Lilly gift to Purdue encourages knowledge about people and their pets

The gift was announced Sunday (Jan. 14) at the North American Veterinary Conference in Orlando, Fla. Eric Graves, director of companion animal health at Lilly, said the $250,000 gift to Purdue's Center for the Human-Animal Bond would fund annual lectures at the university's School of Veterinary Medicine and at national veterinary conferences.

The Purdue lectures, which will be free and open to the public, will be part of the annual Fall Conference for Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians. The other lectures, which are expected to feature a new speaker annually, are expected to rotate among the nation's major veterinary conferences.

Willie M. Reed

"This is part of our land-grant commitment to bring information generated by Purdue to a broader audience," said Willie M. Reed, who became dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine on Jan. 2. "From research to education to service, we have the resources to tap into every aspect of pets and their relationships with people. With these lectures, we plan to draw from the tapestry of scientific knowledge that is available in order to reflect the true interdisciplinary nature of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond."

The new lectureship will be called the Lilly Lectureship at the Center for the Human-Animal Bond. Alan Beck, director of the center and Dorothy N. McAllister Professor of Animal Ecology, said the lectureship would involve topics that cover the entire veterinary spectrum.

"The lectureship is a pulpit for getting information out about how animals fit in our lives," Beck said. "One of the roles of our center is to support or foster research to improve understanding of the relationship between humans and pets, but that doesn't fit in the routine veterinary curriculum and the information doesn't get out.

"A planned lecture series is critical for us to reach out to the professional community and the general public."

Alan Beck

As the inaugural speaker for the lectureship at the Orlando conference, anthropologist and author Elizabeth Marshall Thomas spoke Sunday about human-animal companionship. Future speakers will explore broad areas of the human-animal relationship, including veterinary policy, the importance of domestic animals to the veterinary community, major aspects of health, and the true nature of humans' relationship with animals and how that relationship fits to nature itself, Beck said.

Founded in 1982, the Center for the Human-Animal Bond explores the dynamic relationships among people, animals and their environment. The center strives to foster interdisciplinary activities and serve as a focal point for the exchange of ideas and development of new information related to animal-human interactions and animal welfare.

An example of a research project at the center is the robotic pets program, which evaluates all age groups to determine whether robotic dogs have some of the benefits that come from playing with and caring for real pets. Other projects look at how animals help patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Beck said the center is a way the entire Purdue community can get involved in research on animals and their connection to humans because the center works across disciplines with faculty from nursing, child and family development, and biology.

Future research will expand studies on children and behavioral relationships, Beck said.

"We're still exploring all the roles animals play," he said. "Students will work with zoos and shelters to examine settings where animals are confined and discover ways to use reasonable interventions for environmental enrichment that will ultimately be used to help both animals and humans."

Writer: Maggie Morris, (765) 494-2432, maggiemorris@purdue.edu

Sources: Willie Reed, (765) 494-7608, wreed@purdue.edu

Alan Beck, (765) 494-0854, abeck@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

Center for Human-Animal Bond: https://www.vet.purdue.edu/chab/index.htm

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