Nigerian vet makes history for humans and animals across Africa

An all-star line-up of speakers provided insights and inspiration for delegates attending the first ever conference on animal assisted interventions in Nigeria.

Experts – including Elizabeth Ormerod from the Society of Companion Animal Studies (SCAS) – spoke at the virtual conference, which was attended by delegates from Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Mauritius, Cameroon, Tunisia, Somalia and Morocco.

Enriching lives

The event was organised by Nigerian vet Sunday Agbonika, the founder of Dogalov – an organisation that aims to “enrich human lives in Africa through pets”.

Dr Agbonika leads pioneering work centred on the applications of the human-animal bond in Nigeria for the primary benefit of children with autism or other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Historic event

Dr Agbonika said: “The conference stands out as a historic event, being the maiden animal assisted interventions event in Nigeria, and interestingly it attracted 212 signed-up participants from which about 121 people attended live, while the others who were unable to attend live have access to the recording.

“The participants included people from countries across Africa, so it can be argued that this was the first-ever intra-Africa animal assisted interventions conference.”

Massive impact

One of the participants, Joshua Dipuutey from Ghana, remarked that he had not heard the mention of animal assisted interventions nor seen it in practice in his country, thus this knowledge was novel to him and the potential impact in Ghana “massive”.

A post-conference questionnaire administered to participants indicated an 80% interest rate in further knowledge and practice by participants.

Speaker line-up

The speaker line-up included:

• Sunday Agbonika: the event convener and founder of Dogalov
• Dotun Akande: the first keynote speaker and founder of Nigeria’s foremost autism service providers
• Mary Lee: the second keynote speaker, a psychologist with the American Red Cross
• Marie-Jose Enders-Slegers: a clinical and health psychologist, and president of the International Association of Human Animal Interactions Organizations
• Elizabeth Ormerod: chairman of SCAS and Ceva 2021 UK Vet of the Year
• Brinda Jegatheesan: an associate professor at the University of Washington
• Amy Sand Johnson: a licenced professional counsellor and director of the Center for Human Animal Interventions at Oakland University.
• Melissa Winkle: an occupational therapist and president of Animal Assisted Interventions International, as well as president of Dogwood Therapy Services
• Lynn Belkin and Kristen Priven: both child life specialists and coordinators for the Pawprints programme at Boston Children’s Hospital
• Zenithson Ng: associate professor at the University of Tennessee and past chairman of the American Veterinary Medical Association’s steering committee on human-animal Interactions

Potential partners

Dogalov plans to hold two intra-Africa conferences annually, one for assistance animals and the other for animal assisted interventions.

Anyone interested in partnering Dr Agbonika can contact him via LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.