Anthrozoology at Canisius University

It's thesis time of year, and a fantastic start with Alisa Rubinstein's phenomenological study of the relationship between q***r women/non-binary individuals and their cats, "I'm Never Going to Abandon Her and She's Never Going to Abandon Me." So wonderful. Congratulations Alisa and thanks Malini for being her second reader.

One more thing before we shift our social media to the departmental page at Animal Behavior, Ecology, & Conservation; & Anthrozoology - we are having a reunion! This summer all alumni from our undergraduate and graduate programs are invited to come back to Buffalo for socializing, networking, sharing meals, and catching up together! June 22-23rd, 2024

More information to follow! Stay tuned.

Hi everyone! To streamline our department's social media accounts, we are moving everything to a single "page" on Instagram or Facebook. Please find us now at for more information!

Congrats to Anthrozoology Master's student Celeste Tennant for successfully defending her thesis: "Impact of natural soundscapes incorporating animal sounds on anxiety" - and thanks to Chirantana for being an awesome second reader all semester and helping with statistics when I was lost. Our students are amazing.

Join the Canisius Anzio’s in celebrating also known as !

Check out our new linked in group! https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14250942

It’s our annual Giving Day!

We appreciate all the support you give to our students! Your donation directly helps our students in so many ways.

https://www.canisiusgivingday.com/donate?campaign_id=159938

You can donate directly using this link, or search for ABEC or ANZO on the Canisius College Giving Day page!

THANK YOU!
🐟🐳🦍🦒🦚🦮🐈‍⬛🕊️🦥🐁🐊🐍🐢🦎🦄

Donate | Canisius Giving Day Thank you for making a difference in our community!

Check out the amazing work one of our ANZOs has done creating their own sanctuary!

In our ANZO class Children and Animals we study the interesting relationship we see between these two groups. One of our ANZOs created a blog post around the widespread trend of people having animals instead of children. Read on to see her great work!

We have some really amazing Alumni in our ANZO program! Check out some of the cool work Julia Johnson has done in the world of human horse relationships and pig welfare 🐴🐷

Check out this spotlight on ANZO Thesis!

Check out this really amazing TEDx Talk by one our our ANZOs, Brynn Shewman. https://www.ted.com/talks/brynn_shewman_the_language_within_us?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Do any of these definitions of welfare speak to you? Drop your thoughts in the comments!

Credit for this post to !
We are so excited to hear from Dr. Alex Dehgan! He is going to talk about utilizing technology to prevent species extinction, some of the work he has done with snow leopards, as well as helping to create the first national park in Afghanistan . He is the CEO and founder of Conservation X Labs. To register for the webinar please go here: https://canisius.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tchN3t4yQUGKtiWXalPLGw

Check out our awesome ANZO student Trevor!

TWO PART POST

After graduating from Canisius this past May, Bridget presented her capstone research at the annual ISAZ conference in June. She ended up winning the Best Poster Presentation Award for her presentation “Expectations Versus Reality of Designer Dog Ownership in the United States.” She is currently on the Canine Behavior Team at her local humane society, but in her free time she is working on publishing my research and making it available to the public.

Check out this Anthrozoology Conference that two of our current ANZO students Brynn (.b) and Lexi R, and ANZO program graduate Molly S are doing a presentation for on Saturday. Brynn’s topic is Pit Bull Type Dogs and Dog Fighting Rings.

Check out this great review from one of our ANZO faculty members, Dr. Miranda Workman 😃.

Read Sticky’s story!

The Social Intelligence Hypothesis is an interesting idea as to why certain animals evolved large brains…but as we discovered in class it is not the full story!

In Children and Animals we learn about what an important role animals play in childhood development. However, they are so often used as a “means to an end”. To teach a child important social skills so they can become a “good adult”. What benefits do animals get out of these interactions and what can we do to make animals more than merely tools in the process but active, benefiting participants?

Learning about the human-animal bond is always more fun when animals are involved! We were lucky this week to have a special guest during one of our Zoom classes - Professor Russell’s dog Goose. During our class some other animals made guest appearances on camera too! As we dig deeper into what it means to share our space and our world with more than human animals many of them come along for this journey. Whether they are checking in on us during a zoom meeting, sitting with us while we study, or inspiring us to ask questions, more than human animals are an inextricable part of who we are as ANZOs here !🐶🐱🐭🐹🐰🦊🐻🐼🐻‍❄️🐨🐯🦁🐮🐽🐸🐵🙈🙉🙊🐒🐔🐧🐦🐤🐣🐥🦆🦅🦉🦇🐺🐗🐴🦄🐝🐛🦋🐌🐞🐜🪰🪲🪳🦟🦗🕷️🕸️🦂🐢🐍🦎🦖🦕🐙🦑🦐🦞🦀🐡🐠🐟🐬🐳🐋🦈🦭🐊🐅🐆🦓🦍🦧🦣🐘🦛🦏🐪🐫🦒🦘🦬🐃🐂🐄🐖🐏🦙🐐🦌🐕🐩🦮🐕‍🦺🐈🐈‍⬛🪶🐓🦃🦤🦚🦜🦢🦩🕊️🐇🦝🦨🦡🦫🦦🦥🐁🐀🐿️🦔🐾

A late but important addition to our Pet Memorial Day post ❤️. 🐶🐱🐭🐹🐰🦊🐻🐼🐻‍❄️🐨🐯🦁🐮🐽🐸🐵🙈🙉🙊🐒🐔🐧🐦🐤🐣🐥🦆🦅🦉🦇🐺🐗🐴🦄🐝🐛🦋🐌🐞🐜🪰🪲🪳🦟🦗🕷️🕸️🦂🐢🐍🦎🦖🦕🐙🦑🦐🦞🦀🐡🐠🐟🐬🐳🐋🦈🦭🐊🐅🐆🦓🦍🦧🦣🐘🦛🦏🐪🐫🦒🦘🦬🐃🐂🐄🐖🐏🦙🐐🦌🐕🐩🦮🐕‍🦺🐈🐈‍⬛🪶🐓🦃🦤🦚🦜🦢🦩🕊️🐇🦝🦨🦡🦫🦦🦥🐁🐀🐿️🦔🐾

ANZO students remembering and honoring our animal companions and the special relationships we have with them ❤️. 🐶🐱🐭🐹🐰🦊🐻🐼🐻‍❄️🐨🐯🦁🐮🐽🐸🐵🙈🙉🙊🐒🐔🐧🐦🐤🐣🐥🦆🦅🦉🦇🐺🐗🐴🦄🐝🐛🦋🐌🐞🐜🪰🪲🪳🦟🦗🕷️🕸️🦂🐢🐍🦎🦖🦕🐙🦑🦐🦞🦀🐡🐠🐟🐬🐳🐋🦈🦭🐊🐅🐆🦓🦍🦧🦣🐘🦛🦏🐪🐫🦒🦘🦬🐃🐂🐄🐖🐏🦙🐐🦌🐕🐩🦮🐕‍🦺🐈🐈‍⬛🪶🐓🦃🦤🦚🦜🦢🦩🕊️🐇🦝🦨🦡🦫🦦🦥🐁🐀🐿️🦔🐾

Byosiere et al. (2017) Tells us that a statistically significant number of the dogs they tested were susceptible to the Ebbinghaus–Titchener illusion. Most humans tend to think the circle surrounded by other small circles is larger than the circle surrounded by circles of around the same size. However, Byosiere et al. were surprised to find that this was flipped for dogs and the “dogs consistently perceived the target circle that appears larger to humans as smaller, and the target circle that appears smaller to humans as larger.” (Byosiere et al. 2017)

What do you think? Why might dogs have a different reaction to this than humans?

Check out the full article for further information. 🐶🐱🐭🐹🐰🦊🐻🐼🐻‍❄️🐨🐯🦁🐮🐽🐸🐵🙈🙉🙊🐒🐔🐧🐦🐤🐣🐥🦆🦅🦉🦇🐺🐗🐴🦄🐝🐛🦋🐌🐞🐜🪰🪲🪳🦟🦗🕷️🕸️🦂🐢🐍🦎🦖🦕🐙🦑🦐🦞🦀🐡🐠🐟🐬🐳🐋🦈🦭🐊🐅🐆🦓🦍🦧🦣🐘🦛🦏🐪🐫🦒🦘🦬🐃🐂🐄🐖🐏🦙🐐🦌🐕🐩🦮🐕‍🦺🐈🐈‍⬛🪶🐓🦃🦤🦚🦜🦢🦩🕊️🐇🦝🦨🦡🦫🦦🦥🐁🐀🐿️🦔🐾

References

Byosiere, S.-E., Feng, L. C., Woodhead, J. K., Rutter, N. J., Chouinard, P. A., Howell, T. J., & Bennett, P. C. (2016). Visual perception in domestic dogs: Susceptibility to the ebbinghaus–titchener and Delboeuf Illusions. Animal Cognition, 20(3), 435–448. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-016-1067-1

One of the great activities the ANZO students were able to participate in during our OCC was an Ice Cream Meet and Great with the undergrads in the program. It was so cool to get to know some of the undergrads in the program and we look forward to interacting with the ABEC program more and getting to know about the great work they do. 🐶🐱🐭🐹🐰🦊🐻🐼🐻‍❄️🐨🐯🦁🐮🐽🐸🐵🙈🙉🙊🐒🐔🐧🐦🐤🐣🐥🦆🦅🦉🦇🐺🐗🐴🦄🐝🐛🦋🐌🐞🐜🪰🪲🪳🦟🦗🕷️🕸️🦂🐢🐍🦎🦖🦕🐙🦑🦐🦞🦀🐡🐠🐟🐬🐳🐋🦈🦭🐊🐅🐆🦓🦍🦧🦣🐘🦛🦏🐪🐫🦒🦘🦬🐃🐂🐄🐖🐏🦙🐐🦌🐕🐩🦮🐕‍🦺🐈🐈‍⬛🪶🐓🦃🦤🦚🦜🦢🦩🕊️🐇🦝🦨🦡🦫🦦🦥🐁🐀🐿️🦔🐾

Wow! Did the students get lucky during our time on campus. We got to hear from fantastic guest lecturer Dr. Lauren Corman () about her work and paper “Multispecies Disposability: Taxonomies of Power in a Global Pandemic written” with Darren Chang. Feeling so glad we got to hear about such a complex topic that is both extremely interesting and extremely challenging. - but as William H. Drury, Jr says: “When your views on the world and your intellect are being challenged and you begin to feel uncomfortable because of a contradiction you've detected that is threatening your current model of the world...pay attention. You are about to learn something.” Glad we all got to learn something from Dr. Corman’s talk. Please check out her work to learn more! https://sentientmedia.org/from-wet-markets-to-meatpacking-why-animal-advocacy-fails-without-anti-racism/ 🐶🐱🐭🐹🐰🦊🐻🐼🐻‍❄️🐨🐯🦁🐮🐽🐸🐵🙈🙉🙊🐒🐔🐧🐦🐤🐣🐥🦆🦅🦉🦇🐺🐗🐴🦄🐝🐛🦋🐌🐞🐜🪰🪲🪳🦟🦗🕷️🕸️🦂🐢🐍🦎🦖🦕🐙🦑🦐🦞🦀🐡🐠🐟🐬🐳🐋🦈🦭🐊🐅🐆🦓🦍🦧🦣🐘🦛🦏🐪🐫🦒🦘🦬🐃🐂🐄🐖🐏🦙🐐🦌🐕🐩🦮🐕‍🦺🐈🐈‍⬛🪶🐓🦃🦤🦚🦜🦢🦩🕊️🐇🦝🦨🦡🦫🦦🦥🐁🐀🐿️🦔🐾

Mark your calendars for this Saturday!🗓
Come enjoy some sweet treats and say hi to your fellow ABEC and ANZO students and faculty!

See you there! 🍦

(Repost from our awesome undergrad ABEC - Animal Behavior, Ecology, and conservation program. Check them out at it is a wonderful program that focuses on studies of animal behavior.