The literature on the relationship of companion animals and children shows only a weak effect of human-animal bonding on child development. The use of “pet ownership” or cohabitation rather than the relationship or interaction between the child and the animal as a measure of bonding appears to be a serious and limiting deficiency, which impaired the empirical evidence concerning the development and effects of human-animal bonding. The Companion Animal Bonding Scale is an 8-item behavioral scale describing the extent of child-animal activities. The scale was administered by questionnaire with a childhood focus and a contemporary focus to 121 high school and college students. The Cronbach alpha estimates of internal reliability were 0.82 and 0.77, respectively. Construct validity was indicated by significant correlations between scores on the Pet Attitude Scale and the childhood and contemporary bonding scale of .39 and .40, respectively.

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Adults' attitudes toward pets were related to their ages when they had their first pets and the bonds they formed with their most important pets. Contemporary pet attitudes were more strongly related to childhood bonding scores than contemporary bonding scores. Adults' contemporary attitudes toward pets were positively correlated with their retrospective childhood Companion Animal Bonding scores. The Companion Animal Semantic Differential pet attitude measures were also most positive for those who had a first pet when they were younger than 6 yr. and least positive for those who had a first pet when they were over 10 yr. old. The childhood bonding scores were more predictive of contemporary pet attitudes than contemporary bonding scores. No significant differences were found between pet owners and nonowners.

The Companion Animal Semantic Differential consists of 18 bipolar semantic differential word pairs for assessing the respondent's perception of a childhood companion animal. The measure was administered by questionnaire to a sample of 188 students. The Cronbach alpha internal reliability coefficient was 0.90 for the 18-item scale. The construct validity of the scale was indicated by its significant correlations with the evaluative factor of the Pet Attitude Scale and the childhood Companion Animal Bonding Scale of .31 and .54, respectively. Factor analysis identified a short 9-item form as a one-dimensional measure of the respondent's affective attitude toward his or her pet. The short form's Cronbach alpha was .88 and its correlations with the affective factors of the Pet Attitude Scale and the childhood Companion Animal Bonding Scales were .24 and .50, respectively. The measure is included.

A 1 cm defect was created in the proximal medial cortex of 12 tibiae, cancellous bone was removed from the site, and the bones were fractured by loading in torsion. The fractures did not occur through the donor sites and the fracture patterns and loads to fracture were similar for the treated tibiae and their untreated mates. Cancellous bone was harvested from the proximal medial aspect of both tibiae in nine adult horses. The soft tissue wounds were monitored for more than 10 days in seven horses and healing of the osseous defects was evaluated radiographically at regular intervals to month 6 in two horses. The site provided convenient access with the horses in lateral or dorsal recumbency, the anatomic landmarks were reliable, and the surgical procedure was simple and short. Complications occurred in only three incisions.