THE UNIQUE ROLE OF DOGS IN SOCIETY - JAMES A. SERPELL, PHD CENTER FOR THE INTERACTION
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The Unique Role of Dogs
in Society
James A. Serpell, PhD
Center for the Interaction
of Animals and Society
School of Veterinary Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
1
Plan of Talk
• Why the dog’s role in society is
unique.
• The impact of dogs on human
emotional and physical health.
• Recent genetic and
neurophysiological studies that shed
light on the nature of this special
relationship.
• The impact of the dog-human
relationship on the perceived moral
status dogs.
• The effect of this on public attitudes
to the use of dogs for research.
• Conclusions
2
The Cow-Human Relationship
Benefits
Costs
The Dog-Human Relationship
Social Support
Benefits
Costs
4
The Dog Was Domesticated from the Grey Wolf
Sometime Prior to 15,000 years BP
Ovodov et al., 2011. 33,000 year-old
“incipient” dog from the Altai Mountains
of Siberia. PLoS One, 6(7): e22821.
Dogs therefore preceded all other
domestic species by at least 5K years
5
Dogs Have Continued to Play a Prominent Role on
Human Lives Ever Since
6
USA Dog Population: 1967-2015 (millions)
80
70
60
50
Millions
40
• Currently there are approximately 80
30 million dogs in the USA, mostly pets.
• And around 900 million globally of which
20 about 70% are free-roaming.
10
1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
Year
7
US Dog Popularity Fluctuates According to Body Size
8
People Are Spending More on Their Dogs
Rowan, A. & Kartal, T. (2018) Animals, 8, 68 9
And Developing Closer Attachments to Their Dogs
Rowan, A. & Kartal, T. (2018) Animals, 8, 68 10Pet Ownership Associated with Improved Survival
Following Heart AttackEffect of Pets on Physiological Arousal
• Pet owning subjects
were equipped with
remote BP monitors and
beepers that sounded at
random intervals during
the day.
• When the beeper
sounded, subjects wrote
down whether the pet
was present with them
or not present.
(Friedmann et al., 2013. Anthrozoös, 26: 535-550)
12Pet Acquisition Associated with Positive Changes in Health
Source: Serpell, J.A. 1991. J. Roy. Soc. Med., 84: 717-720.HAI Research Has Found Evidence That:
1. Pet ownership is associated with improved
survivorship with cardiovascular disease.
2. Presence of pets is associated with de-arousal—
short-term reductions in heart-rate/blood
pressure; subjective feelings of calmness,
relaxation.
3. Pet acquisition is associated with a decline in
minor health problems and improved mental
well-being.
4. Pet acquisition associated with sustained
reductions in reactions to experimental stressors.
5. Pet ownership is associated with fewer risk
factors for cardiovascular disease.
6. Pet ownership linked to less deterioration in
health in response to chronic stress.
7. Pet ownership is associated with increased social
interaction with others.
1415
Meta-analysis of Results of 49 AAT Studies
(Nimer, J. & Lundahl, B. 2007)
• Effect sizes varied depending on what was measured. Biggest effects
found for Autism Spectrum behaviors (Cohen’s d = 0.72); moderate
effects found for medical symptoms such a HR, BP and motor skills
(d = 0.51), and smallest effects seen for emotional indicators, such
as anxiety and depression (d = 0.39).
• Use of dogs was consistently associated with larger effect sizes than
for other types of therapy animals (e.g. horses, aquariums, dolphins,
etc.).
• In the 4 studies that compared AAT with other, more conventional
treatments, effect sizes for AAT were either similar or superior to
those associated with other treatments.
What is the mechanism? And why are dogs better?17
Fig. 1 Comparisons of behavior and urinary oxytocin change among long gaze
dogs (LG, n = 21, black bars and circles), short gaze dogs (SG, n = 9, white bars
and circles), and pet wolves (wolf, n = 11, gray bars and square).
Nagasawa et al. Science, 2015;348:333-336
18Figure 2. Proximity seeking scores mean differences between the different −212AG genotypes in German
Shepherds (a) and Border Collies (b). Sample sizes for each genotype group are provided in parenthesis.
Kis A, Bence M, Lakatos G, Pergel E, Turcsán B, et al. (2014) Oxytocin Receptor Gene Polymorphisms Are Associated with Human
Directed Social Behavior in Dogs (Canis familiaris). PLOS ONE 9(1): e83993. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0083993
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0083993
1920
Pet Keeping Is a Major Driver of
Attitude Change
The individuals with whom we
develop social relationships and
attachments—particularly in
childhood—define both who we
are (who we identify with) and
who we care about.
Myers, O.E. 1998. Children and Animals. Boulder, Co: Westview
“[C]aring for and about dogs and cats is a primary portal to compassion
and concern about a wide array of animal protection issues.”
Randall Lockwood, 2005, p.8.
21Childhood Pet Keeping Predicts Support
for Animal Protection Later in Life
30
% Subjects Who Supported Animal
Protection Organizations (N = 378)
25
(R = 0.84, P < 0.005)
20
15
10
5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8+
No. of Family Pets Owned in Childhood (0-16 years)
From: Paul, E.S. & Serpell, J.A. 1993. Animal Welfare, 2(4).Strong Childhood Pet Attachments
Predict Animal Food Avoidance
% Subjects Who Avoid Eating at Least
One Animal Food Product (N = 378)
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1 2 3+
No. of “Important” Pets Reported during Childhood
From: Paul, E.S. & Serpell, J.A. 1993. Animal Welfare, 2(4).Samuel Johnson, 1758
“Among the inferior professors
of medical knowledge is a race of
wretches whose lives are only
varied by varieties of cruelty;
whose favorite amusement is to
nail dogs to tables and open
them alive…..It is time that a
universal resentment should
arise against those horrid
operations, which tend to
harden the heart and make
physicians more dreadful than
the gout or the stone.”Public Vivisections of Dogs without Anesthesia Were
Relatively Commonplace in the 18th & 19th Centuries
Emil-Edouard Mouchy, 1832
25Pet Owners Led the Anti-vivisection Movement
In the 19th Century, middle class pet
owners such as Frances Power Cobbe
were in the forefront of the anti-
vivisection movement, so much so that
one hostile commentator attributed her
reformist zeal to sentimental affection for
her own pet dog: “She is not defending a
right inherent in sentient things as such;
she is doing special pleading for some of
them for which she has a special liking.”
Frances Power Cobbe 1822-1904
26"We must painfully acknowledge that,
precisely because of its great
intellectual development, the best of
man's domesticated animals—the
dog—most often becomes the victim
of physiological experiments………. The
dog is irreplaceable; moreover it is
extremely touching. It is almost a
participant in the experiments
conducted upon it, greatly facilitating
the success of the research by its
understanding and compliance."
Ivan Pavlov, 1893
27All It Takes Is One Dog
In 1965, the theft of a
pet Dalmatian named
‘Pepper’ from the PA
home of Julia and Peter
Lakavage culminated in a
fundamental shift in the
practice and ethics of
biomedical research in
the USA.
Julia & Peter Lakavage
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/pepper/2009/06/wheres_pepper.html
28Life Magazine article (Feb. 1966)
exposed the activities of “class B” animal dealers
…and contributed directly to the passage of the
Animal Welfare Act, 196630
Conclusions
• More so than other domestic animals, dogs have been selected
for “hypersociability”, manifested as enhanced motivation to
engage socially with humans combined with extreme willingness
to comply with human direction.
• Through its effects on OT secretion, dog-human social
interaction tends to generate intense cross-species social bonds
while also down-regulating the stress response.
• These effects help to account for the popularity of dogs both as
pets and as research animals, as well as the apparent
therapeutic benefits of dog-human interactions.
• At the same time, long-term familial relationships with dogs
promote an increase in their perceived moral standing.
• Consequently, the dog-owning public is increasingly opposed to
activities, such as biomedical research, that are perceived to
cause harm to dogs.
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