Animal-assisted therapy had its large breakthrough in the 1960-ties when a psychiatrist named Boris Levinson discovered the great advantages of involving animals in the treatment of patients. Therapy with animals involves that animals are used in a systematic way, in a person's process of treatment. The most distinguished companion animal used within this area is the dog, but horses, cats, rabbits, birds, dolphins and the most common farm animals are used in animal-assisted therapy. Most animals that are to be used for this specific purpose need to be trained in order to maintain their physical and mental health, but also to minimize the risks for the people that are involved. Most studies within this research area are focused on the positive effects on the patients and less on the effects on the animals.

AbstractThe purpose of this essay was to study the parental education for adoptive parents. It´s provided by law since 1/1-2005 that parents have to participate in this education-program before they adopt. We wanted to look at what caused the change and made the education compulsory and to find out where the initiative came from, what purpose the education is supposed to fulfil, if it can facilitate for adopted children during their growth and whether the parental education can support the idea of what is best for a certain child always has to come first, according to the UN convention on the Rights of the child and the Haag-convention.The study was based on eight qualitative interviews, four with social workers, three with representatives of adoption-organisations and one with a representative of the public authority of international adoption (MIA). The conclusions of our study are that there is a risk that the education can not fulfil its purpose to prepare parents for their task, that it looses the idea of what´s best for the child and focuses on the parent instead. It seems to be more of a try out to not violate conventions signed and thereby fulfil a symbolic purpose..

This thesis studies whether private equity owned firms within the Swedish welfare sector distinguish themselves in terms of tax planning and short-termism from a control group consisting of other privately owned welfare firms. For the first time, the comparison is made on the entire welfare sector, between 14 matched pairs within education, health care and elderly care. We use financial metrics associated with tax planning and short-termism in sign tests to examine whether the private equity owned firms differ from our control group. The financial metrics tested are actual and paid tax rates, level of interest, book-tax gap, investments, personnel expenses per employee, and cash earnings. We find that the private equity owned firms in terms of tax planning only differ in the level of interest, while no notable differences are found in terms of short-termism..

Studies on wild boars have shown that piglets at 10 to 12 days of age can be introduced to pigs outside the litter without fighting. In today's production systems, the litters are kept in separate pens until weaning. At that point, the litter is divided and the piglets are placed together with piglets from other litters. This usually leads to aggressions among the piglets and may cause stress. This literature review aims to find out how piglets perceive other pigs in their surroundings.

The aim of this paper is to describe how to measure welfare effect of the deregulation and increased competition of the public transport by railway in Sweden. The paper also includes a numerical example of how to measure the welfare effect. In our study we use public data from SJ regaring quantity and ticket prices for the period 1996 - 2005. We have used equivalent variation, EV, as the method to measure the welfare effect. We demonstrate how to derive the equation to calculate EV by starting with a Marschallian demand function.

The aim of this project is to study the work that has been done by the youth welfare to prevent accidents and to increase the preparedness in case of fire. Further the aim is to develop a basis to improve the interaction between the fire services and the youth welfare. The conclusions that were made during the project can be used to increase the safety of the environment that estates by the youth welfare..

The purpose of this literature review was from dairy cows? behaviour and welfare point ofview describe how feed bunk and cubicles in a loose house system should be designed. Todaydairy cows in Sweden and in the world have high demands because of a high milk production,stress and higher risk of being afflicted with diseases. Through selection in breeding the bestquality can be performed, but high demands of the environment for the dairy cow is above allalso important for a good welfare and for a good milk production. Feed bunks and cubiclesare just some parts to be designed in the best way for a good animal welfare.

Castration of dogs holds many reasons and opinions, therefore methods, traditions and rea-sons vary. The approaches have during time changed from mostly surgical castrations to also including hormonal treatments. Castration is used to control the dog's reproductive abilities, for medical reasons and to possibly rectify problems of behavioral nature. How common a particular method of castration is in a country is highly dependent on the country's traditions. In Sweden it is most common with castration for medical reasons, such as possible elimina-tion of diseases, for example, benign colorectal tumors.

During one week (9-13 May, 2005) the use of veterinary diets for the hospitalised patients att the University clinic was registered. The animal owners were interviewed by telephone six months later about the feeding after coming home. Four out of ten animal owners answered yes to the question if the veterinarian had asked what food their animal normally consumed. Out of 35 animals, 15 (43%) were prescribed to a veterinary diet. Among cats it was 8 out of 14 (57%) and among dogs it was 7 out of 21 (33%). Four animals out of ten were recommended a veterinary diet when going home, but 20% did not follow the recommendation all the way through and stopped feeding their animal the veterinary diet. Reasons that were given was that the diet didn't last the entire period, that the animal didn't need the diet anymore according to the owner and one dog that became to lean when fed the diet. The diagnosis for these three dogs was vomiting, foreign body in the digestive system and bloody diarrhoea.

Extensive cattle management was reintroduced in Sweden during the 1950´s and 60´s. Usually this term refers to suckler cows for meat production that is kept outdoors all year around. Suckler cow farms tend to become fewer but bigger over time. Still however most of the farms with beef cows are small. Extensive animal husbandry can lead to animals becoming shy which leads to difficulties when they are handled due to veterinary treatments, marking, transport etc.

This BSc thesis is an introductory step to the collaboration between the Swedish zoo Skansen and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). It constitutes of an inventory of the Nairobi Animal Orphanage (AO), a facility that cares for injured and abandoned wildlife species in Kenya. Through the cooperation with Skansen, the KWS will improve their management of the AO. The aim of the inventory and BSc theses is to evaluate the management of black-backed jackal (Canis mesomelas), lion (Panthera leo) and patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas) regarding their biological needs. The general enclosures, routines and feeding at the AO are also evaluated since they have a great influence on the management of captive animals.

Animal welfare is impaired if the diet does not provide sufficient feeling of satiety or the ability to perform natural feeding behavior. Pigs are omnivores and spend most of the day searching for food by rooting, grazing and chewing. Both inability to perform foraging behavior and insufficient feeling of satiety often leads to direction of foraging behavior towards stereotyped and abnormal oral behavior. Dry sows are often fed restrictively which leads to unsatisfied feeling of hunger. Dietary fiber has been found to reduce stereotypic and abnormal behavior as well as aggression, which could indicate that pigs need to forage has been met giving a feeling of satiety.

Animal welfare is impaired if the diet does not provide sufficient feeling of satiety or the ability to perform natural feeding behavior. Pigs are omnivores and spend most of the day searching for food by rooting, grazing and chewing. Both inability to perform foraging behavior and insufficient feeling of satiety often leads to direction of foraging behavior towards stereotyped and abnormal oral behavior. Dry sows are often fed restrictively which leads to unsatisfied feeling of hunger. Dietary fiber has been found to reduce stereotypic and abnormal behavior as well as aggression, which could indicate that pigs need to forage has been met giving a feeling of satiety.

In 2012, about 1.3 million boars were surgically castrated, most of them without anaesthesia. Castration is performed to avoid the occurrence of boar taint and aggressive and sexual behaviour. There is a growing concern about the welfare of the piglets and the Swedish Board of Agriculture is working to find efficient and functional alternatives to castration without anaesthesia. The aim of this study was to obtain an overall picture of the latest research about the alternatives to castration without anaesthesia, with focus on vaccination against boar taint, and how they affect the welfare of the pigs. The alternative methods that are available today are surgical castration with anaesthesia and/or analgesia, rearing entire males and vaccination against boar taint.

Background Anesthesia-related deaths are common in dogs, especially in the postoperative period, in compare to humans. This study aims to describe and elucidate the qualities of the postoperative care for dogs in Sweden. Method To investigate the postoperative care, a qualitative study was made by interviewing personnel in the animal health care sector. The primary information from the interviews was analyzed in a qualitative manor and a few distinguished qualities came forth. Results These qualities describe the postoperative care and include preventive activities, postoperative activities, monitoring and communication. A variation in regards to the results was seen between the interviewed.