Download Assessing the wellbeing and quality of life in companion animals

Assessing the wellbeing and quality of life in companion animals
K.J. Stafford and D.J. Mellor
Animal Welfare Science and Bioethics Centre1, Massey University, Palmerston North
4442, New Zealand.
Abstract
Quality of life relates especially to the mental wellbeing of an animal. The term is a
synonym for ‘animal welfare status’ where subjective experiences are emphasised.
Companion animals are owned to provide companionship rather than a commercial
outcome. A number of species are used as companion animals but companion animals
are identified by the level of interaction with their owner. The word ‘companion’ (friend,
mate, buddy, chum) implies intimates of their owner. Many animals categorised as such
are not really so. They may be commercial or sport animals or, more commonly, desirable
and appropriate elements in a household but not really companions. Animals may be
companions but be interacted with so infrequently or for such short periods of time that this
categorisation is questionable.
Dogs and cats are the most common companion animals in Australia and New Zealand.
The social and behavioural requirements of these two species are quite different. Dogs are
essentially social territorial animals that scavenge and hunt. Human habitation may be the
natural environment for dogs and a lack of social interaction with humans or other dogs
indicates an inadequate environment for dogs. Cats are more solitary in nature than dogs
but have been selected for social behaviour. They are predators and their territorial
behaviour is influenced by the environment. Dog and cat breeds vary considerable in their
physical characteristics and probably their behavioural requirements.
Assessing the quality of life of companion animals can be carried out using several
1
The OIE (World Organisation for Animal Health) Collaborating Centre for Animal Welfare Science
and Bioethical Analysis.
concurrent approaches. One is to assess the behaviour of the animal with emphasis on
what it can do. Thus, a dog may live with one person and no other dogs and have little
contact with other dogs, or it may live amongst many dogs and people. It may be restricted
to a house, apartment or garden and get little exposure to a wider environment or it may
be exercised daily and meet other dogs and have opportunities to explore a number of
environments both social and physical. It may be involved in agility or tracking for fun.
Another approach is to assess the animal’s behaviour with emphasis on anxiety based
behaviour problems such as separation anxiety or anxiety-based aggression. It is obvious
that anxiety based behaviour problems, which are not uncommon in dogs and cats,
indicate an inappropriate environment. It is generally expected that companion animals are
managed well with regard to their health, nutrition and physical comfort. Many dogs
however experience pain caused by conditions such as osteoarthritis and there remains a
question about how pleasurable living on a diet composed solely of dry food which, while
adequate nutritionally, may do little to please the palate of a scavenger or hunter. Thus,
evaluating the management of a companion animal is also a useful guide when assessing
its quality of life.
Introduction
Companion animals are used by people as a target for their social needs. The degree to
which people interact with them varies considerably. Some people with limited interactions
with other people may direct virtually all their social attention towards their animal, while
others may identify their animal as a companion but may actually interact very little with it.
Others may have an animal that is identified as a having a function such as guarding,
hunting, or showing. These multipurpose animals, whilst engaged in their various activities,
may also be a very close companion to their handler despite not being a companion
animal per se (Stafford, 2006).
The lifestyle of an animal owned as a companion may be used to determine the closeness
of the relationship. Dogs or cats that live indoors and sleep in the bed with their owners
may be considered to be definite companions. However, many animals live less closely
with their owners but are still considered to be companions. In New Zealand, most cats live
indoor/outdoor lives coming and going as they wish. These cats may spend some hours
indoors with their owners but much time away from them. The owners may consider them
companions, but the closeness may differ between and within species with its level
depending to a great extent on the animal.
There are many different species of animals owned as companion animals. These include
common species like dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, mice, gerbils, ferrets,
budgerigars, canaries, goldfish and turtles, and, more recently, a wider range of bird,
reptile and fish species are considered companion animals plus some wild animals tamed
and used as pets. Our knowledge of many of these species is limited and this paper will
concentrate on the common species, especially dogs and cats.
The term ‘quality of life’ (QoL) relates especially to the mental wellbeing of an animal. As
noted elsewhere (Mellor and Stafford, 2008), QoL is a synonym for ‘animal welfare status’
where subjective experiences are emphasised, and the term is used in that way
throughout this paper. Assessing the QoL of companion animals can be carried out using
several concurrent approaches.
One way to assess QoL is to monitor the behaviour of the animal with emphasis on what it
can do. Thus, a dog may live with one person and no other dogs and have little contact
with other dogs, or it may live amongst many dogs and people. It may be restricted to a
house, apartment or garden and get little exposure to a wider environment or it may be
exercised daily and meet other dogs and have opportunities to explore a number of
environments, both social and physical. It may be involved in agility or tracking for fun or
engage in other sports or work. In addition, behavioural monitoring can be focused on
anxiety-based behaviour problems such as separation anxiety, compulsive behaviours, or
aggression. It is obvious that anxiety-based behavioural problems, which are not
uncommon in dogs and cats, indicate an inappropriate environment and poor QoL.
Behaviours indicative of fear may also be used as indicators of poor QoL.
It is generally assumed that companion animals are managed well with regard to their
health, nutrition and physical comfort. Many dogs however experience pain caused by
conditions such as osteoarthritis and this strongly suggests a poor QoL. There remain
many questions about how pleasurable day-to-day living is for many dogs and cats. This is
perhaps especially so for animals that are restricted physically and fed a diet composed
solely of dry food, which, while adequate nutritionally, may do little to please the palate of a
scavenger or hunter. Thus, evaluating the management of a companion animal is also a
useful approach to assessing its QoL. Likewise, changes in ability to engage in a wide
range of behaviours may be used to assess QoL: a physical inability to go outside
because of ageing and therefore toileting inside may indicate a reduced QoL as may many
other features of ageing.
Different tools may be used to assess QoL. However, it should be noted that little has
been done using scientific methods to validate QoL measures in companion animals and
the tools described here are under investigation, but often in isolation. They may be
crudely divided into research tools appropriate only for the laboratory context, and clinical
tools used in veterinary clinics as well as in laboratories and by persons such as welfare
inspectors. An overall monitoring of many animals using a wide range of tools is required
to underpin the use of any one of them as a stand-alone index of QoL.
Research tools
Research into the QoL of companion animals follows the same pattern as research into
the welfare of all animals. It investigates the nutrition, health and longevity, physical
comfort, the opportunity for expressing normal behaviour, and the emotional status of the
animals. It is easy to quantify the welfare status of farm and laboratory animals because
management systems are well established and quantifying important health and comfort
issues is well documented. In addition, research has shown how to measure the flight
distance, fear and perhaps anxiety of farm and laboratory animals. Interestingly, far fewer
data are available regarding the assessment of the welfare of companion animals. The
health and nutritional requirements of common companion animal species, dogs and cats,
are well documented, but the actual health status of national dog and cat populations are
not and nor is their nutrition. Moreover, the physical comfort and behavioural opportunities
available to many dogs and cats are poorly documented as are the anxiety or fear status
of these species. Therefore, much needs to be done to get some base line data about the
QoL (the welfare status) of companion animals.
The tools for investigating the QoL of companion animals are primarily ethological in
character and are those used in experimental circumstances or, less frequently, in the
home. Ethological tools include;
1.
Time budgets to determine if individual animals have social contact, explorative
play, predation work activities and learning opportunities on a daily basis
2.
Monitoring abnormal (e.g. stereotypic) behaviours indicative of negative
emotions (e.g. anxiety, fear, pain, learned helplessness)
3.
Quantifying human-animal and animal–animal interactions to determine if they
are sufficient for the individual animal
4.
Quantifying changing environmental features and monitoring behaviour
changes.
Physiological parameters have been used under laboratory conditions to determine the
functional responses of dogs to human contact and to a variety of environments and
activities. Dogs respond physiologically to positive human contact in a manner which
suggests that they experience pleasure in the contact. Likewise, the physiological
responses to exploration (walks), exercise and social contact suggest that these are also
positive experiences.
Clinical tools
These are tools that can be used in clinical settings to determine the QoL of companion
animals, perhaps in order to determine if euthanasia is warranted. They might be used by
veterinarians or by welfare investigators and have to reflect the psychological well-being of
the animal being monitored. Clinical tools generally have to be effective during a shortterm examination, but tools such as diaries and video recording may also be useful if the
animal’s owner or caretaker is cooperative. The value of such tools should be assessed
using in-depth research protocols; in fact, such research is ongoing and will continue to be
so for some time to come.
The primary clinical tools to assess QoL of companion animals include:
1.
Identification and quantification of behaviours associated with pain, anxiety or
fear and abnormal behaviours such as stereotypies. Assessing unacceptable
behaviours such as aggression towards visitors is also important as they often
result in animals being caged for long periods without social interaction.
2.
Quantifying the time budget of the animal, including activity and inactivity,
interaction with conspecifics, opportunities to play, explore, predate (for cats)
and engage in sport for dogs.
3.
Monitoring the management of the animal. This will include quantifying its
restrictions, human interaction, nutrition and feeding, sleeping quarters, social
circumstances, and ‘work’.
4.
Determining the ‘needs’ of the particular animal with regard to its breed,
rearing, training and use. Toy dogs and border collies may have quite different
requirements.
5.
Identifying pleasure behaviours (play, walks, predation) and quantifying their
frequency and regularity.
6.
Undertaking a physical examination to determine if there are signs of disease,
painful conditions or injuries.
7.
Monitoring the changes in an animal’s life as it ages to assess QoL of old
animals.
8.
Assessing empathetically what is going on in the animal’s life.
These tools are under development and others will become more important as we improve
our understanding of the QoL of animals.
Identifying and quantifying particular abnormal behaviours
Abnormal behaviours seen in companion animals include stereotypic (compulsive)
behaviours (e.g. tail chasing, self-mutilation, constant staring), anxious behaviours (e.g.
separation anxiety, some aggressions), fear behaviour (e.g. fear of noise, men,
thunderstorms, home-alone syndrome, excessive aggression) and some weird
inexplicable behaviours like stealing or cloth sucking and eating. The aetiology of many of
these is poorly understood but their existence suggests a poor QoL. Stereotypic
behaviours such as constant tail-chasing or self-mutilation are destructive in themselves,
but also reflect an inadequate environment. Anxiety behaviours such as separation anxiety
may results in environmental destruction, constant barking, defaecation and attempts to
escape when the desired person is absent, and suggest serious anxiety which is often
treated with anti-depressant drugs. Fear of common elements in the environment, such as
men, suggests abnormal responses and an unpleasant existence.
The proportion of dogs, cats or pet birds expressing these abnormal behaviours is
unknown, but veterinarians regularly diagnose them and treat them so they are not
uncommon. Their existence suggests that something is wrong in the way animals are
bred, reared and managed, but the detailed aetiology of these problems is poorly
understood.
Family-focused control aggression expressed by the animals may reflect anxiety or be
based on an ambitious temperament. It may result in constant conflict between the dog or
cat and their human caretakers. This is not a pleasant situation and probably impacts
negatively on the QoL of both the animal and the owner, as may many other common
misbehaviours such as barking, jumping up on people and being overtly territorial. Dogs
that express unacceptable behaviours towards people or other dogs are less likely to be
walked, live indoors or be played with. Thus poor training may, in these respects, result in
poor QoL.
Quantifying the time budget of the animal being investigated
The activity of any animal will reflect its QoL. Dogs and cats and many birds are
considered to be explorative in nature and limiting their ability to move through an
environment probably has a negative impact on their QoL. However, dogs that live in onedog households are often quite inactive when not in the company of their owner and even
when their owner is present they may remain inactive. Activity is good for health, and
limiting physical activity and exploration (physical and social) is probably not good for a
dog’s QoL. Restricting a cat to an indoor life without the ability to predate is similarly
probably a negative experience, but has to be balanced against the dangers of an
indoor/outdoor life. Restricting the social life of a parrot probably has some negative
effects on its QoL, although some may cope without expressing abnormal behaviours.
Dogs are social animals but cats may be quite content to live off, rather that with, people.
Indeed, many cats avoid close physical contact with people and forcing them to interact
with people may cause anxiety and aggression. The social life of cats in urban
environments is complex due to the high density of cat populations and the requirement to
time-share territories with other cats. Inter-cat aggression may cause anxiety to the loser
and cats may become afraid to go outside because of this. Indoor conflicts between house
cats may also cause anxiety and result in spraying and other undesirable behaviours.
Monitoring the management of the animal being investigated
This will include quantifying how it is restricted (cage, house, outdoors), how much
exercise it gets (dogs), the amount of time spent with humans (dogs), nutrition and
feeding, sleeping quarters, social circumstances, and ‘work’. Dogs are social animals and
require interaction with other dogs or humans; living with one adult human is a major risk
factor for separation anxiety. Feeding manufactured foodstuffs to dogs or cats continually
to the exclusion of all other foods is probably unnecessary and the provision of
supplements in the form of bones, dead rabbits or even dried pigs ears is probably of
value to their QoL. Dogs often jealously guard such supplements while not valuing their
normal food. Work for many dogs is probably important for their QoL; learning is fun if
properly done. The sleeping quarters of a dog and its day-to-day living circumstances may
be important in determining its level of comfort and consequently be useful as a measure
of QoL.
Determining the ‘needs’ of the particular animal with regard to its breed, rearing,
training and use
To assess QoL some understanding of the species needs or the needs of a particular
breed or individual is required. The needs of small mammals such as rats and mice might
be easily met within a normal household but some animals have high levels of need. A
common observation is that dogs from working lines need lots of ‘work’ (e.g. working
border collies) while other don’t appear to need much ‘work’ at all (e.g. Irish wolfhound).
Cats may need to predate, and many that are well fed will predate constantly without
eating their prey.
Identifying pleasure behaviours and quantifying their frequency and regularity
Expressions of pleasure in companion animals are easy to identify in some individual
animals. A dog may enjoy lying in front of the fire with its owner or hunting or playing
retrieve.
Undertaking a physical examination to determine if there are signs of disease,
painful conditions or injuries
The physical health of an animal may be used to help assess its QoL. Sick or injured
animals or those in chronic pain are likely to have poorer QoL than healthy animals.
Monitoring the changes in an animal’s life as it ages is particularly important to
assess QoL of old animals
Response to owners, ability to exercise and go outside to toilet, eating habits, sleep and
waking patterns and vocalisations are important parameters used in quantifying QoL of
ageing companion animals.
Assessing empathetically what is going on in the animal’s life
To evaluate what an animal is experiencing some value may be given to what the
caretaker or interested people might suggest. These suggestions may be valuable and as
humans have lived with dogs for a long time we can probably justify our opinions as being
of consequence.
Conclusion
The QoL of an animal may be assessed by examining its behaviour, the environment it
lives in and how it is managed. Some specific behaviours, such as those indicative of
chronic anxiety, can identify poor QoL management by caretakers, while having the facility
to express a range of natural behaviour may indicate good QoL. The physical conditions
underpinning the lifestyle of any animal are also important factors to consider in assessing
QoL.
References
Mellor, D.J. and Stafford, K.J. (2008). Quality of life: A valuable concept or an unnecessary
embellishment when considering animal welfare? In: The Welfare of Animals – It’s
everyone’s business. Proceedings of the Australian Animal Welfare Strategy
International Conference, Conrad Jupiters, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, 31
August to 3 September 2008 (in press).
Stafford, Kevin. (2006). The welfare of dogs. Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.