This newspaper’s science columnist had already made up his mind when Marie-José Enders-Slegers was to become professor of ‘antrozoology’ in 2013. Her dissertation, in which Enders-Slegers ‘wanted to show that even the severely demented elderly still recover from pets’, was after all ‘thinner than a greyhound’. The verdict had been passed: ‘The chair of antrozoology is not going to make us any wiser.’
Now, nine years later, the professor is saying goodbye to the Open University, where she held the world’s first chair in ‘antrozoology’ (on ‘interactions between humans and animals’). Have we become wiser?
Enders-Slegers (77) still remembers the cool reception well, she says with her seriously ill dog Sam in her vicinity. ‘I was written very badly about me, not only in de Volkskrant, but also in The watchword, where someone referred to me as “a housewife” who thought this was a subject for science. Such was the attitude towards this field, also in the scientific world. Annoying, but I did what I had to do.’
You didn’t start studying until you were 40. How do you become a professor in a field that didn’t exist?
‘I love animals. That’s why I had set up an animal shelter in my hometown. My husband was a general practitioner, I helped him in his practice. Slowly I got tired of being a doctor’s wife; I felt like my girls’ high school meant nothing. Then I started studying psychology.
‘At the end of my studies, my professor thought I should do a PhD. I didn’t feel like topics like depression and suicide. Then my professor said: ‘You always talk about that asylum of yours, do something with it.’ In that shelter I had seen the elderly say goodbye to their dog. You were not allowed to take it with you to the retirement home at the time. Those people were standing at the gate crying. That’s how I saw what pets can mean. In family constellations of psychotherapy, the pet is often right next to the main character. Usually closer than their own children. That’s how it started: my dissertation was about the significance of pets for the quality of life of the elderly.’
How was that responded?
“People thought it was ridiculous. The professor who approved my PhD topic had to answer to colleagues. This was not considered a subject for scientific research in the psychology department either. While abroad there was already a lot of attention for antrozoology. When I applied for this chair, I was given half an hour to explain why it should be there. After that, the rector literally had to sleep on it. By now all colleagues have said that I was right at the time.’
You focused on ‘animal assisted interventions’, therapy with the use of animals. What is there in that area?
‘There are many forms of it. For example, in people with autism, Down or ptsd, therapy with animals can help if you do not get any further with talk therapy. At a petting zoo, children with Down or autism can be given small tasks in the care of animals, which gives them more self-confidence, better communication, more fun or better relaxation.
‘I did a lot of research on autism guide dogs myself. Much has been achieved in this respect: thanks to the intervention of dogs, some children can continue to live at home. I met a multiple disabled boy of 4 with autism. When I got to his house, he spent an hour pouring water from one jar into another. There was no contact to be made. His mother was at her wits’ end: according to doctors, her child had to be internalized in an institute. An autism guide dog turned out to work wonders. By walking with dog and child on a harness, her child received pleasant stimuli. They both came out again, where they met other people. The child became attached to that dog, and learned words like ‘sit’. He made progress in all areas.
‘Great, but what I remember most is that the mother called me. Her son was woken up by the dog every day, but that morning the dog was sick. Mother told her child that. The boy got out of bed, went downstairs and started stroking the dog. That was a real victory: he had never shown any affectionate relationship before. That child was ultimately not admitted to a home. Just realize what that dog has yielded and saved in healthcare costs.’
What can an animal do more than a therapist?
‘My idea is: everyone is made to seek contact, to connect with others. In that movement towards each other, the synchronization, behavioral patterns arise. If you feel comfortable in it, attachment is created. For example, between mother and child, but also between animal and human.
‘You derive social support from each other, you learn from the other, you understand and imitate behaviour. Touch also produces a physiological response. The level of the ‘stress hormone’ cortisol decreases, the ‘cuddle hormone’ oxytocin rises. In this way something changes in your cognitions, your emotions and your behavior. That sounds logical, but it is not proven. What I do see is what animals can bring about. An animal is always unambiguous, does not judge, does not scold you if you do something wrong. People are never unambiguous. They can think differently than they do, pretend differently. That is difficult for some.
‘A clinic in Basel treats neurological problems after accidental brain injury. They also work with horses, dogs, cats and hamsters; very successful. Humans respond the longest to touch and that works well with animals. You can put some animals on the bed and have them petted. Then different things happen in your brain than when touched by a human being.’
But still: ‘Animals cannot provide therapy, they are not therapists’, you said in your farewell address.
‘Correct! It’s really not that I always advocate animal therapy; I’m just critical of it. If it can be done without animals, I think it should be without. Only when intervention with an animal can achieve something that humans cannot do, I think it is legitimate. To a certain extent.
‘An autism guide dog doesn’t have to work very hard, it just needs to adhere to some rituals. A guide dog for the blind is sometimes a different story. At a convention, I once saw a blind woman interact with her stressed-out dog. I asked if I would take her dog for a walk, because I saw that I had to. No, he had to stay with her. In this way you see how an animal is sometimes depersonalized, while it is a living being that also has the right to a pleasant life.’
Many ‘therapies’ are also offered in the esoteric realms, from swimming with dolphins to cuddling cows.
‘Yes, terrible. Dolphins are wild animals, you should not swim with them. When cuddling with cows I wonder what those cows think. For me, it’s about the therapy: it requires a clear goal and a certified therapist who sets out and evaluates a treatment trajectory. As soon as commerce comes into play, I give up.’
Is there a lot wrong?
‘I still see that people use animals without the animals wanting to. I even see that on a large scale, by people who don’t seem to have the notion that this requires prior education. Then I see self-proclaimed therapists pulling a horse out of the meadow to give therapy with it. Horrible.’
What can antrozoology do about this?
‘I am also president of the international organization iahaio, which draws up guidelines and formulates quality requirements for professionals. In the Netherlands, in addition to international guidelines, the field has drawn up a quality register in which volunteers and professionals can be registered and training courses are evaluated.
‘Professionals must have at least HBO or WO level, for example they must be a psychologist or physiotherapist and have followed training to be able to use animals. By making that register transparent for municipalities, insurers and others, we hope to prevent people from turning to self-appointed therapists. That is a huge market, with a lot of ignorance. It does concern vulnerable people and vulnerable animals.’
You are now waived. What does your personal future look like?
‘I have an excellent successor in Karin Hediger. I myself will remain affiliated with the OU to supervise PhD students. My dream is to realize my own clinic, like in Basel. In which children may be visited by their own dog or a therapy dog. In Spain I saw how a terminally ill boy who was very afraid of death felt much better by being around a dog. My wish is that we will simply find that here again.’
What have we learned after nine years of antrozoology?
‘A lot has been achieved in research and education. More and more universities are working on the role and significance of animals. Beyond that, it is also increasingly about animals; see the growth of the Party for the Animals. The realization has arisen that animals are not machines, as Descartes argued, but individuals with their own feelings. So Descartes was very wrong about that.’