14 DAY TRIAL // A new study states that animals sent to sanctuaries following years of abuse and/or neglect do in fact benefit from their finding themselves in a so-called friendlier environment.
The research carried out by Queen Mary, University of London scientists is the first to scientifically document the process of rehabilitating a neglected or an abused animal by sending it to a sanctuary and introducing it to better conditions.
EurekAlert informs us that said team of researchers base their claims that such facilities are quite successful in terms of helping animal recover from neglect on data collected while assessing the mood of 18 goats.
9 of the goats taken into consideration by these researchers had endured lack of both proper food and proper shelter prior to their being rescued and brought to the animal sanctuary. The other 9 goats had been treated in a decent manner.
When making these 18 goats explore new areas in order to find food, the researchers discovered that the animals belonging to the poor-welfare group were reluctant when it came to their walking about new environments.
The researchers concluded that, as a general rule, neglected animals tend to be more “pessimistic” than those accustomed to receiving appropriate care.
“In humans, for example, it's well known that people in positive moods have an optimistic outlook on life, which means they are more resilient to stress. In the same way, measures of optimism and pessimism can provide indicators for an understanding of animal welfare,” study co-author Dr. Elodie Briefer said.
As far as recovery goes, it appears that female goats bounce back from neglect faster than males do.
Thus, it was discovered that the rehabilitated female goats included in this study were the most “optimistic” of the group.
“They were more optimistic than well-treated females, but also the poorly treated males. This suggests that females may be better at recovering from neglect when released from stress, and might have implications for animal sanctuaries in how they tailor the care they provide for the different sexes,” Dr. Elodie Briefer said.
A detailed account of this investigation and its findings was published in this April 23's issue of the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.