Animals Need Love, Too!!!

This is a letter that was recently composed by Mary Perry and Alexander O. Dreussi...

Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary has been repeatedly reprimanded by MINAET officials in the last 6 years since we founded the wildlife rescue center in Cabuya de Cobano [in march 2005], in regards to our handling of the mammal infants that are often brought to our rescue center, specifically that we handle the animals too much, that there's too much contact between animal and caretaker.
However, there exists a plethora of scientific and anecdotal evidence that shows that mammalian babies need such contact, and indeed would be damaged, physically and emotionally, if NOT handled.
As Henry Harlow, the famous psychologist, once said, “"Love is an emotion that does not need to be bottle- or spoon-fed, and we may be sure that there is nothing to be gained by giving lip service to love."

It is our belief [and an established scientific FACT ] that withholding affection and handling from the infant animals will cause them harm and will lead to a higher mortality rate.
Harlow’s findings showed this quite directly. In the course of an experiment looking at infant monkeys, he noticed that the animals became strongly attached to the cloth diapers put in their cages. When the diapers were removed, the baby monkeys often threw violent temper tantrums. Harlow decided to further research this finding. His research is best summed up in his own words: "We had also discovered during some allied observational studies that a baby monkey raised on a bare wire-mesh cage floor survives with difficulty, if at all, during the first five days of life. If a wire-mesh cone is introduced, the baby does better; and, if the cone is covered with terry cloth, husky, healthy, happy babies evolve. It takes more than a baby and a box to make a normal monkey. We were impressed by the possibility that … contact comfort might be a very important variable in the development of the infant's affection for the mother." (Harlow, American Psychologist, 1958). The most important point in the quote comes in the first sentence: in absence of some form of tactile stimulation, without any sort of touch or contact, infants are more likely to die than survive. A small amount of contact with a wire cone is better, and contact with something resembling an actual mother is best of all. Contact with living, breathing beings is by far the best chance an infant has of surviving those first few critical months of development.
The vast majority of studies on contact with infant animals come to the exact same conclusion. A researcher at Berkeley, an esteemed university in the United States, summarizes that "Touch also promotes health in infants and forms the platform for appropriate social behavior in later years." Banerjee, the researcher at Berkeley, also notes that "These findings suggest that the healing power of touch is not the mystical fringe theory that the catch phrase may suggest, but instead a real possibility in the realm of medical science." Harlow also weighs in on the necessity for contact to develop social and emotional health. He describes monkeys raised in bare wire cages, saying that the monkeys “suffer total maternal deprivation and, even more important, have no opportunity to form affectional ties with their peers. We have already reported the progressively deepening syndrome of compulsive nonnutritional sucking, repetitive stereotypes movements, detachment from environment, hostility directed outwardly towards others and inwardly towards the animal’s own body, and inability to form adequate social or heterosexual attachment to others when such opportunities are provided in preadolescence, adolescence, or adulthood.” Without such important developments, the monkeys are so retarded in their development as to be unable to function normally in groups with other animals of their own species.

Rainsong's staff and volunteers, through contact with the animals at the rescue center, are providing the animals in our care with the means to grow into able-bodied and emotionally healthy individuals. Without such contact, the animals would be permanently crippled, making impossible any kind of quality life for them, in captivity or released.
The benefits of contact reach far beyond emotional and psychological ones. Cerulli, Berry, and Alleva (2003) experimented with the effects of tactile stimulation by mothers on infants. They concluded that “it has been shown that disruptions in the mother–infant relationship result in neuroendocrine, neurochemical and behavioural changes in the adult organism,” indicating that the bond enjoyed between an adult and an infant has far-reaching implications on the infant.
For orphaned animals at the sanctuary the only possible source of maternal affection comes from their caretakers.

A study by Schanberg and Field (1987) demonstrated that “rat pups that were deprived of tactile stimulation from their mothers showed a decline in immunity compared to rat pups who received normal contact with their mothers” in an article published

in Child Development, a leading scientific journal.
Numerous experiments have shown that tactile stimulation, or TOUCH, is important in species ranging from monkeys to panda bears to dolphins and samples of nearly every other species in between, further underscoring the importance of our contact with the orphans at the sanctuary.
All animals require some sort of contact in order to thrive emotionally, socially, physically, and mentally.
The IMPORTANCE of this contact can not be overstressed.
In addition to all the other points, it is crucial to note that many of the animals at the sanctuary will never be allowed to be released by MINAET. Many of these animals, due to the unfortunate circumstances which brought them to the rescue center, are either permanently handicapped due to injury or were rescued too young to learn the skills they would need to survive in their natural habitat as a released adult individual.

These animals, as permanent residents of the rescue center, are very important elements for the conservation education necessary to protect animals' rights by bringing about a change in attitude thru interaction with the public, facilitating the cultivation of appreciation and respect for the beauty of mother nature in all her forms.

Having a maladjusted animal, lacking social skills and possibly violent (all due to lack of contact as an infant) would endanger both the animal and the caretakers at the sanctuary unnecessarily.

Based on overwhelming scientific proofs from controlled studies carried out to examine this subject, we find that your criticisms are scientifically unfounded.
In summary, the contact with the animals in our care can not be further reduced without risking the health of both animal and caretaker.

With this in mind, we respectfully announce our intentions to continue our caretaking with the animals' best interests as a priority, based on the overwhelmingly positive benefits and scientific proofs in favor of nurturing all infant animals.
Once again, we appeal to MINAET officials to focus on the animals' welfare, as proven by science, instead of dictating bureaucratic policies that are not founded in SCIENTIFIC FACT.
It is painful and disappointing to everyone at Rainsong that those who should act as our allies in our efforts to save what's left of the wildlife in our area of Costa Rica, have repeatedly behaved as if they are our adversaries, hindering our efforts to provide the best care possible in the best interest of the animals.
We hopefully expect an attitude of mutual respect and alliance from the officials paid to protect the natural resources of Costa Rica,
including the wildlife being cared for in rescue centers.
It is the welfare of the animals that should be IMPORTANT.
The criteria for the caretaking and management of animals in rescue centers in Costa Rica should not be based on outdated arbitrary rules that do not take into account what is best for the animal's well being.
We protest this policy and we sincerely hope that MINAET will someday soon be motivated to adjust these dysfunctional attitudes and apply a more modern and scientific approach to the subject.



Alexander O. Dreussi, B.A. Psychology, College of Wooster Rainsong staff member

Mary Lynn Perry Henry, President Rainsong Wildlife Sanctuary Association