QUEZON CITY, Philippines (May 2026) — More than 200 researchers, doctors, veterinarians, and mental health advocates walked into Ateneo de Manila University last May 30 with one shared conviction: that the bond between humans and animals is not just heartwarming, it is healing.
The Second Philippine Human-Animal Bond Conference, or PHABCON, gathered its largest in-person crowd yet at Leong Hall in Ateneo’s Loyola Heights campus, under the theme “Healing Connections Between Humans and Animals.” The event was organized in partnership with Communitails, a Philippine organization dedicated to ethical and professional animal-assisted services, which was marking its 10th anniversary.
The timing was no accident. Mental health concerns, loneliness, and social isolation have become defining issues of the decade, and PHABCON arrived as a reminder that some of the most powerful responses to those crises have four legs and a wagging tail.
Science, not sentiment
The conference opened with remarks from Ateneo de Manila University Assistant Vice President for Research, Creative Work, and Innovation Dr. Filomeno V. Aguilar Jr., who set the tone early.
“PHABCON carries this work forward by inviting us to imagine how research can better serve humanity, animal welfare, and the wider world we share. After all, research, at its best, is an act of service,” Dr. Aguilar said.
He acknowledged Communitails’ role in building evidence-informed, inclusive spaces for healing, and framed the conference as part of a broader movement to ground animal-assisted services in rigorous research rather than goodwill alone.
Healing is relational
The keynote came from Raj Mariwala, Director of the Mariwala Health Initiative in India and founder of Citizen K9 India. In a talk titled “Across Species, Across Care: Rethinking Healing Together,” Mariwala drew from years of work in canine behavior, mental health, and disability justice to argue that real care cannot happen in isolation.
“I love working with dogs and cats because it continuously reminds me that well-being is relational: it doesn’t happen in isolation. Dogs don’t become confident alone; humans don’t heal alone,” Mariwala said.
The address centered on themes of trust, consent, and communication across species, and challenged practitioners to build communities of care that protect the well-being of animals as much as the people they help.
What Philippine researchers are finding
A major portion of the conference was devoted to emerging local research. Presenters shared studies covering animal-assisted interventions in schools and hospitals, the mental health experiences of foster pet owners and animal rescuers, the role of companion animals in elder care, and new approaches to community animal welfare.
Taken together, the research painted a picture of a field growing fast in the Philippines, with institutions and practitioners starting to document what many pet owners have long known intuitively: that animals make people better.
A decade of Communitails
The conference also served as a milestone celebration. PHABCON 2026 coincided with Communitails’ 10th anniversary and the birthday of its late founder, Dr. Carla Azucena. Since its founding in 2016, the organization has built one of the country’s most active networks of therapy animal teams, known as Human Animal Teams, or HATs.
For Pinoys interested in learning more about animal-assisted services or scheduling a HAT visit, Communitails can be reached at communitails.com or through their Facebook and Instagram pages at fb.com/communitails and instagram.com/communitails_ph. Those interested in joining the Animal-Assisted Services Training and Human-Animal Team Assessment can fill out an interest form at forms.gle/eYJ5wFDfgZWFQp1z8.
