Companion Animals & Human Health: Benefits, Challenges, & The Road Ahead
Marguerite O'Haire
Dating back to over 12,00 years ago humans have had some sort of special bond with animals. In contemporary days the most common animals to be seen as actual companions to humans are dogs and cats. However, there are often several other animals held in domestic settings as well, such as rabbits, birds, fish, etc.
O'Haire credits the initial understanding of Friedmann et al. (1980)'s study regarding the health and mental effects human-animal companionships have implemented. There has been an immense amount of research conducting indicating positive correlational effects between owning an animal and human health. O'Haire sums up the relationship into two hypothesized mechanisms; biophilia hypothesis & social support hypothesis. Without getting into a summary of what both mean, let me tell you, as a personal animal lover and owner, that is has everything to do with the social support theory.
While it is true that most humans have a desired attraction or appeal to attending to animals and other living things, it does not explain the vast majority of households that include pets. In fact, there are several households containing a dog or cat where one or more family members do not particularly have a bond or fondness for the animal, its for their children or spouse. Thus the idea that mental and physical health problems being affected by an animal-human companionship seems to relate more to the social support hypothesis.
The noted benefits of having a human-animal interaction is the social support in and of themselves and also the acting of facilitators between other human beings. In other words, for individuals who live alone, young children, spouses whom work late and a million other scenarios a pet can act as a emotional and physical support in absence of another human being. Seemingly, if a unwanted or hard situation arises between two people, often times a pet may act as a Segway to fixing or moving away from the situation. Sometimes there are events in our life that are either to severe, or you feel they are opposing to minuscule to burden others by telling them. Pets act as a great outlet for affection, an open ear and comfort without ever having to worry about them judging you, or bringing up whatever you expose to them. Animal-human companionships may actually be better then human-human! An animal can never be fake, or rude. They act as the perfect companion in all situations you need a helping hand.
As a pet owner myself, I know the feeling of wanting to go home and cry. Of not wanting to explain my situation in complete depth and talk about the wrong choices I made and blah blah blah. I can sit down and cry and vent to my bunnies for hours. They never once judge me (and even if they do, I will never know). With the research implying that there are substantial positive mental and health affects, I don't think I can disagree. My family is compiled of family lovers, and I think my grandfather would argue that his dog is what keeps him alive.
I like animals more than people, so maybe I'm SLIGHTLY biased. Or maybe its true, even scientifically that animal-human interactions are extremely beneficial.