Ep79 Lynette Hart on human-animal interactions and grief counselling for animal loss
“My focus was to study the social aspect of companion animals and how they change our social relationships with people.” – Lynette Hart
Today we will hear Dr Lynette Hart as she delves into the world of Human-animal interactions, grief counselling and animal behaviour research, which she was happy to be a part of at a time when women with PhDs did not find suitors!
As she tells how Leo Bustad pioneered in talking about the human-animal bond and vulnerable people, she asserts that ‘interaction’ best describes the positive and negative aspects.
She shares her part alongside others in popularising grief counselling for the loss of animals as a valid aspect of the human-animal bond. She tells how addressing grief is important for pet parents, veterinarians, animal laboratory workers and zookeepers.
Listen as Lynette talks about a unique volunteer-based animal behaviour research on flehmen behaviour in ungulates, her work on elephant infrasound communication in collaboration with a geophysicist, collaborations with students to study elephant yawning, elephant-people interactions, elephant-caregiver bonds, effects of household noise on companion animals (inspired by her dog Ginny!).
Excited and intoxicated by this science, Lynette feels the greatest resource of this field is the burning interest and energy that people have in it rather than monetary funds. Look out for some interesting publications coming our way from this amazing mind!
To know more about Elephant-caregiver interaction click HERE
To know more about grief counselling click HERE
To know more about elephant infrasound communication click HERE
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