Sanctuary: Animals Find a New Life in a New Home

Animal sanctuaries can be an important part in helping creatures who have been hurt and suffered from neglect, according to scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.

The scientific study of rescued animals examines the moods of 18 goats, nine of which had endured poor welfare, such as inappropriate diet and lack of space or shelter before arriving at a sanctuary. They created a spatial awareness test, which involved giving the animals an opportunity to look for food, to understand the link between poor welfare and the goats' mental health, by comparing the behaviour of the mistreated goats with that of the goats that had been generally well treated.

Scientists observed whether some goats were faster to explore certain areas that resulted in food rewards than other areas that did not.

"Mood can have a huge influence on how the brain processes information. In humans, for example, it's well known that people in positive moods have an optimistic outlook on life, which means they are more resilient to stress. In the same way, measures of optimism and pessimism can provide indicators for an understanding of animal welfare," said co-author Dr Elodie Briefer from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, according to a press release.

Researchers believed that goats from the poor group would bee more pessimistic and slower than the well-treated goats, who would, in turn, be more likely to explore more ambiguous locations for food. However, researchers said they were surprised to find that female goats who had been mistreated in the past were more optimistic than the other well-treated female goats.

"In this case, we found that female goats that had been previously neglected were the most optimistic of all the tested animals. They were more optimistic than well-treated females, but also the poorly treated males," Briefer said. "This suggests that females may be better at recovering from neglect when released from stress, and might have implications for animal sanctuaries in how they tailor the care they provide for the different sexes."

Dr Alan McElligott, also from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, said that this study shows that there is hope for neglected animals.

"The study shows that animal rescue centres, such as Buttercups Sanctuary for Goats, where we collected our data, can provide a vital role in reversing long-term neglect once the animals receive excellent care."