Explorations of Pet Owners’, Veterinarians’, Farmers’, and Animal Experimenters’ Relationship to Animals
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Human-Animal Interactions, Animal Behaviour and Emotion".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 20
Special Issue Editors
Interests: dysfunctional and clinical aspects of human animal interactions and relationships; stress in the field of HAI; animal assisted interventions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: human-animal bond and stress; companion animals and mental health in vulnerable populations; psychophysiological effects of animal-assisted interventions; attachment and bonding in human-animal relationships; ethical aspect in the context of HAI
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Research on the relationship between humans and animals has drastically changed over the last years. Results show more and more ambivalent trends and ambiguities in human–animal relationships. Different results and a broad variety of settings and study designs allow to deepen our understanding in this special research field of Anthrozoology.
In addition to relationships between humans and pets in their households, a large variety of people living and/or working with animals are considered in studies. This growing body of research underlines the multifaceted nature of human–animal relationships, highlighting their significance not only for human health but also for animal welfare and broader ecological systems considering concepts such as one-wellbeing.
Recent research has shown that particularly in long-term relationships with companion animals, stressors may arise that significantly affect human wellbeing—a phenomenon that has received relatively little attention so far. At the same time, short-term interventions with animals have demonstrated numerous positive outcomes, however the human–animal relationship in professional settings such as veterinary visits are under researched.
Therefore, we are especially interested in the wide range of human–animal interactions to explore the importance of responsibility in different kinds of human–animal relationships further and understand how varying contexts and relational dynamics influence outcomes for both parties.
We invite papers focusing on different types of relationships between humans and animals. Studies on relationships with companion animals are welcome as well as the relationship to animals in contexts such as veterinary care, farming, shelter work or experimental research.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Prof. Dr. Birgit U. Stetina
Dr. Christine Smetaczek
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- human-animal relationship(s)
- human-animal relationship(s) in professional settings
- companion animals
- veterinarians
- veterinary care
- farmers
- animal experiments
- laboratory work
- job stressors
- occupation-al stressors
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