This declaration is put forth by The International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations (IAHAIO) in collaboration with the University of Denver’s Institute for Animal Sentience and Protection (DU IASP) at the 2025 IAHAIO Conference in Amsterdam, Well-Being for All: Innovations and Insights in Human-Animal Interactions
PREAMBLE
This declaration affirms the ethical responsibility of Animal Assisted Service (AAS)1 professionals, volunteers, participants, and organizations to recognize, honor, and actively acknowledge the sentience of nonhuman animals2 in our work.
AAS should support healing, learning, and well-being for humans and nonhuman animals in therapeutic, educational, and other human service contexts. Across cultures and disciplines, AAS professionals recognize the unique capacity of animals to connect, communicate, and co-create meaningful experiences with human partners.
Long-held Indigenous and cultural wisdoms, shared lived experiences, and a now substantial scientific body of evidence affirm that animals are sentient beings. Sentience refers to the capacity to subjectively experience the world, including sensations of joy, pain, pleasure, stress, curiosity, and the will to connect or withdraw from experiences. This awareness of animal sentience is increasingly acknowledged as a foundational consideration in ethical human-animal relationships underpinning all AAS endeavors.
DECLARATION
1. Recognition of Sentience
Our increasing understanding of the science of sentience leads us to affirm that animals possess the capacity for cognition as well as emotional and perceptual awareness. Animals engaged in AAS are sentient beings with rich emotional and cognitive lives.
2. Establishing a Framework for Ethical Relationships
We acknowledge that the human-animal bond in AAS relies upon bi-directionality and the inclusion of animals in our moral considerations. Ethical AAS practice centers the well-being, agency, and capacity for sentience of all involved species.
3. Formal Recognition and Protection of Sentient Status
Animals are not passive tools or merely property; they are active participants in AAS. Their preferences, moods, responses, and choices shape AAS interactions. Organizational policies should recognize the science of sentience and establish animals as living beings rather than non-sentient tools existing solely for the benefit and use of people.
4. Human Responsibility to Ensure Interspecies Well-being
True therapeutic partnership occurs when both humans and animals flourish, meaning living a good life with positive experiences, not solely the absence of suffering. In human-animal interactions (HAIs), we have an ethical responsibility to ensure that our work bi-directionally supports and mutually enhances the physical, emotional, and social well-being of animals in all HAI contexts.
5. Recognition of Animal Agency
We advocate for practices that respect and acknowledge animal agency. This entails, amongst other things, providing animals with a safe place to rest, access to food and water, the ability to decline or withdraw from the work (e.g. in case of sickness, sudden onset anxiety, pregnancy, burnout, or repeated behaviour that communicates they no longer wish to engage in this work), the ability to engage or assent to work, and continuous stewardship for the animal(s) before, during, and after sessions. Ongoing assessment of animal comfort and stress is essential, as is genuine listening to what they communicate about their willingness to collaborate. The AAS field should apply continuous education and knowledge-building of animal behavior, experience, and communications for sentience-centered practice.
6. Beyond Welfare: Toward Flourishing
We seek to move beyond minimum standards of welfare toward a model of capacity to thrive and flourish. A sentience-centered practice nurtures joy, engagement, and autonomy in the lives of animals. Protecting animals from harm is only the starting point.
7. Humane Education and Awareness
We believe in educating AAS clients, institutions, and the public about animal sentience. Ethical human-animal interaction requires shared understanding and transparent communication on how to support and advocate for animals.
8. Cultural and Regional Contexts
We recognize that understandings of sentience and human-animal relationships vary across cultures and regions. This declaration is offered not as a rigid mandate, but as a shared ethical compass that respects regional values and community needs while advancing animal standing and well-being.
9. Commitment to Reflection and Growth
We encourage ongoing reflection, self-assessment, and professional development related to animal sentience. As science and understanding evolve, so too must our practices.
CONCLUSION
This Declaration represents our shared commitment to center the sentience of animals in all aspects of our work. When animal sentience is acknowledged, understood, honored, and protected, both humans and nonhuman animals flourish—and the integrity and outcomes of Animal-Assisted Services are enhanced.
- The term ‘AAS’ is meant to be inclusive of Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAIs) along with other treatment, education, and support programs incorporating nonhuman animals (https://iahaio.org/2024/11/15/terminology-update-animal-assisted-services-aas/) ↩︎
- The term ‘animal(s)’ is used hereafter for readability purposes. This Declaration aims to include nonhuman animals in our moral community rather than othering them. ↩︎
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Declaration Collaborators
