Nelly Lakestani

Standardized measures of behavior can be powerful tools for assessing the impact of whale watching activities on natural populations of cetaceans. To determine the possible impact of tourism on dolphins between a period without whale watching (1989–1992) (T1) and a period with whale watching (2010–2020) (T2), we examined the changes in the rate of...

Children are future consumers; they will impact future animal welfare standards. This pilot study evaluated a nonhuman animal welfare education program, building a farm animal attitude questionnaire for 8-to 10-year-old children. The educational material focused on the behaviors and needs of cows, chickens, and pigs. Knowledge acquisition and attit...

This study aimed to investigate whether preschool children can learn how to interpret dogs' behaviours, with the purpose of helping avoid dog bites. Three- to five-year-old children (N = 70) were tested on their ability to answer questions about dogs' emotional states before and after participating in either an educational intervention about dog be...

This study investigates people's ability to interpret dog behavior. Inability to interpret dog behavior correctly may be a factor contributing to young children's higher likelihood of being bitten by dogs. Children (4- to 10-year-olds) and adults (total n = 550) watched videos of dogs displaying friendly, aggressive, and fearful behavior. They were...

This study aimed to build a preliminary farm animal attitude questionnaire for primary school children. The participants were 122 children (50 boys and 72 girls) aged 8 to 10 years old, attending 2 different schools in the semi-rural town of Tepalcingo, Mexico. The questionnaire was composed of 13 questions on farm animals with a 5 point Likert s...

The aim of this study was to create and carry out a preliminary assessment of an attitude toward dogs scale, for preschool children and adults, in different European countries. Attitudes to animals may differ between different cultures; however, differences in attitudes to pets between European countries have not yet been investigated. Because exch...

University of Edinburgh, Edinbugh, United Kingdom; UNITEC New Zealand, Auckland, New Zealand; Universita degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy; University of Edinburgh, Edinbugh, United Kingdom. Email: nelly.lakestani@ed.ac.uk The aim of this study was to assess young children’s attitudes to dogs in different European countries. Since exchange of in...

Gavinelli and Lakestani discuss animal welfare legislation in the European Union and the current need to incorporate more sophisticated objectives such as social interest and economic concerns, public and animal health issues. They quote the Treaty of Lisbon of 2009. This goes further than simply acknowledging animals as sentient beings and states...

The aim of the present experiment was to investigate if preschool children are able to learn how to interpret the behaviours of dogs, with the purpose of helping them avoid dog bites. This is of particular importance since children below 5 years old are more at risk of being bitten by dogs. The participants were 70 nursery school children (mean ag...

A commonly suggested reason for the occurrence of dog bites is miscommunication between humans and dogs (Overall & Love, 2001; Wright, 1985). Humans may fail to understand the communication signals displayed by the dog, they therefore may not be able to respond appropriately, which results in the dog biting. This is, however, only a hypothesis. The...

Link to full text: https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/2668/Nelly%20Lakestani%20Thesis.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y

Studies carried in different countries report that children are the most frequent victims of dog bites. A number of studies agree that children between 5 and 9 years of age are the most frequent victims [2, 3, 4], although some report that the highest rate of serious injury from dog bites is to children under 5 years of age [2, 5, 6]. Boys are more...

Studies carried in different countries report that children are the most frequent victims of dog bites. A number of studies agree that children between 5 and 9 years of age are the most frequent victims [2, 3, 4], although some report that the highest rate of serious injury from dog bites is to children under 5 years of age [2, 5, 6]. Boys are more...