Dog-assisted intervention in state administrations: a socio-anthropological analysis – MCA-ARION

Dog-assisted intervention covers a wide range of professional practices and postures aimed at providing social, educational or therapeutic support to people who are often vulnerable. It is part of a recent tradition of techniques, often heterodox, which are classified under the name of 'animal mediation' and one of whose main aims is to stimulate 'care through animal contact' (Michalon: 2014).
Valued by specialised associations (e.g. Fondation Sommer in France), often grouped within powerful international federations (e.g. the International Association of Human-Animal Interaction Organizations), animal mediation practices are nevertheless relatively unknown to administrative organisations and institutions, even though the scientific literature gives a perfect account of the well-being provided by the presence of companion animals near humans (Beetz, et. al. 2019).
In this relative institutional indifference, three projects based on dog-assisted intervention have nevertheless emerged in recent years in the French institutional context. These projects, led respectively by the French Army, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of National Education, seemed to us to constitute original and sufficiently stable fields of investigation for the implementation of this project. Moreover, as a specialist in issues relating to the place of the dog in post-industrial societies (Blanchard: 2014; 2015; 2018), we already have privileged access to these three fields of investigation.

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