The University of Saskatchewan is hosting the International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ) 2025 Conference at their PAWSitive Connections Lab to focus on human-animal interconnectedness and relationships.  Anthrozoology, which is a field of study that looks at human-animal relationships, uses “One Health” one of the signature areas of research at USASK, which is about the relationship between humans, animals and the environment and how interconnected those three areas are.

Emphasis on Indigenous cultural practices and worldviews and the disproportional impact of wildfires on their relationship to animals and the land will also be highlighted.

Alexandria Povolich is a PHD student and co-chair of the conference and said the human-animal-environment connection is really important because without one, the others do not thrive.  Povolich says an example of some of the research is how animals brought into healthcare facilities for people in distress can significantly impact patients in a positive way.

“In my research, I was looking at service dogs and how they help in suicide prevention for Canadian military veterans, so that’s just one example of animal-assisted services that can help people with their pain and distress in a non-judgmental, very different supportive way, then human to human interactions can have.”

Povolich says there’s homeless people in our communities who maybe cannot get into a shelter because they have a companion animal.  She also pointed out how some people stayed behind instead of evacuating due to wildfires because they didn’t want to leave their animal behind.  She says this is one example of how the well-being of people is impacted by our environment and animals.

Some live streaming topics will be covered for the public and can be viewed on their website pawsitiveconnections.com.

The conference is being held from June 19th to June 22nd.