Animal-Assisted Prolonged Exposure: A Treatment for Survivors of Sexual Assault Suffering Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Lefkowitz, Carin; Paharia, Indira; Prout, Maurice; Debiak, Dennis; Bleiberg, James

Abstract:
This paper proposes the development of a new model of treatment for survivors of sexual abuse suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Foa, Rothbaum, Riggs, and Murdock (1991) and Foa, Rothbaum, and Furr (2003) support Prolonged Exposure (PE) as a highly effective treatment for PTSD. However, PE can be intimidating to survivors, contributing to hesitancy to participate in the treatment. This paper posits that animal-assisted therapy (AAT) will decrease anxiety, lower physiological arousal, enhance the therapeutic alliance, and promote social lubrication. The paper also posits that AAT will enhance the value of PE by making it more accessible to survivors, increasing social interaction, and perhaps decreasing the number of sessions required for habituation to the traumatic memories.

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Pernicious Portrayals: The Impact of Children's Attachment to Animals of Fiction on Animals of Fact
Anderson, Marla V.; Henderson, Antonia J.Z.

Abstract:
This paper argues that the lack of distinction between human and nonhuman animals in the fantastic world of children's literature and film results in distorted representations of intelligence, capabilities, and morality of nonhuman animals. From the perspective of attachment theory, the paper shows how humans internalize and sustain misrepresentations throughout adulthood and how these misrepresentations influence relationships with real animals. An ongoing search for the ideal "Walt Disney dog" of childhood jeopardizes relationships to companion animals. Trying to recreate the fantasy dog by genetic manipulation of a real animal's characteristics results in needless distress for companion animals. Because the companion does not meet expectations engendered by childhood stories, normal dog behaviour—chewing, digging, and barking—may result in relinquishing the dog for adoption and subsequent euthanasia. Shifting to the scientific realm, the paper discusses the on-going debate on the study of animals' human-like abilities, most salient in ape language programs. In closing, the paper discusses the disservice done to real animals as illusions of childhood and subsequent misunderstandings leave them judged by impossible, anthrocentric standards—which they rarely can fulfill.
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Death or Declaw: Dealing with Moral Ambiguity in a Veterinary Hospital
Atwood-Harvey, Dana

Abstract:
The medical practice of declawing has received much political debate over the past few years. Yet, empirical and theoretical research on how this practice is maintained and the ethical positions of those who actually participate in this work is lacking. Drawing from 9 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a feline-specific veterinary hospital and open-ended interviews with veterinarians and staff, this study examines veterinary staff members' attitudes toward, and strategies for, dealing with the medical practice of declawing. Specifically, findings show that a number of staff felt uncomfortable with their participation in onychectomy (declawing) and relied heavily on organizational support structures to cope both with these feelings and the moral ambiguity about the practice. Relying on these structures, the veterinarians and their staff are able simultaneously to define felines as subjects worthy of respect for their quality of life, protect their own self-identity as people who work toward the best interest of animals, and paradoxically support action toward felines that they find morally objectionable.

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