Waltham Petcare Science Institute
Mars’ Waltham Petcare Science Institute To Host Symposium On Pets And Human Mental Health And Wellbeing At ISAZ 2025 Conference
4 weeks ago 
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The Waltham Petcare Science Institute (Waltham), Mars’ leading science centre for pet health, will host a symposium at the upcoming International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ) 2025 Conference (19-22 June) in Saskatchewan, Canada, to share its first scientific update from the Pets and Wellbeing Study (PAWS) program. The PAWS program is set to be the world’s largest international study program into the impacts of pets on human mental health and wellbeing.
The symposium “Pets and Human Mental Health and Wellbeing: Embracing complexity, context, and collaboration through an innovative HAI research program,” will bring together PAWS program speakers from multiple academic institutes, as well as Waltham HAI scientists, to share perspectives on pioneering research approaches and present early insights from a selection of the program studies.
Dr Vanessa Ashall, Technical Leader of Human Animal Interaction (HAI) research at Waltham and symposium Chair, said: “The PAWS program will accelerate exploration of how pets may enrich lives across all ages and walks of life and move us beyond assumptions and beliefs to generate actionable, real-world insights. We are excited to bring early insights of this landmark study program to the HAI community.”
The symposium agenda features:
- Dr Vanessa Ashall providing an introduction to the Pets and Wellbeing Study Program, and overview on how the session demonstrates our commitment to embracing complexity, context, and collaboration in HAI research.
- Dr Megan Mueller, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, sharing the impact of dog relationships on adolescents with social anxiety and the specific research approach of ‘ecological momentary assessment’.
- Dr Lauren Powell, University of Pennsylvania, discussing animal adoption and its impact on mental health among an economically diverse population, outlining the influence of socioeconomic factors on pet adoption; from housing discrimination to access to veterinary care.
- Dr Emily Bray, the University of Arizona, describing an approach to capturing and studying verbal communication between people and their pets, and how findings can help us better understand human-animal relationships.
- Dr Becky Smith, Waltham Petcare Science Institute, summarising research into the ‘multispecies family’, capturing lived experiences of both human and non-human family members across various setting, including a fresh way of approaching the concepts of mental ‘health’ and ‘wellbeing’.
- An interactive panel discussion and audience Q&A
Follow Waltham LinkedIn channel for further updates.
For more information on the PAWS program visit: https://www.mars-petsandwellbeing.com/.
For more information on the ISAZ 2025 congress visit: https://isaz.net/
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