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Humans have
strong bonds with animals
March 1, 2007
It may not be the kind of news you'll want to share with Mom and Dad,
but a recent study by the Pew Research Center shows that when gauging
intimacy in families, the dog rules, with mom coming in second, followed
by the cat. Dad brings up the rear when asked the question, "Which word
best describes your relationship with your dog, cat, mom, dad; close,
distant or neither?"
According to Pew, which studies social attitudes and trends, Americans
surveyed ranked their feelings in this order: 94 percent said they feel
close to their dog, 87 percent said they feel close to their mother, 84
percent said they feel close to their cat, yet only 74 percent of people
poled said they feel close to their father. It would have been
interesting to go a step further and ask who they felt closest to. The
percentages may have surprised us.
The survey also indicates that many pet owners consider their pets a member of the family:
85 percent
of dog owners and 78 percent of cat owners.
Even if you don't have a pet, you've likely received a holiday card
signed by John, Carol, Fluffy and Rover.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of sharing your life with
a pet, you'll be impressed by the amount of money Americans spent on
their companions last year: $35.9 billion, double the amount spent in
1994.
Even in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we saw first hand just how
important pets are in people's lives when more than 44 percent of the
population didn't evacuate because of their pets and only 18 percent
didn't evacuate because of a family member.
So what do all these numbers and percentages really tell us? They
certainly show the power and strength of the human-animal bond and how
having a pet enhances and enriches our lives on so many levels.
We see it in the visiting pet programs across the country that bring
pets to nursing homes and hospitals to lift patients' spirits and
contribute to their quality of life.
The United States military uses pets in wartime to comfort soldiers by
giving men and women an opportunity to walk a dog for a while. Soldiers
have told me how important that experience was to them.
We even see the human-animal bond come to life in prison programs where
inmates teach dogs basic obedience skills, such as sit and stay. In some
programs, inmates train shelter animals to be service dogs to help
people with disabilities.
The programs benefit shelter animals by giving them a better shot at
finding a permanent loving home. The person with a disability gains a
life-saving tool and a lifelong friend with their service animals, and
the inmate learns to develop skills that he or she can use in the
outside world.
Additionally, inmates learn compassion, responsibility and giving to
others and they receive it back tenfold from the animals.
One prison dog program in New York called Puppies Behind Bars brings
puppies into a women's correctional facility. The women inmates help
raise and train the puppies, who are at their side in domestic violence
classes. Puppies help the women open up about their lives and comfort
them during these difficult sessions.
It's not unusual for the women to have a puppy by their side when they
go before the parole board. Counselors at the facility found that it
helped to calm the inmates during their hearings.
Louisiana's own Dixon Correctional Institute worked with rescued pit
bulls following Katrina and the state Department of Corrections is a
partner in providing housing for 2,000 special needs pets during a
disaster, should the need arise. Inmates will provide for the animals'
temporary care.
If pets only knew the power they have over us, perhaps they'd demand
better chow. But then they wouldn't be demonstrating the unconditional
love that we humans crave.
- Laura Maloney
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