Managing the Dyad Between Independence and Dependence: Case Studies of the American Elderly and Their Lives With Pets

Abstract:  In this article, I research the dyad between independence and dependence in pet companionship for the American elderly, and how elderly pet owners treat pets as a tool to enable them to balance the adherent norms between independence and dependence in order to navigate a successful later life. First, I explore individual life with pets: independent lifestyle with pets, emotional dependence on pets, management of pet loss, and limitation in pet responsibilities. Second, I discuss family and social life with pets: relationships with children, grandchildren and pets; husband–wife interactions and pets; and neighbors and pets. I examine these subjects through in-depth interviews with five middle-class Caucasian and Asian elderly pet owners who live in Los Angeles and San Diego, California, conducted in July 2005. Pets greatly help the elderly pet owners to maintain a balance between independence and dependence. Both an independent lifestyle and emotional dependence on their pets are formed through pet responsibilities. Some of the informants treated their pets as if they were their children. The others appeared emotionally dependent on memories of former pets, which provided the elderly pet owners with a sense of security and calm. The informants managed pet loss effectively by treating their pet as a tool upon which they conferred replaceable meanings or roles depending on their situation. The elderly pet owners also used their pets to facilitate family and social interactions. Having a pet is one important way that American elderly people can achieve subjective manipulation of later life.     

The Ukrainian refugee crisis: Unpacking the politics of pet exceptionalism

The rescue of pets soon became part of the humanitarian narrative of the attack on Ukraine. The open-door policy on companion animals from Ukraine—a high-risk country for rabies—in terms of regulatory modifications and the provision of services could be described as one of ‘pet exceptionalism’. While the influx of pets and the response to it has significance for the international refugee regime, there has been scant scholarly engagement with the movement of pets across borders during emergencies. To bridge academic knowledge gaps and suggest policy lessons, the article discusses how the management of the Ukraine pet influx fits with existing regulatory regimes and policy priorities governing companion animals, and the tensions involved. Drawing on a 6-month desk study (March–August 2022)—the article considers the events, interactions and policy choices which shape how companion animals are received. Using the UK and Norway as examples, it suggests that the aim of the resources and procedures directed at caring for pets and helping owners is pragmatic—to safeguard biosecurity and enforce regulations while also protecting animal health and psychosocial well-being. The term ‘pet civic consciousness’ is used to consider the notion of pets as family members, and how trust in government and understandings of biosecurity and regulatory requirements are filtered through cultural and linguistic lenses. The article identifies biosecurity, juridification, resource allocation and ethical issues of fairness across refugee populations and the intrinsic value of companion animals as central topics for future discussion.     

The healing power of dogs: Cocoa's story

Animals bring a sense of "at homeness" and even normalcy to people who are hospitalized or live in health care facilities. Illnesses, separation from family, fear, loneliness, and even depression may be lessened for those who receive a therapy dog visit by providing a welcome change in routine and something to look forward to. Individuals are often more active and responsive during and after a visit. Just stroking and petting a dog requires the use of hands and arms, as well as the motions of stretching and turning. Dogs are also unconcerned with age or physical ability; they accept people as they are. This alone causes many to reach out and interact with dogs. Animals provide a focus for conversation and a common interest. As Cocoa's human partner can attest, a pet also makes it easier for strangers to talk. Cocoa is known by so many people at the facilities she visits that residents' family members often stop to talk with "Cocoa's mom" when they meet her in the community, asking questions about how Cocoa is doing. When Cocoa is no longer able to perform her services, many in her community will mourn. Cocoa's story, as well as the limited research literature, supports the positive physical and psychological effects of animals, but continued research on the effect of therapy animals on health outcomes is needed. As advocates for clients, nurses are in key positions to facilitate the inclusion of animals in clients' care. Although not for everyone, including those who react negatively to animals or who are allergic, pet therapy offers important possibilities for providing holistic care that extends not only to clients, but also to family members and staff, and to the pets themselves.     

More‐than‐human families: Pets,people, and practices in multispecies households

Although humans have coexisted with dogs and cats for thousands of years, that coexistence has taken on various meanings over time. Only recently have people openly included their pets as members of the family. Yet, because of the cultural ambivalence toward animals, what it means for a pet to “be” a family member remains unsettled. Drawing from research on family practices including kinship, household routines, childhood socialization, and domestic violence, this paper considers how pets participate in “doing” family and what their presence means for this social arrangement long considered quintessentially human. Today's more‐than‐human families represent a hybrid of relations, human and animal and social and natural, rather than an entirely new kind of family. Becoming family has always been contingent on a cast of nonhuman characters, and recognition of the “more‐than‐human” can enhance sociological understanding, not only of the family but also of other aspects of social life.     

Confrontations and donations: encounters between homeless pet owners and the public

This study examines the interactions between homeless pet owners and the domiciled public with a focus on how the activities of pet ownership help construct positive personal identities. Homeless people are often criticized for having pets. They counter these attacks using open and contained responses to stigmatization. More often, they redefine pet ownership to incorporate how they provide for their animals, challenging definitions that require a physical home. Homeless pet owners thus create a positive moral identity by emphasizing that they feed their animals first and give them freedom that the pets of the domiciled lack. Through what we call “enabled resistance,” donations of pet food from the supportive public provide the resources to minimize the impact of stigmatization.     

Examining the nexus between domestic violence and animal abuse in a national sample of service providers

Companion animals play a complex role in families impacted by violence. An outlet of emotional support for victims, the family pet often becomes a target for physical abuse. Results from a comprehensive e-survey of domestic violence shelters nationwide (N = 767) highlight both improvements and existing gaps in service provision for domestic violence victims and their pets. Quantitative and qualitative data noted frequently encountered obstacles to successful shelter seeking by abuse victims with companion animals including a lack of availability, funding, space, and reliable programming. Although results indicate an overall improvement in organizational awareness, fewer than half of surveyed shelters include intake questions about animals. Continued awareness and an expansion of services is needed to create viable safety planning strategies and reliable alternatives for women with companion animals in order to improve the likelihood that abuse victims will seek escape and refuge for themselves, their children, and their pets.     

The Pet Connection: An Attachment Perspective

Using the ethological-evolutionary framework of attachment, and including how the theory has been updated and expanded by findings from attachment-based research, neuroscience and animal studies, this paper proposes that a relationship with a family pet, especially a dog or cat, reflects certain dynamics of attachment which may account for the sense of comfort and connection they provide to individuals at all stages of the life cycle. There is now convincing scientific evidence that companion animals have positive effects on psychological and physical well-being, helping shape how people regulate their emotions, deal with stress or trauma, and relate to others. Discussion considers the implications of these benefits for social work, in particular for policy, prevention, and psychotherapy. An illustration of treatment for pet loss, as well as a framework for promoting attachment in pets adopted from rescue shelters, is also presented. It is recommended that both social work professionals and social work students be educated about the human-animal bond and the significance of pets to so many of our clients.     

Understanding Relations between People and their Pets

As evidenced by the popularity of animal behavior shows and books, online viral pet videos, and the presence of dogs or cats in two‐thirds of American homes, pets clearly play an important role in many Americans’ lives. At the same time, however, millions of pets are abandoned, abused, and euthanized every year. What should we make of these seemingly conflicting realities? How do Americans really feel about and treat their pets? And what explains the differences? In recent years social scientists have begun to investigate the various and changing interactions between humans and animals. In particular, a growing body of research examines humans’ relationships with pets, most often dogs and cats. This paper reviews recent research in this field. After discussing what differentiates pets from other animals, the paper begins with a review of research investigating the meanings and roles of pets in people’s lives and the nature and benefits of human‐pet attachments. Secondly, it reviews research on the factors that help explain why some people have a higher regard for pets than others. The paper concludes with a discussion of some of the limitations of existing research and some suggestions on how to expand future investigations.     

Health Benefits of Pets for Families

During the last decade, the common belief that pets are good for their owners has gained concrete scientific support. In this paper we review the evidence for the health benefits of pets, discuss the importance of pets in the family system, and explore the implications of this information for therapists. Pets play a variety of health promoting roles which are particularly important for individuals lacking support from family members or close friends. We present research evidence supporting the health benefits of pets ranging from the facilitation of social interaction while walking dogs to the physiological effects of the presence of animals on cardiovascular responses to mild stressors.     

The Role of Companion Animals Throughout the Family Life Cycle

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the roles that companion animals play in the lives of American families, and discusses how those roles change as families progress through the stages of the family life cycle. It highlights the importance of pets in the lives of children and the benefits they receive from such relationships. It also presents information regarding the role of a child that animals often assume within families that do not have children. This paper also discusses the impact that the death of a pet has on the family, and provides suggestions for social workers who assist families that have strong attachment to companion animals.     

Linking return visits and return migration among Commonwealth Eastern Caribbean migrants in Toronto

Abstract In this article I explore a theoretical link between return visits and return migration using ethnographic data obtained through fieldwork among members of the broader Commonwealth Eastern Caribbean community in Toronto, Canada. Return visits are periodic but temporary sojourns made by members of migrant communities to their external homeland or another location where strong social ties exist. As a result, the conceptual framework in this article revolves around transnationalism as the return visit is shown to be a transnational exercise that may facilitate return. Using data from ethnographic fieldwork, three themes highlight the link between return visits and return migration: (1) the need to facilitate ties such that relationships are meaningful upon permanent return; (2) the functional nature of the return visit, such that changes are measured and benchmarked against what is remembered and internalized by the migration after the migration episode; and (3) the knowledge that return visits aid in reintegration.     

Evaluating College Student Interest in Pet Therapy

The first year of college can be extremely stressful, especially for students residing on campus. Objective: The authors obtained information from college freshmen about their relationships with pets and investigated interest in a pet therapy program as social support for transient stressful periods. Participants: As part of a university orientation program, 246 college freshman attended 1 of 5 health issues sessions offered during the 2006-2007 academic year. Approximately 50 freshmen attended each session. Method: Participants completed a questionnaire at the beginning of the session, followed by a 20-minute presentation about pet therapy that ended with pet therapy visitation. Results: Students identified that visits with certified pet therapy dogs could be beneficial to college freshman during their first year away from home. Conclusions: These students indicated that a pet therapy program could temporarily fill the absence of previous support systems and be a catalyst for establishing new social relationships.     

The Social Meaning of Pets

When companion animal interact closely with people, the roles they play may be categorized in terms of three major functions. The projective function involves the extent to which pets may serve as a symbolic extension of the self. The sociability function involves the role of pets in facilitating human-to-human interaction. The surrogate function involves the extent to which interaction with pets may supplement human-to-human interaction, or serve as a substitute for it. A person publicly identified with a companion animal makes a symbolic statement of their personality and self-image. Whether or not this process is intentional, the presence of a pet and the way it is treated become factors which are taken into account in the assessment of the social self. Pets facilitate interaction by being social lubricants. They provide a neutral subject of conversation, and perform a variety of functions as social catalysts. Since interaction with companion animals can approximate human companionship, the presence of pets may serve to supplement the benefits usually derived from the roles of friend, parent, spouse, or child. Alternatively, pets may serve as surrogate antagonists. In the extreme, interaction with companion animals may not only supplement human companionship, but may actually replace it. These three major functions are discussed with examples. Implications are noted for future research on companion animals.     

The Effects on Family Members and Functioning AFter the Death of a Pet

A pet's death can precipitate a grief as intense as that precipitated after the loss of a human. Because the pet is considered a family member, its death disrupts the lives of family members and family functioning. This article describes the family disruption that results from feelings of loss in four specific areas. It also discusses how a pet's death can lead to disorganization of family functioning. The nature and extent of family members' grief responses to pet death are described. Because of these losses, and the disruption and nature of the grief response, the need for counseling is established.     

Pet grief: when is non‐human life grievable?

This study explores how pet owners grieve their pets and view their pets' transience. Drawing on Butler's notion of the differential allocation of grievability, I have analysed interviews with eighteen pet owners. Butler argues that grievability is made possible by a normative framework which allows for some human or human‐like lives to be grieved, while other lives are rendered ‘lose‐able’. All the interviewed pet owners say that they are capable of grieving a non‐human animal, but analysis suggests that they make their pets grievable and ungrievable by turns. I argue that by maintaining this ambivalence, the interviewees negotiate pets' inclusion in a human moral community while simultaneously defending human exceptionalism. The article concludes with a discussion of pet grief as a potentially destabilizing emotion. I suggest that grieving beings on the border between grievable human and lose‐able animal – ‘werewolves’ according to Giorgio Agamben – may be a powerful way of challenging normative frameworks which arbitrarily render some human and non‐human lives lose‐able.     

Haarige Helfer,gefiederte Gefährten und schuppige Freunde

Pets are not only family members. For a lot of people in all stages of life cycle, pets are important sources of support. They are able to contribute to our health as well as to buffer stress and illness in our lives. The may be seen as important agents of socialisation and development of children and as friendly companions of the elderly. The article reviews the state of knowledge in positive aspects of human animal bonds and develops a bio-psycho-social panorama of effects.     

The significance of ‘the visit’ in an English category-B prison: views from prisoners,prisoners’ families and prison staff

A number of claims have been made regarding the importance of prisoners staying in touch with their family through prison visits, firstly from a humanitarian perspective of enabling family members to see each other, but also regarding the impact of maintaining family ties for successful rehabilitation, reintegration into society and reduced re-offending. This growing evidence base has resulted in increased support by the Prison Service for encouraging the family unit to remain intact during a prisoner’s incarceration. Despite its importance however, there has been a distinct lack of research examining the dynamics of families visiting relatives in prison. This paper explores perceptions of the same event – the visit – from the families’, prisoners’ and prison staffs' viewpoints in a category-B local prison in England. Qualitative data was collected with 30 prisoners’ families, 16 prisoners and 14 prison staff, as part of a broader evaluation of the visitors’ centre. The findings suggest that the three parties frame their perspective of visiting very differently. Prisoners’ families often see visits as an emotional minefield fraught with practical difficulties. Prisoners can view the visit as the highlight of their time in prison and often have many complaints about how visits are handled. Finally, prison staff see visits as potential security breaches and a major organisational operation. The paper addresses the current gap in our understanding of the prison visit and has implications for the Prison Service and wider social policy.     

Fleeting joy,divergent expectations and reconfigured intimacies: The visits home of Filipino migrant care workers in Singapore

For Filipino migrant care workers in Singapore, visits home are highly anticipated and longed for, but only as long as they remain brief. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research, this paper examines such visits as emotionally complex events that bring intense joy as migrants reunite with dispersed family members, but also reveal divergent expectations and feelings of loss and betrayal. These experiences are especially felt among migrant women given the gendered constructions of their migration journeys that demand strenuous relational work on their visits and far beyond. Visits home, nevertheless, are important moments through which migrant care workers re-orient their priorities and aspirations as migrants and as women over time, often leading to prolongations of their ‘temporary’ absences. The paper further examines how migrant care workers, many of whom are on temporary work contracts in Singapore, fear and anticipate the moment when short visits ultimately become permanent returns.