SAN DIEGO — Pet food giant Purina has partnered with UC San Diego, granting $200,000 for research into whether animals can use audio devices to better communicate with humans, it was announced Wednesday.
The research will take place in UCSD's Comparative Cognition Lab and will focus on the use of soundboard-based audio buttons to gain a greater understanding on the cognitive abilities of pets -- possibly "giving a voice" to our furry friends.
"What excites me most about this research partnership is the opportunity to give pets an actual voice in our research for the first time," said Annie Valuska, principal scientist on Purina's pet behavior team.
"Working with the UCSD Comparative Cognition Lab and thousands of at- home pet button users will allow us to explore new ways to better understand the needs and wants of our canine consumers."
The researchers will use soundboards equipped with simple words such as "play," "outside," "potty," and "walk," and will study if pets can use the buttons to communicate their needs and wants.
"This research can help us better understand our pets and what they want and need, which has the potential to improve their health and well-being in a variety of ways," said Federico Rossano, founder and director of the UC San Diego Comparative Cognition Lab. "Remotely conducted citizen science studies could be a critical tool for studying the large and geographically widespread population of pets and pet owners."
In 2022, Purina's Pet Care Innovation Prize Program selected San Diego- based pet communication startup FluentPet as its grand prize winner. That company received $10,000 for its mission to use "cognitive science and academic research to make teaching, learning and communicating easier for pets and their people."
Purina is part of Nestle.
