Humane Communities: Social change through policies promoting collective welfare

ABSTRACT

A Humane Community is defined by the presence of leaders, institutions, and policies working collaboratively across social and political systems to create and implement sustainable human, animal, and environmental welfare. Social-environmental-economic impact assessment (SEEIA) is a tool that can be used to inform policymaking at the municipal, county, state, and national levels to gain a comprehensive assessment of a proposed policy’s impacts on humans, animals, and the environment. In this paper, the Humane Community framework will be described and demonstrated by summarizing three previous studies that applied SEEIA to three different animal welfare policies: the “Compassion Center” concept of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; the “No Kill” Resolution of Austin, Texas; and the “Pit Bull Ban” in Denver, Colorado. The authors will discuss how SEEIA studies support stakeholders in identifying potential mechanisms including, but not limited to, legislative efforts through which social change can be generated to achieve a Humane Community.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Katy Loughney, MBA, Devrim Ikizler, PhD, Russell Evans, PhD, Justin Marceau, JD, and Aurora Temple Barnes, JD, all of whom contributed to one or more of the SEEIA studies discussed here. They also thank Central Oklahoma Humane Society, Austin Animal Center, Austin Pets Alive!, Denver Animal Protection, and Longmont Humane Society for providing access to their data, Speak Up Austin and Austin Young Chamber of Commerce for distributing the survey for additional data collection on Austin residents, and WaterShed Animal Fund and Maddie’s Fund for their support of this work.

Disclosure statement

The cited SEEIA studies were funded in full by WaterShed Animal Fund and Maddie’s Fund.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by WaterShed Animal Fund under Grant 37488A and Grant 37225A and Maddie’s Fund under Grant 37612A.

Notes on contributors

Sloane M. Hawes

Sloane M. Hawes is a Research Associate at the Institute for Human-Animal Interaction at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. She manages a research agenda on the human community factors that inform companion animal welfare, with a particular interest in how animal welfare challenges intersect with human social justice issues.

Erin Flynn

Erin Flynn is a Research Associate at the Institute for Human-Animal Interaction at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. She manages a research agenda that employs quantitative and mixed research methods to investigate the relationships between positive human development and contexts that promote thriving, with a focus on human-animal-environment interactions.

Philip Tedeschi

Philip Tedeschi is a Clinical Professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work and the Executive Director for the University of Denver’s Institute for Human-Animal Connection. His research and scholarship interests in the bio-affiliative connection between people and animals focus on many aspects of human-animal interactions. He is the founder and coordinator of the Animal-Assisted Social Work Program for Master of Social Work (MSW) students, as well as the Animals and Human Health Professional Development Certificate, at the University of Denver.

Kevin N. Morris

Kevin N. Morris is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. As the Director of Research for the University of Denver’s Institute for Human-Animal Connection, his research focuses on the effects of incorporating animals into therapeutic environments and the impacts of companion animals on people and communities.