelfareworld.org/
RSPCA AUSTRALIA
LRC 