Articles

Humpback Whale | Credit: Lightleak Films, AdobeStock

May 20, 2024 Animals, Biodiversity, and Climate Change

Posted at 10:55h In Articles, Climate Change, Land Management, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Tales of WellBeing, Well-being, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

On December 19, 2022, representatives from 188 countries adopted a new agreement on biodiversity, now known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The 2022 GBF aims to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by adopting four overarching global goals and 23 targets, including conserving 30%...

Kerasote's dogs, from left to right Burley, Pukka, Goo, A.J

May 20, 2024 Dog Longevity: The True Value of a Dog Year!

Posted at 10:41h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Companion Animals, Public Awareness/Attitudes - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

Ted Kerasote is an outdoorsman and author who has written three charming and insightful books about the human-dog relationship – Merle's Door (2007), Pukka, The Pup after Merle (2010), and Pukka's Promise (2013). Pukka's Promise relates the story of Kerasote's search for a dog that...

Cows and chickens | Photo credit: Pedro, AdobeStock

May 08, 2024 Bird Flu Spreading to Farmed Mammals in the US

Posted at 17:10h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Farm Animals, Human Well-being, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Hope Ferdowsian, M.D., M.P.H.

WellBeing International has published four articles on the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus (HPAIV) in the past fourteen months. Science has published seven news stories on bird flu this year. The most recent story (May 1, 2024) was titled “Scientists Call New Measures to Control...

Family planting a tree | Video credit: DC Studio, Shutterstock

May 08, 2024 Global Trees and Climate Change

Posted at 17:06h In Articles, Climate Change, Environment Well-being, Sustainability/Biodiversity, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

As a graduate student at Yale University School of Forestry, Thomas Crowther was intrigued by a question his roommate was asked: how many trees were on Earth? While his roommate didn't see the significance of the question, Crowther took up the challenge of using a...

2 people with their pet | Photo credit: Mutovin, iStock

May 08, 2024 Human-Animal Interactions and Edibility?

Posted at 17:01h In Articles, Companion Animals, Well-being, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

In 1964, a provocative essay was published by British social anthropologist Edmund Leach in the proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Psychology. The organizer of the congress, Eric Lenneberg, commented that he used the occasion to invite outstanding scientists to discuss the phenomenon of...

Earth Day | video credit: smartboy10, iStock

Apr 17, 2024 Earth Day

Posted at 12:31h In Articles, Climate Change, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Tales of WellBeing, Well-being - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

April 22, 2024, will be the 54th anniversary of the first Earth Day.The 1960s decade in the USA was a time of widespread citizen protests and demonstrations. Citizens used protest marches and sit-ins to campaign for civil rights. Women demanded equality in the labor market...

Service dogs and their veterans | Photo credits: K9 Warriors and Warrior Canine Connections

Apr 17, 2024 Service Dogs for Veterans

Posted at 12:18h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Companion Animals, Human Well-being, Tales of WellBeing - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

IntroductionWellBeing International continues to explore the potential health benefits of the human-animal bond and return to the benefits of service dogs for veterans in this newsletter. There are now many organizations promoting and providing service dogs for veterans. WBI focuses on two organizations that provide...

Cancun Kitty | Photo credit: Marco VDM, iSTock

Apr 04, 2024 The Latest Australian “Threat Abatement Plan” for Cats

Posted at 20:07h In Articles, Companion Animals, Land Management, WellBeing News, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

Following the release on September 4, 2023, of a report by IPBES on the adverse impact of invasive alien species on global biodiversity, the Australian Government announced that it was again “declaring war” on cats (the Government declared war on cats in 2015, pledging to...

Deer & Vehicles | Photo credit: tang90246, iStock

Apr 04, 2024 Roadkill: Citizen Science at Work

Posted at 20:03h In Articles, Public Awareness/Attitudes, WellBeing News, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

In 1992, Brewster Bartlett, a science teacher at Pinkerton Academy in New Hampshire, started a citizen science project encouraging his students to use email. Driving back to the school one day, he passed a dead skunk on the side of the road. He decided that...

Mar 25, 2024 International Day of Happiness

Posted at 12:04h In Articles, Human Well-being, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Tales of WellBeing - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

On June 28, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly declared March 20 the International Day of Happiness following a resolution introduced by Bhutan, who famously declared that it would track national progress via a Gross National Happiness metric rather than GDP. The annual World Happiness...