Tiergestützte Interventionen mit Nutztieren in der Sozialen Landwirtschaft aus Sicht der Tierethologie und -haltung

Summary

Animal-assisted interventions mean therapeutic and pedagogical measures as well as social support for people with various physical and mental disabilities or social weaknesses. Integral part is the use of animals, which meet specific criteria. In animal-assisted interventions on farms, animals such as cattle, pigs or chicken are used as “co-therapists”. Besides the competences of the providers and operational safety on the farm, also the welfare of the animals has to be ensured to offer quality and safety of the animal-assisted interventions. The aim of this survey was to give an overview of the concepts and the range of animal use on basis of literature re-search – and to work out approaches to evaluate animal welfare. The considerations have shown that the offer is quite heterogeneous and difficult to categorize. Though, general criteria can be set on the level of personnel, on level of farm animal behaviour and husbandry and on level of animal health.