|
 |
How Pets Help People
Anyone who has cared for a companion animal can list the
benefits of sharing life with one. There's nothing quite like petting a purring
cat nestled on your lap. Or returning home to a hearty welcome from your
tail-wagging dog. Clearly, pets are friends and family. But they also serve as
teachers and therapists, helpers, and healers.
Many of us enjoy the companionship of pets. In fact, according to a 1998 survey
by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, 61 percent of American
households include pets. These animals don't ask for much—just a short list of
basics, such as food, shelter, veterinary care, and, of course, our
companionship. Pets offer far more in return, teaching us about love, improving
our emotional and physical health, and providing us with unconditional affection
and friendship.
Do pets make good teachers?
Companion animals are natural teachers. They help people of all ages learn about
responsibility, loyalty, empathy, sharing, and unconditional love—qualities
particularly essential to a child's healthy development.
Through caring for a pet, children also learn to care for their fellow human
beings. There is an established link between how people treat animals and how
they treat each other. Kindness to animals is a lesson that benefits people,
too.
Can pets be therapists?
Given the right animal, people, and circumstances, pets can indeed serve as
therapists. In animal-assisted therapy programs, a companion animal "therapist"
may visit with hospital or nursing home patients. For the program to be safe and
effective, the animal must be carefully screened and the pet's caregiver must be
trained to guide the animal-human interactions. When a specific therapy is
desired, a credentialed professional should monitor the program. Even in less
formal animal-assisted activities, where the animal is introduced to an
individual or group with no specific therapeutic goal, patients and staff often
experience improved morale and communication.
How do pets serve as helpers?
Specially trained assistance dogs provide people who have physical and mental
disabilities with the profound gift of independence. These dogs serve as the
hands, ears, or eyes of their human partners and assist them by performing
everyday tasks that would otherwise be difficult or impossible. Dogs may also
detect changes in behavior, body language, or odor that precede seizures in
their human partners, alerting them so that they may seek a safe environment.
Can pets also be healers?
Pets are good for our emotional and physical health. Caring for a companion
animal provides a sense of purpose and fulfillment and lessens feelings of
loneliness and isolation in all age groups. It's well known that relaxed, happy
people do not become ill as often as those who suffer from stress and
depression.
Animal companionship also helps lower a person's blood pressure and cholesterol
levels. And studies show that having a dog increases survival rates in groups of
patients who have suffered cardiac arrest. Dog walking, pet grooming, and even
petting provide increased physical activity that strengthens the heart, improves
blood circulation, and slows the loss of bone tissue. Put simply, pets aren't
just good friends, they are good medicine.
For More Information
Listed below are just a few of the many Internet resources, magazines, and books
available to help you learn more about how pets help people. Please note that,
except for its own materials, The HSUS is not affiliated with any of these
references and their inclusion here does not represent an endorsement.
Web Sites
The Humane Society of the United States
The American Veterinary Medical Association
Latham Foundation
Books
Beck, A., and A. Katcher. 1996. Between Pets & People: the Importance of Animal
Companionship. Purdue Press.
Fine, A., ed. 1999. Handbook on Animal-Assisted Therapy. Academic Press.
Robinson, I., ed. 1995. The Waltham Book of Human-Animal Interaction: Benefits
and Responsibilities of Pet Ownership. Pergamon Press.
Wilson, C.C., and D.C. Turner, eds. 1997. Companion Animals in Human Health.
Sage Publications.
Journals
Also check out the journals Anthrozoos and Society and Animals, which frequently
focus on the many physical and psychological benefits of human-animal
companionship. For an online version of Society and Animals, visit
www.psyeta.org/sa/index.html.
Copyright © 2001 The Humane Society of the United States. All rights reserved.
