0:00:01.089,0:00:05.153
Oliver was an extremely dashing,

0:00:05.153,0:00:09.974
handsome, charming and largely unstable male

0:00:09.974,0:00:13.159
that I completely lost my heart to.

0:00:13.159,0:00:16.080
(Laughter)

0:00:16.080,0:00:17.746
He was a Bernese mountain dog,

0:00:17.746,0:00:20.929
and my ex-husband and I adopted him,

0:00:20.929,0:00:22.618
and about six months in,

0:00:22.618,0:00:25.182
we realized that he was a mess.

0:00:25.182,0:00:27.962
He had such paralyzing separation anxiety

0:00:27.962,0:00:29.498
that we couldn't leave him alone.

0:00:29.498,0:00:32.626
Once, he jumped out of our third floor apartment.

0:00:32.626,0:00:37.047
He ate fabric. He ate things, recyclables.

0:00:37.047,0:00:38.952
He hunted flies that didn't exist.

0:00:38.952,0:00:40.681
He suffered from hallucinations.

0:00:40.681,0:00:43.985
He was diagnosed with a canine compulsive disorder

0:00:43.985,0:00:47.331
and that's really just the tip of the iceberg.

0:00:47.331,0:00:51.432
But like with humans,

0:00:51.432,0:00:54.543
sometimes it's six months in

0:00:54.543,0:00:56.580
before you realize that

0:00:56.580,0:00:59.527
the person that you love has some issues.

0:00:59.527,0:01:00.938
(Laughter)

0:01:00.938,0:01:04.872
And most of us do not take the person we're dating

0:01:04.872,0:01:07.008
back to the bar where we met them

0:01:07.008,0:01:11.344
or give them back to the friend that introduced us,

0:01:11.344,0:01:14.098
or sign them back up on Match.com.

0:01:14.098,0:01:16.928
(Laughter)

0:01:16.928,0:01:18.727
We love them anyway,

0:01:18.727,0:01:20.723
and we stick to it,

0:01:20.723,0:01:24.955
and that is what I did with my dog.

0:01:24.955,0:01:28.757
And I was a — I'd studied biology.

0:01:28.757,0:01:31.377
I have a Ph.D. in history of science

0:01:31.377,0:01:32.882
from MIT,

0:01:32.882,0:01:34.580
and had you asked me 10 years ago

0:01:34.580,0:01:36.989
if a dog I loved, or just dogs generally,

0:01:36.989,0:01:38.825
had emotions, I would have said yes,

0:01:38.825,0:01:40.289
but I'm not sure that I would have told you

0:01:40.289,0:01:42.587
that they can also wind up with an anxiety disorder,

0:01:42.587,0:01:46.678
a Prozac prescription and a therapist.

0:01:46.678,0:01:50.624
But then, I fell in love, and I realized that they can,

0:01:50.624,0:01:53.250
and actually trying to help my own dog

0:01:53.250,0:01:55.864
overcome his panic and his anxiety,

0:01:55.864,0:01:58.227
it just changed my life.

0:01:58.227,0:02:00.764
It cracked open my world.

0:02:00.764,0:02:03.131
And I spent the last seven years, actually,

0:02:03.131,0:02:05.730
looking into this topic of[br]mental illness in other animals.

0:02:05.730,0:02:07.075
Can they be mentally ill like people,

0:02:07.075,0:02:10.080
and if so, what does it mean about us?

0:02:10.080,0:02:12.879
And what I discovered is that I do believe

0:02:12.879,0:02:14.819
they can suffer from mental illness,

0:02:14.819,0:02:19.295
and actually looking and trying[br]to identify mental illness in them

0:02:19.295,0:02:21.377
often helps us be better friends to them

0:02:21.377,0:02:25.431
and also can help us better understand ourselves.

0:02:25.431,0:02:28.877
So let's talk about diagnosis for a minute.

0:02:28.877,0:02:31.558
Many of us think that we can't know

0:02:31.558,0:02:34.021
what another animal is thinking,

0:02:34.021,0:02:35.299
and that is true,

0:02:35.299,0:02:37.891
but any of you in relationships —

0:02:37.891,0:02:39.747
at least this is my case —

0:02:39.747,0:02:41.547
just because you ask someone that you're with

0:02:41.547,0:02:43.741
or your parent or your child how they feel

0:02:43.741,0:02:45.551
doesn't mean that they can tell you.

0:02:45.551,0:02:47.869
They may not have words to explain

0:02:47.869,0:02:48.932
what it is that they're feeling,

0:02:48.932,0:02:50.775
and they may not know.

0:02:50.775,0:02:52.640
It's actually a pretty recent phenomenon

0:02:52.640,0:02:54.386
that we feel that we have to talk to someone

0:02:54.386,0:02:56.790
to understand their emotional distress.

0:02:56.790,0:02:59.217
Before the early 20th century,

0:02:59.217,0:03:01.737
physicians often diagnosed emotional distress

0:03:01.737,0:03:05.235
in their patients just by observation.

0:03:05.235,0:03:06.918
It also turns out that thinking about

0:03:06.918,0:03:08.513
mental illness in other animals

0:03:08.513,0:03:10.706
isn't actually that much of a stretch.

0:03:10.706,0:03:12.619
Most mental disorders in the United States

0:03:12.619,0:03:15.339
are fear and anxiety disorders,

0:03:15.339,0:03:17.308
and when you think about it, fear and anxiety

0:03:17.308,0:03:21.500
are actually really extremely[br]helpful animal emotions.

0:03:21.500,0:03:24.600
Usually we feel fear and anxiety[br]in situations that are dangerous,

0:03:24.600,0:03:25.897
and once we feel them,

0:03:25.897,0:03:27.526
we then are motivated to move away

0:03:27.526,0:03:29.357
from whatever is dangerous.

0:03:29.357,0:03:34.326
The problem is when we begin to feel fear[br]and anxiety in situations that don't call for it.

0:03:34.326,0:03:37.536
Mood disorders, too, may actually just be

0:03:37.536,0:03:41.042
the unfortunate downside of being a feeling animal,

0:03:41.042,0:03:44.207
and obsessive compulsive disorders also

0:03:44.207,0:03:47.616
are often manifestations of[br]a really healthy animal thing

0:03:47.616,0:03:50.396
which is keeping yourself clean and groomed.

0:03:50.396,0:03:52.544
This tips into the territory of mental illness

0:03:52.544,0:03:53.690
when you do things like

0:03:53.690,0:03:56.293
compulsively over-wash your hands or paws,

0:03:56.293,0:03:58.359
or you develop a ritual that's so extreme

0:03:58.359,0:04:00.451
that you can't sit down to a bowl of food

0:04:00.451,0:04:03.443
unless you engage in that ritual.

0:04:03.443,0:04:07.774
So for humans, we have the[br]"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual,"

0:04:07.774,0:04:09.901
which is basically an atlas

0:04:09.901,0:04:12.634
of the currently agreed-upon mental disorders.

0:04:12.634,0:04:15.885
In other animals, we have YouTube.

0:04:15.885,0:04:17.491
(Laughter)

0:04:17.491,0:04:20.138
This is just one search I did for "OCD dog"

0:04:20.138,0:04:21.926
but I encourage all of you

0:04:21.926,0:04:24.877
to look at "OCD cat."

0:04:24.877,0:04:28.271
You will be shocked by what you see.

0:04:28.271,0:04:32.770
I'm going to show you just a couple examples.

0:04:32.770,0:04:35.492
This is an example of shadow-chasing.

0:04:35.492,0:04:38.568
I know, and it's funny and in some ways it's cute.

0:04:38.568,0:04:42.063
The issue, though, is that dogs[br]can develop compulsions like this

0:04:42.063,0:04:44.965
that they then engage in all day.

0:04:44.965,0:04:46.237
So they won't go for a walk,

0:04:46.237,0:04:47.891
they won't hang out with their friends,

0:04:47.891,0:04:49.477
they won't eat.

0:04:49.477,0:04:51.010
They'll develop fixations

0:04:51.010,0:04:54.127
like chasing their tails compulsively.

0:04:54.127,0:04:57.528
Here's an example of a cat named Gizmo.

0:04:57.528,0:05:00.740
He looks like he's on a stakeout

0:05:00.740,0:05:04.054
but he does this for many, many, many hours a day.

0:05:04.054,0:05:07.558
He just sits there and he will paw and paw and paw

0:05:07.558,0:05:09.092
at the screen.

0:05:09.092,0:05:11.569
This is another example of what's considered

0:05:11.569,0:05:13.353
a stereotypic behavior.

0:05:13.353,0:05:16.060
This is a sun bear at the[br]Oakland Zoo named Ting Ting.

0:05:16.060,0:05:17.825
And if you just sort of happened upon this scene,

0:05:17.825,0:05:18.776
you might think that Ting Ting

0:05:18.776,0:05:20.490
is just playing with a stick,

0:05:20.490,0:05:22.536
but Ting Ting does this all day,

0:05:22.536,0:05:24.132
and if you pay close attention

0:05:24.132,0:05:27.803
and if I showed you guys[br]the full half-hour of this clip,

0:05:27.803,0:05:29.829
you'd see that he does the exact same thing

0:05:29.829,0:05:31.978
in the exact same order, and he spins the stick

0:05:31.978,0:05:34.328
in the exact same way every time.

0:05:34.328,0:05:36.820
Other super common behaviors that you may see,

0:05:36.820,0:05:38.644
particularly in captive animals,

0:05:38.644,0:05:43.204
are pacing stereotypies or swaying stereotypies,

0:05:43.204,0:05:44.880
and actually, humans do this too,

0:05:44.880,0:05:46.624
and in us, we'll sway,

0:05:46.624,0:05:48.211
we'll move from side to side.

0:05:48.211,0:05:50.482
Many of us do this, and sometimes

0:05:50.482,0:05:52.028
it's an effort to soothe ourselves,

0:05:52.028,0:05:54.678
and I think in other animals[br]that is often the case too.

0:05:54.678,0:05:56.364
But it's not just stereotypic behaviors

0:05:56.364,0:05:58.130
that other animals engage in.

0:05:58.130,0:06:00.258
This is Gigi. She's a gorilla that lives

0:06:00.258,0:06:01.919
at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston.

0:06:01.919,0:06:04.127
She actually has a Harvard psychiatrist,

0:06:04.127,0:06:05.849
and she's been treated for a mood disorder

0:06:05.849,0:06:07.432
among other things.

0:06:07.432,0:06:10.427
Many animals develop mood disorders.

0:06:10.427,0:06:11.855
Lots of creatures —

0:06:11.855,0:06:13.390
this horse is just one example —

0:06:13.390,0:06:15.072
develop self-destructive behaviors.

0:06:15.072,0:06:16.357
They'll gnaw on things

0:06:16.357,0:06:18.503
or do other things that may also soothe them,

0:06:18.503,0:06:20.201
even if they're self-destructive,

0:06:20.201,0:06:21.508
which could be considered similar

0:06:21.508,0:06:25.249
to the ways that some humans cut themselves.

0:06:25.249,0:06:26.562
Plucking.

0:06:26.562,0:06:30.319
Turns out, if you have fur or feathers or skin,

0:06:30.319,0:06:32.294
you can pluck yourself compulsively,

0:06:32.294,0:06:34.616
and some parrots actually have been studied

0:06:34.616,0:06:37.714
to better understand trichotillomania,[br]or compulsive plucking in humans,

0:06:37.714,0:06:39.161
something that affects

0:06:39.161,0:06:41.441
20 million Americans right now.

0:06:41.441,0:06:43.509
Lab rats pluck themselves too.

0:06:43.509,0:06:45.742
In them, it's called barbering.

0:06:45.742,0:06:48.819
Canine veterans of conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan

0:06:48.819,0:06:51.800
are coming back with what's[br]considered canine PTSD,

0:06:51.800,0:06:54.512
and they're having a hard time reentering civilian life

0:06:54.512,0:06:55.797
when they come back from deployments.

0:06:55.797,0:06:58.403
They can be too scared to[br]approach men with beards

0:06:58.403,0:07:01.116
or to hop into cars.

0:07:01.116,0:07:03.882
I want to be careful and be clear, though.

0:07:03.882,0:07:06.559
I do not think that canine PTSD

0:07:06.559,0:07:09.360
is the same as human PTSD.

0:07:09.360,0:07:11.835
But I also do not think that my PTSD

0:07:11.835,0:07:12.930
is like your PTSD,

0:07:12.930,0:07:16.632
or that my anxiety or that my sadness is like yours.

0:07:16.632,0:07:18.337
We are all different.

0:07:18.337,0:07:21.172
We also all have very different susceptibilities.

0:07:21.172,0:07:24.913
So two dogs, raised in the same household,

0:07:24.913,0:07:27.260
exposed to the very same things,

0:07:27.260,0:07:31.159
one may develop, say, a[br]debilitating fear of motorcycles,

0:07:31.159,0:07:33.907
or a phobia of the beep of the microwave,

0:07:33.907,0:07:35.762
and another one is going to be just fine.

0:07:35.762,0:07:38.595
So one thing that people ask me pretty frequently:

0:07:38.595,0:07:40.538
Is this just an instance of humans

0:07:40.538,0:07:42.167
driving other animals crazy?

0:07:42.167,0:07:46.090
Or, is animal mental illness just[br]a result of mistreatment or abuse?

0:07:46.090,0:07:47.619
And it turns out we're actually

0:07:47.619,0:07:51.174
so much more complicated than that.

0:07:51.174,0:07:54.161
So one great thing that has happened to me

0:07:54.161,0:07:57.410
is recently I published a book on this,

0:07:57.410,0:08:01.355
and every day now that I open my email

0:08:01.355,0:08:02.809
or when I go to a reading

0:08:02.809,0:08:04.921
or even when I go to a cocktail party,

0:08:04.921,0:08:06.822
people tell me their stories

0:08:06.822,0:08:08.576
of the animals that they have met.

0:08:08.576,0:08:11.020
And recently, I did a reading in California,

0:08:11.020,0:08:13.450
and a woman raised her hand[br]after the talk and she said,

0:08:13.450,0:08:17.126
"Dr. Braitman, I think my cat has PTSD."

0:08:17.126,0:08:20.490
And I said, "Well, why? Tell me a little bit about it."

0:08:20.490,0:08:23.909
So, Ping is her cat. She was a rescue,

0:08:23.909,0:08:26.631
and she used to live with an elderly man,

0:08:26.631,0:08:28.902
and one day the man was vacuuming

0:08:28.902,0:08:31.727
and he suffered a heart attack, and he died.

0:08:31.727,0:08:34.661
A week later, Ping was discovered in the apartment

0:08:34.661,0:08:36.655
alongside the body of her owner,

0:08:36.655,0:08:40.042
and the vacuum had been running the entire time.

0:08:40.042,0:08:45.350
For many months, up to I think[br]two years after that incident,

0:08:45.350,0:08:47.960
she was so scared she couldn't be in[br]the house when anyone was cleaning.

0:08:47.960,0:08:49.750
She was quite literally a scaredy cat.

0:08:49.750,0:08:52.190
She would hide in the closet.

0:08:52.190,0:08:53.992
She was un-self-confident and shaky,

0:08:53.992,0:08:56.330
but with the loving support of her family,

0:08:56.330,0:08:58.726
a lot of a time, and their patience,

0:08:58.726,0:08:59.980
now, three years later,

0:08:59.980,0:09:03.225
she's actually a happy, confident cat.

0:09:03.225,0:09:06.180
Another story of trauma and[br]recovery that I came across

0:09:06.180,0:09:07.676
was actually a few years ago.

0:09:07.676,0:09:09.916
I was in Thailand to do some research.

0:09:09.916,0:09:13.010
I met a monkey named Boonlua,

0:09:13.010,0:09:15.282
and when Boonlua was a baby,

0:09:15.282,0:09:17.296
he was attacked by a pack of dogs,

0:09:17.296,0:09:22.140
and they ripped off both of his legs and one arm,

0:09:22.140,0:09:25.283
and Boonlua dragged himself to a monastery,

0:09:25.283,0:09:26.834
where the monks took him in.

0:09:26.834,0:09:29.445
They called in a veterinarian,[br]who treated his wounds.

0:09:29.445,0:09:31.660
Eventually, Boonlua wound up

0:09:31.660,0:09:33.453
at an elephant facility,

0:09:33.453,0:09:36.422
and the keepers really decided[br]to take him under their wing,

0:09:36.422,0:09:37.785
and they figured out what he liked,

0:09:37.785,0:09:39.804
which, it turned out, was mint Mentos

0:09:39.804,0:09:43.281
and Rhinoceros beetles and eggs.

0:09:43.281,0:09:46.453
But they worried, because he[br]was social, that he was lonely,

0:09:46.453,0:09:48.220
and they didn't want to put[br]him in with another monkey,

0:09:48.220,0:09:49.423
because they thought with just one arm,

0:09:49.423,0:09:52.218
he wouldn't be able to defend himself or even play.

0:09:52.218,0:09:54.704
And so they gave him a rabbit,

0:09:54.704,0:09:57.517
and Boonlua was immediately a different monkey.

0:09:57.517,0:09:59.499
He was extremely happy to be with this rabbit.

0:09:59.499,0:10:01.779
They groomed each other,[br]they become close friends,

0:10:01.779,0:10:04.482
and then the rabbit had bunnies,

0:10:04.482,0:10:07.339
and Boonlua was even happier than he was before,

0:10:07.339,0:10:09.589
and it had in a way given him

0:10:09.589,0:10:11.434
a reason to wake up in the morning,

0:10:11.434,0:10:13.188
and in fact it gave him such a reason to wake up

0:10:13.188,0:10:15.191
that he decided not to sleep.

0:10:15.191,0:10:18.810
He became extremely protective of these bunnies,

0:10:18.810,0:10:20.058
and he stopped sleeping,

0:10:20.058,0:10:21.499
and he would sort of nod off

0:10:21.499,0:10:23.390
while trying to take care of them.

0:10:23.390,0:10:25.833
In fact, he was so protective and so affectionate

0:10:25.833,0:10:27.588
with these babies that the sanctuary

0:10:27.588,0:10:29.950
eventually had to take them away from him

0:10:29.950,0:10:31.885
because he was so protective, he was worried

0:10:31.885,0:10:33.764
that their mother might hurt them.

0:10:33.764,0:10:35.608
So after they were taken away, the sanctuary staff

0:10:35.608,0:10:37.217
worried that he would fall into a depression,

0:10:37.217,0:10:38.449
and so to avoid that,

0:10:38.449,0:10:41.447
they gave him another rabbit friend.

0:10:41.447,0:10:44.804
(Laughter)

0:10:44.804,0:10:47.509
My official opinion is that[br]he does not look depressed.

0:10:47.509,0:10:49.459
(Laughter)

0:10:49.459,0:10:53.821
So one thing that I would really like people to feel

0:10:53.821,0:10:56.900
is that you really should feel empowered

0:10:56.900,0:10:59.373
to make some assumptions

0:10:59.373,0:11:01.196
about the creatures that you know well.

0:11:01.196,0:11:02.996
So when it comes to your dog

0:11:02.996,0:11:05.314
or your cat or maybe your one-armed monkey

0:11:05.314,0:11:06.742
that you happen to know,

0:11:06.742,0:11:10.537
if you think that they are traumatized or depressed,

0:11:10.537,0:11:12.663
you're probably right.

0:11:12.663,0:11:15.471
This is extremely anthropomorphic,

0:11:15.471,0:11:18.464
or the assignation of human characteristics

0:11:18.464,0:11:22.116
onto non-human animals or things.

0:11:22.116,0:11:24.257
I don't think, though, that that's a problem.

0:11:24.257,0:11:26.349
I don't think that we can not anthropomorphize.

0:11:26.349,0:11:29.251
It's not as if you can take your[br]human brain out of your head

0:11:29.251,0:11:31.355
and put it in a jar and then use it

0:11:31.355,0:11:33.560
to think about another animal thinking.

0:11:33.560,0:11:36.158
We will always be one animal wondering

0:11:36.158,0:11:38.678
about the emotional experience of another animal.

0:11:38.678,0:11:41.671
So then the choice becomes, how[br]do you anthropomorphize well?

0:11:41.671,0:11:43.931
Or do you anthropomorphize poorly?

0:11:43.931,0:11:46.215
And anthropomorphizing poorly

0:11:46.215,0:11:48.380
is all too common.

0:11:48.380,0:11:50.012
(Laughter)

0:11:50.012,0:11:52.616
It may include dressing your corgis[br]up and throwing them a wedding,

0:11:52.616,0:11:55.272
or getting too close to exotic wildlife because

0:11:55.272,0:11:57.228
you believe that you had a spiritual connection.

0:11:57.228,0:11:59.206
There's all manner of things.

0:11:59.206,0:12:03.112
Anthropomorphizing well, however, I believe is based

0:12:03.112,0:12:05.830
on accepting our animal[br]similarities with other species

0:12:05.830,0:12:08.637
and using them to make assumptions

0:12:08.637,0:12:12.276
that are informed about other [br]animals' minds and experiences,

0:12:12.276,0:12:14.822
and there's actually an entire industry

0:12:14.822,0:12:17.792
that is in some ways based[br]on anthropomorphizing well,

0:12:17.792,0:12:20.953
and that is the psychopharmaceutical industry.

0:12:20.953,0:12:25.473
One in five Americans is currently[br]taking a psychopharmaceutical drug,

0:12:25.473,0:12:28.128
from the antidepressants[br]and antianxiety medications

0:12:28.128,0:12:29.950
to the antipsychotics.

0:12:29.950,0:12:31.784
It turns out that we owe this

0:12:31.784,0:12:34.157
entire psychopharmaceutical arsenal

0:12:34.157,0:12:35.889
to other animals.

0:12:35.889,0:12:38.399
These drugs were tested in non-human animals first,

0:12:38.399,0:12:42.335
and not just for toxicity but for behavioral effects.

0:12:42.335,0:12:45.519
The very popular antipsychotic Thorazine

0:12:45.519,0:12:49.265
first relaxed rats before it relaxed people.

0:12:49.265,0:12:51.426
The antianxiety medication Librium

0:12:51.426,0:12:55.249
was given to cats selected for[br]their meanness in the 1950s

0:12:55.249,0:12:57.640
and made them into peaceable felines.

0:12:57.640,0:13:02.200
And even antidepressants[br]were first tested in rabbits.

0:13:02.200,0:13:05.104
Today, however, we are not just giving these drugs

0:13:05.104,0:13:07.455
to other animals as test subjects,

0:13:07.455,0:13:09.946
but they're giving them these drugs as patients,

0:13:09.946,0:13:14.429
both in ethical and much less ethical ways.

0:13:14.429,0:13:18.299
SeaWorld gives mother orcas[br]antianxiety medications

0:13:18.299,0:13:20.943
when their calves are taken away.

0:13:20.943,0:13:23.226
Many zoo gorillas have been given antipsychotics

0:13:23.226,0:13:25.292
and antianxiety medications.

0:13:25.292,0:13:28.165
But dogs like my own Oliver

0:13:28.165,0:13:31.404
are given antidepressants and[br]some antianxiety medications

0:13:31.404,0:13:33.140
to keep them from jumping out of buildings

0:13:33.140,0:13:35.203
or jumping into traffic.

0:13:35.203,0:13:38.402
Just recently, actually, a study came out in "Science"

0:13:38.402,0:13:40.231
that showed that even crawdads

0:13:40.231,0:13:42.455
responded to antianxiety medication.

0:13:42.455,0:13:44.730
It made them braver, less skittish,

0:13:44.730,0:13:49.780
and more likely to explore their environment.

0:13:49.780,0:13:52.138
It's hard to know how many[br]animals are on these drugs,

0:13:52.138,0:13:55.602
but I can tell you that the[br]animal pharmaceutical industry

0:13:55.602,0:13:57.390
is immense and growing,

0:13:57.390,0:14:00.113
from seven billion dollars in 2011

0:14:00.113,0:14:05.692
to a projected 9.25 billion by the year 2015.

0:14:05.692,0:14:09.539
Some animals are on these drugs indefinitely.

0:14:09.539,0:14:13.774
Others, like one bonobo who lives in Milwaukee

0:14:13.774,0:14:15.360
at the zoo there was on them

0:14:15.360,0:14:17.511
until he started to save his Paxil prescription

0:14:17.511,0:14:19.907
and then distribute it among the other bonobos.

0:14:19.907,0:14:24.916
(Laughter) (Applause)

0:14:24.916,0:14:27.805
More than psychopharmaceuticals, though,

0:14:27.805,0:14:30.320
there are many, many, many other

0:14:30.320,0:14:32.968
therapeutic interventions that help other creatures.

0:14:32.968,0:14:35.330
And here is a place where I think actually

0:14:35.330,0:14:37.772
that veterinary medicine can teach something

0:14:37.772,0:14:39.458
to human medicine,

0:14:39.458,0:14:41.348
which is, if you take your dog, who is, say,

0:14:41.348,0:14:43.148
compulsively chasing his tail,

0:14:43.148,0:14:44.926
into the veterinary behaviorist,

0:14:44.926,0:14:47.730
their first action isn't to reach[br]for the prescription pad;

0:14:47.730,0:14:50.686
it's to ask you about your dog's life.

0:14:50.686,0:14:53.622
They want to know how often your dog gets outside.

0:14:53.622,0:14:56.276
They want to know how much[br]exercise your dog is getting.

0:14:56.276,0:14:57.761
They want to know how much social time

0:14:57.761,0:15:00.180
with other dogs and other humans.

0:15:00.180,0:15:02.390
They want to talk to you[br]about what sorts of therapies,

0:15:02.390,0:15:04.905
largely behavior therapies,

0:15:04.905,0:15:07.165
you've tried with that animal.

0:15:07.165,0:15:09.562
Those are the things that[br]often tend to help the most,

0:15:09.562,0:15:12.891
especially when combined with[br]psychopharmaceuticals.

0:15:12.891,0:15:15.344
The thing, though, I believe, that helps the most,

0:15:15.344,0:15:17.301
particularly with social animals,

0:15:17.301,0:15:20.439
is time with other social animals.

0:15:20.439,0:15:24.347
In many ways, I feel like I became a service animal

0:15:24.347,0:15:26.851
to my own dog,

0:15:26.851,0:15:30.878
and I have seen parrots do it for people

0:15:30.878,0:15:32.588
and people do it for parrots

0:15:32.588,0:15:34.126
and dogs do it for elephants

0:15:34.126,0:15:37.304
and elephants do it for other elephants.

0:15:37.304,0:15:38.637
I don't know about you;

0:15:38.637,0:15:41.217
I get a lot of Internet forwards

0:15:41.217,0:15:43.433
of unlikely animal friendships.

0:15:43.433,0:15:46.720
I also think it's a huge part of Facebook,

0:15:46.720,0:15:49.597
the monkey that adopts the cat

0:15:49.597,0:15:54.233
or the great dane who adopted the orphaned fawn,

0:15:54.233,0:15:57.237
or the cow that makes friends with the pig,

0:15:57.237,0:16:01.173
and had you asked me eight,[br]nine years ago, about these,

0:16:01.173,0:16:03.663
I would have told you that they[br]were hopelessly sentimental

0:16:03.663,0:16:06.786
and maybe too anthropomorphic in the wrong way

0:16:06.786,0:16:09.565
and maybe even staged, and what I can tell you now

0:16:09.565,0:16:12.517
is that there is actually something to this.

0:16:12.517,0:16:16.112
This is legit. In fact, some interesting studies

0:16:16.112,0:16:18.038
have pointed to oxytocin levels,

0:16:18.038,0:16:20.634
which are a kind of bonding hormone

0:16:20.634,0:16:23.040
that we release when we're having sex or nursing

0:16:23.040,0:16:25.629
or around someone that we care for extremely,

0:16:25.629,0:16:28.121
oxytocin levels raising in both humans and dogs

0:16:28.121,0:16:29.515
who care about each other

0:16:29.515,0:16:31.175
or who enjoy each other's company,

0:16:31.175,0:16:33.484
and beyond that, other studies show that oxytocin

0:16:33.484,0:16:35.620
raised even in other pairs of animals,

0:16:35.620,0:16:39.225
so, say, in goats and dogs who were[br]friends and played with each other,

0:16:39.225,0:16:43.684
their levels spiked afterwards.

0:16:43.684,0:16:46.451
I have a friend who really showed me that

0:16:46.451,0:16:48.875
mental health is in fact a two-way street.

0:16:48.875,0:16:52.874
His name is Lonnie Hodge,[br]and he's a veteran of Vietnam.

0:16:52.874,0:16:55.496
When he returned, he started working

0:16:55.496,0:16:58.139
with survivors of genocide and a lot of people

0:16:58.139,0:16:59.667
who had gone through war trauma.

0:16:59.667,0:17:02.151
And he had PTSD and also a fear of heights,

0:17:02.151,0:17:04.050
because in Vietnam, he had been

0:17:04.050,0:17:06.295
rappelling backwards out of helicopters

0:17:06.295,0:17:07.730
over the skids,

0:17:07.730,0:17:10.799
and he was givena service dog[br]named Gander, a labradoodle,

0:17:10.799,0:17:14.250
to help him with PTSD and his fear of heights.

0:17:14.250,0:17:16.910
This is them actually on the first day that they met,

0:17:16.910,0:17:19.502
which is amazing, and since then,

0:17:19.502,0:17:21.267
they've spent a lot of time together

0:17:21.267,0:17:25.517
visiting with other veterans[br]suffering from similar issues.

0:17:25.517,0:17:28.579
But what's so interesting to me about[br]Lonnie and Gander's relationship

0:17:28.579,0:17:30.357
is about a few months in,

0:17:30.357,0:17:33.684
Gander actually developed a fear of heights,

0:17:33.684,0:17:37.981
probably because he was[br]watching Lonnie so closely.

0:17:37.981,0:17:41.450
What's pretty great about this, though,[br]is that he's still a fantastic service dog,

0:17:41.450,0:17:43.985
because now, when they're both at a great height,

0:17:43.985,0:17:47.343
Lonnie is so concerned with Gander's well-being

0:17:47.343,0:17:53.317
that he forgets to be scared of the heights himself.

0:17:53.317,0:17:56.598
Since I've spent so much time with these stories,

0:17:56.598,0:17:58.002
digging into archives,

0:17:58.002,0:18:00.456
I literally spent years doing this research,

0:18:00.456,0:18:02.756
and it's changed me.

0:18:02.756,0:18:06.692
I no longer look at animals at the species level.

0:18:06.692,0:18:08.920
I look at them as individuals,

0:18:08.920,0:18:10.492
and I think about them as creatures

0:18:10.492,0:18:13.251
with their own individual weather systems

0:18:13.251,0:18:14.963
guiding their behavior and informing

0:18:14.963,0:18:17.272
how they respond to the world.

0:18:17.272,0:18:20.160
And I really believe that this has made me

0:18:20.160,0:18:22.524
a more curious and a more empathetic person,

0:18:22.524,0:18:25.967
both to the animals that share my bed

0:18:25.967,0:18:28.093
and occasionally wind up on my plate,

0:18:28.093,0:18:30.943
but also to the people that I know

0:18:30.943,0:18:33.894
who are suffering from anxiety

0:18:33.894,0:18:36.521
and from phobias and all manner of other things,

0:18:36.521,0:18:38.496
and I really do believe that

0:18:38.496,0:18:40.744
even though you can't know exactly

0:18:40.744,0:18:44.131
what's going on in the mind of a pig

0:18:44.131,0:18:46.238
or your pug or your partner,

0:18:46.248,0:18:50.055
that that shouldn't stop you[br]from empathizing with them.

0:18:50.055,0:18:52.544
The best thing that we could do for our loved ones

0:18:52.544,0:18:56.840
is, perhaps, to anthropomorphize them.

0:18:56.840,0:19:00.341
Charles Darwin's father once told him

0:19:00.341,0:19:05.560
that everybody could lose their mind at some point.

0:19:05.560,0:19:08.391
Thankfully, we can often find them again,

0:19:08.391,0:19:10.562
but only with each other's help.

0:19:10.562,0:19:12.618
Thank you.

0:19:12.618,0:19:16.191
(Applause)