At the 2026 AVMA Convention in Anaheim, Mark Penning, BVSc, Disney's vice president of Animals, Science and Environment, opened with a story about a gorilla named Azizi. Hand-reared and lacking the instincts of a mother who grew up in a troop, Azizi was pregnant. Her care team didn't hope for the best. They trained her to carry a stuffed doll the way a baby would need to nurse, reinforced her for handing it over, and taught her to let keepers examine it. By the time her baby arrived, she allowed them to weigh, check, and supplement feed the infant. The baby grew up healthy. And crucially, it grew up as a gorilla.

The lesson Penning drew from Azizi's story is the same one running through every example he shared that day: with trust, so much more is possible.

Working With Animals, Not on Them

Penning's keynote made a case that feels simple but runs against the grain of how many clinical environments operate. The gorilla participated in her own prenatal care. A white rhino named Kate, who needed cataract surgery, was trained with grapes to voluntarily accept eye drops four times a day, which allowed a University of Florida ophthalmologist to perform the procedure and restore her sight. A tiger learned to step onto a scale, present his tail for blood draws, and hold still for injections. The reward was goat milk.

None of this required force. It required relationship.

Penning's teams used the Five Domains model rather than the older Five Freedoms framework. The Five Freedoms define animal welfare as the absence of negatives: no hunger, no pain, no fear. The Five Domains adds a fifth domain, mental state, to assess whether animals are actually experiencing positive wellbeing rather than merely surviving. "The absence of negatives doesn't imply the presence of positives," Penning told the audience. The question is whether an animal is thriving, not just enduring.

That reframe is the scientific backbone of fear-free veterinary practice.

What This Means for the Clinic

Most veterinary environments are designed around speed and predictability, which tends to produce restraint-first workflows. Restraint is fast. The problem is that it accumulates costs over time: patient stress, staff injury risk, reduced diagnostic quality, and clients who start dreading appointments.

Penning didn't frame fear-free care as idealism. He framed it as results. A king cobra named Elvis, who did not enjoy being handled, was trained to enter a clear tube voluntarily so staff could work with him without stress, restraint, or bites. A giraffe allowed hoof cleaning. A manatee rolled over on cue for urine samples. Stingrays and fish stationed for medical exams. A jumping spider would stand on a laser beam so keepers could clean her habitat.

These animals cooperated because, as Penning put it, "we are totally predictable to them. They've got no reason to fear what we're doing."

The practical translation: fear-free investment pays back in more than patient welfare. It reduces staff injury, improves diagnostic accuracy, and builds the kind of client loyalty that comes from a pet who actually trots into the exam room.

Why the Setting Matters

There's a structural reason pets often do better when a veterinary professional comes to them. It's not just familiarity with the surroundings. It's that the home environment reduces the baseline fear response before anything else begins. No car ride. No waiting room full of anxious animals. No unfamiliar smells layered on top of a handler they've never met.

A pet who arrives calm is a pet who is already capable of cooperating.

Penning ended his keynote with a reminder that none of the outcomes he described were solo achievements. The gorilla's safe motherhood, the rhino's restored sight, the first-ever sterilization of free-ranging elephant bulls in South Africa, all came from teams. "When there's a collective vision and a great team and great partners, you can do anything," he said. At-home veterinary care works the same way: caregivers, practices, and pet owners working in partnership to bring care to where trust already lives.

What to Take Away

  • The Five Domains model measures positive wellbeing, not just the absence of suffering. It's a useful benchmark for how your practice thinks about patient experience.
  • Fear-free investment reduces staff injury, improves diagnostic quality, and builds client loyalty.
  • Animals cooperate more when they feel safe. The baseline fear response drops significantly when care happens in familiar environments.
  • Teamwork is a clinical advantage. Penning ranked humility and collaboration above credentials when hiring.

For practices looking to extend fear-free, low-stress wellness care to clients who've been putting it off, Homelove provides at-home vet tech visits that meet pets where their trust already lives.