Fundación Affinity and the careful case for animal-assisted therapy
- Joan Ubide
- 47 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Published on 26 April 2026 at 04:42 GMT
By Joan Ubide
Fundación Affinity occupies a distinctive place in Spain’s debate over animal-assisted therapy: it has spent more than three decades arguing that the bond between people, dogs and cats is not only a private source of comfort, but also a public-interest question for hospitals, mental health services, elder care, schools and animal welfare policy.
Founded in Spain and active in this field since 1992, the foundation is best understood as a civil society organisation working at the intersection of human-animal bond research, health support, education and public awareness. Its work is not limited to promoting pet ownership. It has tried to define where animals can responsibly support people in vulnerable settings, and where evidence, professional supervision and animal welfare standards must set the limits.
The organisation’s central claim is simple but contested in practice: animals can help some people cope with illness, loneliness, anxiety, exclusion or learning difficulties when interventions are carefully designed and led by trained professionals. That distinction matters. Animal-assisted interventions are not a substitute for medical treatment, psychological care or social services. At their strongest, they are complementary tools used within wider care plans.
Over time, Fundación Affinity has helped introduce and normalise these interventions in Spain, including in hospitals, residential care homes, mental health settings, schools and prisons. Its own materials describe more than 100,000 beneficiaries of its programmes since 1992. Such figures suggest scale, but they also raise the question now facing the wider field: how can promising practice be measured, regulated and made safe for both people and animals?
In hospitals and care settings, the practical value of therapy dogs often lies less in dramatic clinical transformation than in small shifts that matter to patients: reduced isolation, greater willingness to communicate, improved mood during treatment, or a calmer environment in which professionals can work. In elder care, animals may offer social contact and routine for residents whose lives have narrowed through bereavement, illness or institutionalisation.
In mental health contexts, the stakes are particularly sensitive. The presence of an animal can sometimes make therapeutic spaces feel less intimidating, especially for people who struggle with conventional conversation-based support. But the same field also demands caution. Vulnerable patients should not be exposed to poorly designed programmes, and animals should not be treated as emotional equipment. Any credible model must consider consent, hygiene, training, risk assessment and the welfare of the animals involved.
This is where the foundation’s research role becomes important. Through the Fundación Affinity Chair for Animals and Health at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the organisation has supported academic work on the relationship between people and companion animals. The chair focuses on the benefits and limits of coexistence with animals, the role of animals as social support, and the evidence behind assisted-therapy programmes.
That research orientation is significant because the field has sometimes run ahead of the evidence. Public enthusiasm for dogs in schools, hospitals or care homes can obscure unresolved questions: which groups benefit most, what outcomes should be measured, how long benefits last, and how animal stress is monitored. A public-interest approach requires more than heartwarming stories. It requires evidence that can guide policy, training and ethical standards.
Education has become one of the most visible areas of work. In schools, animal-assisted education may be used to support empathy, communication, reading confidence, social inclusion and respectful behaviour. Fundación Affinity has promoted educational materials and programmes that frame animals not as classroom novelties, but as a way to discuss responsibility, care and coexistence. This links the issue of child wellbeing with the wider question of how societies treat dependent living beings.
The foundation’s work also intersects with animal abandonment, one of Spain’s persistent welfare challenges. Since the mid-1990s, Fundación Affinity has published annual studies on abandonment, loss and adoption of companion animals. This research helps move the debate beyond seasonal outrage, showing abandonment as a structural issue shaped by unwanted litters, behaviour problems, economic pressures, weak planning and changing family circumstances.
That dual focus, on the benefits animals can bring to people and the obligations people owe animals, is crucial. A society that welcomes animals into hospitals or schools while failing to prevent abandonment would be embracing the emotional value of animals without accepting the responsibilities that come with it. The foundation’s most coherent contribution is to keep these two questions connected.
The relevant Sustainable Development Goals are therefore not only environmental or animal welfare concerns. SDG 3 (good health and well-being) is connected to the foundation’s work in care, mental health and social support. SDG 4 (quality education) is relevant where animal-assisted education supports inclusion, empathy and learning environments. SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) also has a connection, because companion animals, public health, ageing, social isolation and responsible urban coexistence increasingly overlap.
The public policy context is changing. Across Europe, animals are increasingly recognised not merely as property, but as sentient beings whose welfare has legal and ethical significance. Spain has also seen growing debate over companion animal protection, responsible ownership and the role of animals in family life. In that climate, Fundación Affinity operates in a space where emotional attachment, scientific research, welfare law and service provision meet.
There are tensions. The foundation is linked to the companion animal sector, which means its public-interest work should be assessed with transparency and scrutiny, as should any organisation operating near commercial interests. Its research and programmes are most valuable when methods, partnerships and findings are open to critical examination. Independence, evidence quality and ethical safeguards are central to credibility in this field.
There is also a broader risk that animal-assisted therapy can be over-sold. A dog in a hospital ward does not solve understaffing. A classroom programme cannot replace trained mental health support. A visit to a care home cannot fix the loneliness produced by fragmented families, stretched public services and institutional routines. The strongest argument for animal-assisted therapy in Spain is not that it is a miracle, but that it can be a carefully governed addition to human care.
Other organisations provide useful context. IAHAIO, the international association for human-animal interaction organisations, has helped develop global terminology and guidance. Pet Partners in the United States is one of the better-known organisations working with therapy animal teams. In Spain, FAADA works on animal welfare and responsible relationships with animals. These groups reflect a wider international movement trying to turn affection for animals into safe, accountable practice.
For Fundación Affinity, the challenge ahead is to keep strengthening the evidence base while resisting the temptation to make claims that the science cannot yet fully support. Its influence will depend not only on the number of programmes delivered, but on whether those programmes protect participants, respect animals and produce findings that public services can trust.
The foundation’s importance lies in that middle ground. It has helped bring companion animals and wellbeing into serious public discussion in Spain, while also documenting the failures of responsibility that lead to abandonment. In a country where dogs and cats are increasingly treated as family members, its work asks a harder question: what obligations follow when society recognises that animals matter to human lives, and that human choices determine animal lives in return?
Further information:
Fundación Affinity, the main organisation, relevant for its programmes, research and public materials on animal-assisted therapy, human-animal bonds and abandonment in Spain.
https://www.fundacion-affinity.org/en
Fundación Affinity Chair for Animals and Health at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, relevant for research on companion animals, wellbeing and assisted-therapy evidence.
https://www.fundacion-affinity.org/en/research/the-chair
Autonomous University of Barcelona, relevant as the academic institution linked to the Fundación Affinity Chair for Animals and Health.
IAHAIO, relevant as an international network focused on human-animal interaction research, standards and practice.
FAADA, relevant as a Spanish animal welfare organisation working on responsible human-animal relationships and protection.
