essay on keeping a pet

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The case against pets

A morally just world would have no pets, no aquaria, no zoos. no fields of sheep, no barns of cows. that’s true animal rights.

by Gary L Francione & Anna E Charlton   + BIO

We live with six rescued dogs. With the exception of one, who was born in a rescue for pregnant dogs, they all came from very sad situations, including circumstances of severe abuse. These dogs are non-human refugees with whom we share our home. Although we love them very much, we strongly believe that they should not have existed in the first place.

We oppose domestication and pet ownership because these violate the fundamental rights of animals.

The term ‘animal rights’ has become largely meaningless. Anyone who thinks that we should give battery hens a small increase in cage space, or that veal calves should be housed in social units rather than in isolation before they are dragged off and slaughtered, is articulating what is generally regarded as an ‘animal rights’ position. This is attributable in large part to Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation (1975), who is widely considered the ‘father of the animal rights movement’.

The problem with this attribution of paternity is that Singer is a utilitarian who rejects moral rights altogether, and supports any measure that he thinks will reduce suffering. In other words, the ‘father of the animal rights movement’ rejects animal rights altogether and has given his blessing to cage-free eggs, crate-free pork, and just about every ‘happy exploitation’ measure promoted by almost every large animal welfare charity. Singer does not promote animal rights ; he promotes animal welfare . He does not reject the use of animals by humans per se . He focuses only on their suffering. In an interview with The Vegan magazine in 2006, he said, for example, that he could ‘imagine a world in which people mostly eat plant foods, but occasionally treat themselves to the luxury of free-range eggs, or possibly even meat from animals who live good lives under conditions natural for their species, and are then humanely killed on the farm’.

We use the term ‘animal rights’ in a different way, similar to the way that ‘human rights’ is used when the fundamental interests of our own species are concerned. For example, if we say that a human has a right to her life, we mean that her fundamental interest in continuing to live will be protected even if using her as a non-consenting organ donor would result in saving the lives of 10 other humans. A right is a way of protecting an interest; it protects interests irrespective of consequences. The protection is not absolute; it may be forfeited under certain circumstances. But the protection cannot be abrogated for consequential reasons alone.

Non-human animals have a moral right not to be used exclusively as human resources, irrespective of whether the treatment is ‘humane’, and even if humans would enjoy desirable consequences if they treated non-humans exclusively as replaceable resources.

W hen we talk about animal rights, we are talking primarily about one right: the right not to be property. The reason for this is that if animals matter morally – if animals are not just things – they cannot be property. If they are property, they can only be things. Think about this matter in the human context. We are all generally agreed that all humans, irrespective of their particular characteristics, have the fundamental, pre-legal right not to be treated as chattel property. We all reject human chattel slavery. That is not to say that it doesn’t still exist. It does. But no one defends it.

The reason we reject chattel slavery is because a human who is a chattel slave is no longer treated as a person, by which we mean that the slave is no longer a being who matters morally. A human slave is a thing that exists completely outside the moral community. All the interests that the human slave has can be valued by someone else – the owner – who might choose to value the slave as a member of the family, or could provide the slave with minimal sustenance but otherwise treat the slave horribly. The slave’s fundamental interests might be valued at zero.

There were many laws that purported to regulate race-based human slavery in the United States and Britain. These laws did not work because the only times regulatory laws are relevant is when there is a conflict between slave and slave owner. And, if the slave owner does not prevail substantially all of the time, then there is no longer an institution of slavery. There can be no meaningful challenge to the exercise of the owner’s property rights.

The same problem exists where non-humans are concerned. If animals are property, they can have no inherent or intrinsic value. They have only extrinsic or external value. They are things that we value. They have no rights; we have rights, as property owners, to value them . And we might choose to value them at zero.

There are many laws that supposedly regulate our use of non-human animals. In fact, there are more such laws than there were laws that regulated human slavery. And, like the laws that regulated human slavery, they don’t work. These laws are relevant only when human interests and animal interests conflict. But humans have rights, including the right to own and use property. Animals are property. When the law attempts to balance human and non-human interests, the result is preordained.

however ‘humanely’ we treat animals, they are still subjected to treatment that, were humans involved, would be torture

Moreover, because animals are chattel property, the standard of animal welfare will always be very low. It costs money to protect animal interests, which means that those interests will, for the most part, be protected only in those situations in which there is an economic benefit in doing so. It is difficult to find a welfare measure that does not make animal exploitation more efficient. Laws requiring the stunning of large animals before slaughter reduce carcass damage and worker injuries. Housing calves in smaller social units rather than in solitary crates reduces stress and resulting illness, which reduces veterinary costs.

To the extent that animal welfare measures increase production costs, the increase is usually very small (eg, going from the conventional battery cage to ‘enriched cages’ in the EU) and rarely affects overall demand for the product given elasticities of demand. In any event, however ‘humanely’ treated animals used for food are, they are still subjected to treatment that, were humans involved, would be torture. There is no such thing as ‘happy’ exploitation.

Although the right not to be property is a negative right and does not address any positive rights that non-humans might have, recognition of that one negative right would have the effect of requiring us, as a matter of moral obligation, to reject all institutionalised exploitation, which necessarily assumes that animals are just things that we can use and kill for our purposes.

W e want to take a short detour here and point out that, although what we are saying might sound radical, it’s really not. Indeed, our conventional wisdom about animals is such that we come to almost the same conclusion without any consideration of rights at all.

Conventional wisdom about animals is that it is morally acceptable for humans to use and kill them but that we should not impose unnecessary suffering and death on animals. However we might understand the concept of necessity in this context, it cannot be understood as allowing any suffering or death for frivolous purposes. We recognise this clearly in particular contexts. For example, many people still have a strong negative reaction to the American football player Michael Vick, who was found to be involved in a dog-fighting operation in 2007. Why do we still resent Vick almost a decade later? The answer is clear: we recognise that what Vick did was wrong because his only justification was that he derived pleasure or amusement from harming those dogs, and pleasure and amusement cannot suffice as justifications.

Many – perhaps most – people object to bullfighting, and even most Tories in the UK oppose fox hunting. Why? Because those bloodsports, by definition, involve no necessity or compulsion that would justify imposing suffering and death on non-human animals. No one proposed that Vick would be less culpable if he were a more ‘humane’ dog fighter. No one who opposes bloodsports proposes that they be made more humane because they involve unnecessary suffering. They oppose the activities altogether, and advocate their abolition, because these activities are immoral, however they are conducted.

The problem is that 99.999 per cent of our uses of non-human animals are morally indistinguishable from the activities to which the overwhelming number of us object.

The only use of animals that we make that is not transparently frivolous is the use of animals in research to find cures for serious illnesses

Our most numerically significant use of animals is for food. We kill more than 60 billion animals for food annually, and this does not count the even larger number – estimated conservatively to be about a trillion – of sea animals. We don’t need to eat animals for optimal health. Indeed, an increasing number of mainstream healthcare authorities, including the National Institutes of Health in the US, the American Heart Association, the British National Health Service, and the British Dietetic Association, have stated that a sensible vegan diet can be just as nutritious as a diet that includes animal foods. Some authorities have gone further to say that a vegan diet can be healthier than an omnivorous diet. In any event, it cannot be credibly claimed that we need animal products for health reasons. And animal agriculture is an ecological disaster.

We consume animal products because we enjoy the taste. In other words, we are no different from Vick, except that most of us pay others to inflict the harm rather than inflicting it ourselves. And our uses of animals for entertainment or sport are, by definition, also unnecessary. The only use of animals that we make that is not transparently frivolous is the use of animals in research to find cures for serious illnesses. We reject vivisection as morally unjustifiable even if it involves necessity (a claim we also believe is problematic as an empirical matter), but the morality of vivisection requires a more nuanced analysis than the use of animals for food, clothing, entertainment and other purposes. Just about all of our other uses of animals can easily be seen to be immoral given our conventional wisdom.

The bottom line: whether you adopt an animal-rights position and recognise that animals must have a basic, pre-legal right not to be property, or you stay with conventional wisdom, the result is the same: substantially all of our uses of animals must be abolished.

T o say that an animal has a right not to be used as property is simply to say that we have a moral obligation to not use animals as things, even if it would benefit us to do so. With respect to domesticated animals, that means that we stop bringing them into existence altogether. We have a moral obligation to care for those right-holders we have here presently. But we have an obligation not to bring any more into existence.

And this includes dogs, cats and other non-humans who serve as our ‘companions’.

We treat our six dogs as valued members of our family. The law will protect that decision because we may choose to value our property as we like. We could, however, choose instead to use them as guard dogs and have them live outside with virtually no affectionate contact from us. We could put them in a car right now and take them to a shelter where they will be killed if they are not adopted, or we could have them killed by a veterinarian. The law will protect those decisions as well. We are property owners. They are property. We own them.

The reality is that in the US, most dogs and cats do not end up dying of old age in loving homes. They have homes for a relatively short period of time before they are transferred to another owner, taken to a shelter, dumped or killed.

And it does not matter whether we characterise an owner as a ‘guardian’, as some advocates urge. Such a characterisation is meaningless. If you have the legal right to take your dog to a kill shelter, or to ‘humanely’ kill your dog yourself, it does not matter what you call yourself or your dog. Your dog is your property. Those of us who live with companion animals are owners as far as the law is concerned, and we have the legal right to treat our animals as we see fit as long as we provide for minimal food, water and shelter. Yes, there are limitations on the exercise of our ownership rights. But those limitations are consistent with according a very low value to the interests of our animal companions.

But, as you recoil in horror thinking of what life would be like without your beloved dog, cat or other non-human companion, whom you love and cherish as a member of your family, you are probably thinking: ‘But wait. What if we required everyone to treat their animals the way I treat mine?’

The problem with this reply is that, even if we could come up with a workable and enforceable scheme that required animal owners to provide a higher level of welfare to their animals, those animals would still be property. We would still be able to value their lives at zero and either kill them, or take them to a shelter where they would be killed if not adopted.

You might respond that you disagree with all that as well, and that we ought to prohibit people from killing animals except in situations in which we might be tempted to allow assisted suicide (terminal illness, unrelenting pain, etc) and that we should prohibit shelters from killing animals except when it is in the best interests of the animal.

domestication itself raises serious moral issues irrespective of how the non-humans involved are treated

What you’re suggesting starts coming close to abolishing the status of animals as chattel property and requiring that we treat them in a way that is similar to the way we treat human children. Would it be acceptable to continue to breed non-humans to be our companions then?

Our answer is still a firm ‘no’.

Putting aside that the development of general standards of what constitutes treating non-humans as ‘family members’ and resolution of all the related issues is close to impossible as a practical matter, this position neglects to recognise that domestication itself raises serious moral issues irrespective of how the non-humans involved are treated.

Domesticated animals are completely dependent on humans, who control every aspect of their lives. Unlike human children, who will one day become autonomous, non-humans never will. That is the entire point of domestication – we want domesticated animals to depend on us. They remain perpetually in a netherworld of vulnerability, dependent on us for everything that is of relevance to them. We have bred them to be compliant and servile, and to have characteristics that are pleasing to us, even though many of those characteristics are harmful to the animals involved. We might make them happy in one sense, but the relationship can never be ‘natural’ or ‘normal’. They do not belong in our world, irrespective of how well we treat them. This is more or less true of all domesticated non-humans. They are perpetually dependent on us. We control their lives forever. They truly are ‘animal slaves’. Some of us might be benevolent masters, but we really can’t be anything more than that.

There are some, such as Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka, who in their book Zoopolis (2011) say that humans are dependent on each other, and ask what’s wrong with animals being dependent on us? Human relationships might involve mutual dependence or interdependence, but such dependence either operates on the basis of choice, or it reflects social decisions to care for more vulnerable members of society who are bound together and protected by the complex aspects of a social contract. Besides, the nature of human dependence does not strip the dependant of core rights that can be vindicated if the dependence becomes harmful.

There are those who respond to our position by saying that dogs, cats and other ‘pet’ animals have a right to reproduce. Such a position would commit us to continue to reproduce without limit and indefinitely, as we could not limit any reproductive right to ‘pet’ animals. As for those who are concerned that the end of domestication would mean a loss of species diversity, domesticated animals are beings we have created through selective breeding and confinement.

Some critics have claimed that our position concerns only the negative right not to be used as property, and does not address what positive rights animals might have. This observation is correct, but all domestication would end if we recognised this one right – the right not to be property. We would be obliged to care for those domesticated animals who presently exist, but we would bring no more into existence.

If we all embraced the personhood of non-humans, we would still need to think about the rights of non-domesticated animals who live among us and in undeveloped areas. But if we cared enough not to eat, wear or otherwise use domesticated non-humans, we would undoubtedly be able to determine what those positive rights should be. The most important thing is that we recognise the negative right of animals not to be used as property. That would commit us to the abolition of all institutionalised exploitation that results in the commodification and control of them by humans.

We love our dogs, but recognise that, if the world were more just and fair, there would be no pets at all, no fields full of sheep, and no barns full of pigs, cows and egg-laying hens. There would be no aquaria and no zoos.

If animals matter morally, we must recalibrate all aspects of our relationship with them. The issue we must confront is not whether our exploitation of them is ‘humane’ – with all of the concomitant tinkering with the practices of animal-use industries – but rather whether we can justify using them at all.

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Benefits of having a pet: why keeping pets gives you positive energy.

Pets are hard work. Taking care of an animal is a financial investment, a time commitment, and sometimes a source of frustration. However, any pet owner can attest that their pet is worth all of the effort.

This is because pets, by nature, provide us with an influx of positive energy [1] that we can’t find anywhere else. Specifically, there are four important ways that pets provide positive energy that all pet owners should be thankful for. 

1. They Support Your Mental Health

No matter what you’re going through, a pet will be by your side to help you through it. With the spread of COVID-19, the emotional support of our pets is more important than ever. There is increased fear, anxiety , and depression as we all face the unknown, experience loneliness from social distancing, and watch the confirmed cases and deaths rise. Our pets can provide real, critical support in the face of all this turmoil.

Some specific ways that pets help your mental health include:

Companionship

There are many times in your life where you will feel alone. Maybe you’re social distancing, you just moved to a new city, you’re going through a break-up, or you recently lost a family member. A pet will be there for you and can provide a stable relationship even when other relationships are unstable.

A study of 148 college women proved this when it found that those who owned pets had lower loneliness scores on the UCLA Loneliness Scale [2] . 

Stress Reduction

Life gets hard. Homework can pile up at school, projects can create tension at work, or deadlines can loom over your head. When these things happen, it’s nice to have a pet to come home to.

Pets are carefree, and petting, walking, or playing with them can take a load off after a long, not-so-carefree day. 

Having Something to Care for

Pets need constant attention. For instance, dogs always need to be walked, fed, and played with. Even smaller pets like a gecko need constant care: they need food, water, tank cleanings, tank temperature checks, and great care when handling. [3] That’s a lot to attend to!

Having someone to care for helps your mental state by giving you a sense of responsibility over another life and by making you feel needed and important. Truly, pets rely on us for everything, and that can give your life an added sense of meaning and purpose. 

They’re Cute!

Having an adorable little friend to come home to would put a smile on anyone’s face. Whether you have a dog with floppy ears and a big smile, or a gecko with big bright eyes and tiny little toes, having such a cute creature to call your own brings joy and is a source of pride. 

ESAs (Emotional Support Animals) are proof of the mental support that pets can provide. ESAs are helpful for people with more serious mental health conditions like panic disorders, major depression, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [4] . Dogs, cats, birds, and even pigs can be ESAs and have helped support people with these conditions in ways that other humans cannot express. 

2. They Support Your Physical Health

In addition to supporting our mental health, pets also provide positive energy by supporting our physical health. According to the National Center for Health Research, here are some of the ways dogs improve physical health [5] .

Exercise and Fitness

Exercise and fitness come to mind first when we think about physical health. This benefit is seen most in dog owners, since dogs are high-energy. They frequently need to go on walks or runs, and if your dog is walking, then so are you.

Routine exercise can be hard for non-dog owners to commit to. However, as soon as you adopt a dog, you have another life who is depending on you to establish and maintain that routine. 

Allergy Immunity

Believe it or not, research suggests that kids who grow up around animals are more likely to develop an immunity to bacteria and pet allergens . This is especially true for kids who grow up on farms with animals like dogs, cats, cows, horses, and chickens. 

Reduced Cardiovascular Risk and Lower Blood Pressure

Pet owners have less cardiovascular problems and lower blood pressure. This could be a result of more exercise, higher emotional support in the face of stress, or a combination of both.

A recent study by Washington State University [6] found that students who were able to pet an animal for just ten minutes significantly reduced the production of the stress hormone cortisol. Imagine how much you could reduce stress if you had an animal nearby all the time! 

Less Medical Care

Studies have found that those who own pets, specifically dogs, seek general medical care less frequently than those who are non-pet owners. This makes sense considering the mental and physical benefits of owning pets. In a 1992 study, participants reported less general health complaints and a score improvement on the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-30) [7] .

Easing Pain

People who experience chronic pain, such as migraines or arthritis, have reported that owning a pet helps them deal with that pain. The emotional support and lower stress that pets provide is a possible explanation for this. A less active, quiet animal may also be more comforting for those dealing with chronic pain. 

The physical benefits that pets provide have an added bonus: when you feel good on the outside, you tend to feel good on the inside, too! So, the physical benefits that pets provide can double as benefits to your mood and mental health. 

3. They Provide Social Support

Pets provide social support by being our best friends. A lot of people feel that they can relate to their pets, and even have similar personalities. For instance, more active people may adopt energetic dogs, and the bond between them is often quite strong. 

Pets also provide social support by helping you meet new friends . For instance, talking about your pet can be a great icebreaker when you’re meeting new neighbors, classmates, or coworkers. In my own experience, people love hearing about your pets and seeing pictures, too! If the person you’re sharing with also has a pet, you automatically have something in common that can help foster a new friendship. 

Dogs provide an added social support because of their active nature. You can meet new people or strike up a conversation with your neighbors just by taking your dog on walks or bringing them to the dog park.

Once you’ve met new friends, you can get to know them better by having doggy play dates or by sharing advice about training, illnesses, or behavioral problems. If you’re a cat owner, don’t worry; some cats also like having play dates with new friends, and fellow cat owners will also be a great source of advice and support in caring for your own cat. 

Having uncommon, exotic pets has social advantages, too. If you don’t know many people who have the same type of lizard or bird that you do, for example, this gives you a unique connection to others who do have that kind of pet. Even if you don’t know anyone nearby, there are forums and online groups for people who own specific pets, and these can be great sources of both information and personal connection. They may be long distance, but the connections can be just as real, and just as positive!

4. They Offer Unconditional Love

If you have a pet, you know what true love is. They care about you no matter who you are or what you’ve done, and you will always matter to them. Even if you feel unstable in your human relationships, you will never have to question the security of your relationship with your pet.

Even if you have a quieter pet like a gecko or mouse, you can be certain that they love you just as much as a bouncy dog or cuddly cat does. They may show it in different ways, but that doesn’t make it any less real. 

Pets are also an example of how to love better. If we showed the same empathy and compassion to everyone that our pets show us, then the world would be a much happier place. Not only that, but the world would also be a whole lot better if we loved everyone to the same degree that our pets love us. 

Final Thoughts

Yes, pets can be difficult and take a lot of hard work, but that’s part of what makes our relationships with our pets so rewarding . The hard work we put in shows up in a healthy physical, mental, and social state, and creates a loving emotional bond to our pets. The positive energy that pets provide us with speaks for itself, and it’s not something that we should take for granted. 

Featured photo credit: Eric Ward via unsplash.com

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• Future Perfect

The case against pet ownership

Why we should aim for a world with fewer but happier pets.

by Kenny Torrella

Some days, when the doomscrolling becomes too much, I switch up my social media consumption to something I call petscrolling. It’s the act of swiping through an endless feed of Instagram reels featuring resilient three-legged rescue dogs hiking in the woods, feisty yet charming shop cats, and the occasional potbellied pet pig splashing around in a kiddie pool.

The internet is awash in this feel-good content starring some of the 250 million animals — nearly one for every person — who populate American households. It all reinforces the inherent goodness of the ancient human-animal bond, and lets us believe that where there are pets — whom most owners consider to be family members — there is joy, love, play, and hope.

There’s plenty of all that in my household, thanks to my sweet and spunky rescued pit bull mix, Evvie, one of many animals I’ve lived with during my lifetime. In the middle of 2020, she was picked up as a stray puppy in Greenville, North Carolina, before being passed through several foster homes. My partner and I took her home the day we met her, but only after hours of deliberation over whether I felt I had the time and energy to give her the life she deserved. (Evvie was young and full of energy, and I had just started at Vox.)

Evvie instantly added so much to our lives, and for a while, I assumed our relationship was reciprocal and that she gets just as much from our bond as I do. But recently I’ve begun to wonder if she’s a lot more bored and frustrated than I previously thought. That led me to read the stirring 2016 book Run, Spot, Run: The Ethics of Keeping Pets by author and bioethicist Jessica Pierce.

Pierce wants to show people like me the shadows beneath the sunny narrative of pet ownership, things like physical abuse , animal hoarding , puppy mills , dog fighting , and bestiality .

But beyond such extremes, Pierce’s work aims to direct our gaze to where more subtle, but far more common, forms of everyday neglect and cruelty lie. To Pierce, even well-meaning pet owners may have a lot to answer for: punitive training, prolonged captivity and extreme confinement, mutilations (declawing, ear and tail docking), outdoor tethering, lack of autonomy, verbal abuse, monotonous and unhealthy diets, lack of grooming, and inadequate veterinary care. (In 2016, about one-fifth of dog owners and half of cat owners didn’t bring their animal in for routine or preventive care, which is highly recommended .)

Add to the bill lack of exercise and socialization, boredom, and even abandonment. (Almost one-fifth of pet owners surveyed late last year said they were considering giving up their pets due to cost amid high inflation, which is generally not an option for other “family members.”)

All this is possible because, unlike children, pets aren’t really family members — they’re property without legal rights and few laws to protect them. And because abuse and neglect primarily occur in the privacy of the home, there’s little accountability for it. Even the most responsible pet owners, which I’d count myself among, are bound to fail to meet the needs of their animals due to other responsibilities and the inherent challenges of keeping a dog or cat in a world made for humans.

We may see ourselves as the best of animal lovers, but we very well could be inflicting suffering on our pets every day.

Pet-keeping “is like a sacred cow in a way,” Pierce told me. “Everybody assumes that pets are well off, and in fact, pampered … All they have to do is lay around in a bed and get fed treats every now and then and catch a Frisbee if they feel like it — like, who wouldn’t want that life?

“Underneath that is the reality that doing nothing but laying on a bed and having treats fed to you is profoundly frustrating and boring and is not a meaningful life for an animal.”

Animals in a human world

Since humans domesticated dogs (over 20,000 years ago ) and cats (over 10,000 years ago ), who some say are merely “ semi-domesticated ,” their roles have evolved largely from one type of work — hunting and guarding — to another: companionship. And counterintuitively, says Pierce, being a constant companion is a tougher job.

“Dogs are still working dogs; they’re just doing a different kind of work,” she said. “I think it’s actually much more dangerous and difficult work than any other kind of work we’ve ever asked them to do.”

We demand companionship with as little friction as possible, expecting our pets (especially dogs) to be docile and agreeable, and to adapt quickly to the human world, with its countless rules and norms that mean nothing to them. And then when they inevitably fail to do so at first, we deem their natural habits misbehavior in need of correction, or abandonment.

It’s telling that the world’s most popular dog trainer, Cesar Millan, partly relies on dominance and control to bring his subjects to heel. (Millan popularized the “dominance theory” approach to dog training, which has been debunked by scientists and criticized by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior. A meta-analysis found that punitive training can increase dogs’ fear, anxiety, and stress.)

To serve the guard-to-companion evolution, a $136 billion pet industry has sprung up in recent decades to breed, transport, and sell tens of millions of animals a year — often in terrible conditions — and provide all the accoutrements of the modern pet, from food to toys to veterinary care to perfume for dogs . And just as Millan and his legion of followers bend some dogs’ behavior to their will, breeders have done the same for dogs’ genetics to make some breeds particularly agile , small, or cute — in other words, more attractive to humans. America’s current most popular breed, the French bulldog — and other flat-faced dogs, like pugs, boxers, and Shih Tzus — suffer from a variety of health issues because of how they were bred, leading journalist and Vox contributor Tove Danovich to call the Frenchie “a breed that’s been broken to accommodate us.”

And while approximately 30 to 40 percent of cats and dogs are acquired from shelters, not all of those adoptions work out — 7 to 20 percent are eventually returned, often due to complaints over the animals’ behavior. (Incompatibility with other pets, allergies, and cost are other top reasons).

Then there’s the estimated 97 million rabbits, birds, hamsters, gerbils, mice, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and other small animals kept as pets — mostly wild, social animals who spend their lives largely confined and isolated in cages and tanks. Their owners may love them, but their cramped and unnatural living arrangements are not so different from the pigs and chickens we raise for food.

A number of animal welfare scholars, like Pierce, are challenging the rosy picture that the pet industry — and pet owners, myself included — have painted around the domestic human-animal bond, and sometimes pose a radical question: should we end pet ownership? I’m increasingly inclined to think the answer could be yes — or that at the very least, there should be far fewer pets, and those owners should be prepared to put in the time and effort to provide them with far better lives.

The secret, boring life of pets

Before the cat dads and dog moms come for me, know this: I am one of you.

I’m an “animal person,” having spent half my life advocating for, and now reporting on, their welfare. I’ll always share a house with a rescued dog or cat. But Evvie’s needs, and my constant inability to meet them, have led me to question the whole endeavor of pet keeping.

As much as my partner and I lavish her with treats, walks, tug-of-war, playtime with other dogs , enrichment games, and less than legal off-leash romps in the woods outside our home in Silver Spring, Maryland, she spends much of her days with nothing to do but look out the window. We both work from home, which means there’s a fair amount of commotion and engagement to keep her stimulated. But despite that, Evvie is inevitably left to herself for much of the day — and she seems quite bored, with her extended periods of sleep followed by barking at me for attention (which she stops as soon as we play or go on a walk). And Evvie is comparatively lucky: in 2011, the average pet owner spent just about 40 minutes a day with their supposed family member.

Scientists have set up cameras to see what dogs do when home alone all day, and it turns out there’s a lot of yawning, barking, howling, whining, and sleeping — signs of anxiety and frustration. Charlotte Burn, a biologist and associate professor at the Royal Veterinary College in London, thinks our pets could also become bored when left alone for hours at a time.

“For most of us, [boredom is] a transient thing, and we can do something about it,” Burn told me. “But when you cannot do anything about it, it’s incredibly distressing. … Sometimes it’s thought of as a kind of luxury problem for animals, but actually, it may not be so luxurious if [an animal] can’t do anything about it, and it might be actually a massive welfare issue.”

Burn says there are two main animal responses to boredom. The first is drowsiness, brought on by an animal not having enough to do to stay awake, which looks to humans like staring into space, yawning, or sighing, even if the animal isn’t tired. The second is restlessness, even engaging in behaviors to help them stay awake. “They’ll try and escape their situation,” she says. “They’ll take risks, they’ll explore things even if they don’t like them, just basically to try and almost wake themselves up and make something happen.”

When we think about our pets, we naturally think about the brief time we spend with them — not their quiet, dull hours while we’re occupied with work, child care, friends, or errands while they’re cooped up. They might be excited when we come home not necessarily because they’re so delighted to see us, but because there’s finally an end to the silence that fills so much of their day.

“I think dogs are very adaptable, and become accustomed, often, to their lack of choices and autonomy,” said Alexandra Horowitz, a leading expert on dog behavior and head of the Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College, over email. “But I think that it’s not a good situation for them.”

Just how uneven the relationship is between pets and their human owners was demonstrated during the pandemic when, lonely and stuck at home, one in five households adopted a new pet. As new pet owners returned to work, however, their newly lonely pets struggled with the sudden change, showing high rates of chewing, digging, barking, escaping, pacing, hiding, and indoor urination and defecation.

Our pets might not be so bored if they just had some autonomy, but having a pet means regularly denying it. If Evvie’s hungry, she can’t grab a snack from the fridge. If she wants to play with another dog, I have to schedule it, or take her to the dog park (which for some dogs can be a blast and for others, overwhelming or dangerous , with some dogs dominating others, leading to stress and injuries). If she wants to explore the great outdoors, she has to wait until I have the time to take her for a walk — and even then, she’s tethered to a pesky leash, which I gently pull whenever she does something so harmless as stray too far into a neighbor’s yard to smell something that interests her or race ahead to greet a nearby dog or human.

As good as Evvie has it compared to most pets, she’s still a dog living in a world built for humans, and that means a life of constantly thwarted desires. The ability to meet her basic needs is entirely dependent upon someone else. Pets as we own them live in our worlds, not theirs.

What about cats? Cat behaviorists say they too can get bored . Few issues in the pet community spark as much debate as to whether cats should stay indoors or be given the freedom to come and go as they please in order to meet their needs for exercise, mental stimulation, and hunting, especially when that hunting results in the mass death of wildlife. (A 2013 paper estimates that cats in the US kill 1.3 to 4 billion birds and 6.3 to 22.3 billion small mammals annually, while wind turbines are estimated to kill a few hundred thousand birds to north of a million , each year).

The estimate has been contested , but even if it’s grossly off-base, it’s still a whole lot of death that’s a direct result of humanity’s semi-domestication and breeding of a once-wild animal. It’s also another example of a complicated ethical issue in which the welfare of pets is in conflict with the welfare of other animals (like killing animals for meat to feed pets).

So if we’re keeping more pets than ever, but many of the dogs are unhealthy and bored, the cats are either bored or cute little wildlife hunters, and the pet fish and birds are cruelly confined, what do we do about it? Some leading animal welfare experts say we ought to shrink the pet population and shift pet ownership from a casual hobby to a serious responsibility.

A world without pets — or one with happier pets?

Starting in 1979, Bob Barker of The Price is Right signed off each episode with a public service announcement: “This is Bob Barker reminding you to help control the pet population — have your pets spayed or neutered.”

1979 was a different time for cats and dogs in America; by one estimate, 7.6 to 10 million of them were euthanized annually around that time. While the national pet population has grown considerably in the years since, the number of shelter cats and dogs euthanized — while still depressingly high — has fallen to an estimated 920,000 per year. There are a lot fewer strays, too. For example, in the mid-1980s New Jersey had 160,000 cats and dogs roaming the streets, which fell to 80,000 in 2014.

The dramatic reduction came about as a result of increased pet sterilization at veterinary clinics, a rise in shelters and animal welfare organizations, and PSA campaigns like Barker’s and others from animal welfare groups — such as “Adopt, don’t shop” — all contributing to a cultural shift in how we get, and treat, our pets. But while 30 to 40 percent of cats and dogs are acquired from animal shelters, many of them — especially dogs — are still the product of breeding: whether at large-scale puppy mills , in which dogs are raised and sold more like livestock than family members, or from more informal, small-scale home operations.

But what if every prospective dog and cat owner were to actually follow the “adopt, don’t shop” motto and Barker’s plea to spay or neuter their pet? It would be a Children of Men situation for domesticated pets. The pet population would rapidly shrink before virtually disappearing altogether, ushering in a world unimaginable — perhaps not even worth inhabiting — for the most diehard cat and dog lovers.

Would that be so bad? For pet-loving humans, definitely. My relationship with Evvie is deeply enriching (for me, at least). I’m excited to see her each morning, to watch her run full-speed through the forest, roughhouse with other dogs, and wag uncontrollably each time I walk through the front door. Life without dogs would be far duller.

But keeping pets shouldn’t only be about me or you — it’s a relationship, and one in which humans arguably take much more than they give. And by continuing pet keeping as it’s done now — by breeding millions of new puppies, kittens, fish, and other animals each year — we’re making the decision that all the overt abuse and lower-grade cruelty and neglect is more than made up for by the joy wrought by the human-animal bond. I’m no longer so sure it is.

Gary Francione and Anna Charlton, a firebrand animal rights couple who teach law at Rutgers University, don’t think it is and have advocated for the abolition of pet ownership.

“Domesticated animals are completely dependent on humans, who control every aspect of their lives,” they wrote in a provocative essay for Aeon in 2016. “Unlike human children, who will one day become autonomous, non-humans never will. That is the entire point of domestication — we want domesticated animals to depend on us. They remain perpetually in a netherworld of vulnerability, dependent on us for everything that is of relevance to them.”

Because pets are property under the law, they argue, welfare standards will always be too low. We need to care for the ones in existence, but stop breeding new ones.

“I love living with dogs, but even I think that owning dogs can easily be considered morally questionable and may change in the future,” said Horowitz, the dog cognition expert.

I relate to Horowitz’s doubts, and find Francione’s and Charlton’s arguments persuasive, though given the popularity of pets — and the ancient human-animal bond — abolishing pet ownership is a political and cultural nonstarter. What might be more realistic is to radically rethink how we acquire and treat them, and just what we owe them.

When I asked Marc Bekoff , an ethologist at the University of Colorado Boulder who’s co-authored books with Pierce (and Jane Goodall), about whether we should phase out pet ownership, he said it’s perhaps a few thousand years too late to ask that question.

“In the best of all possible worlds, we wouldn’t have evolved to where we are now with dogs, because so many of the problems with dogs come down to selective breeding by humans deciding which traits they find cute or appealing,” he said, pointing to flat-faced dogs like the French bulldog.

He’d like to see puppy and kitten mills phased out amid a major cultural shift wherein people would only get a dog or cat if they have the time, money, patience, and energy to give them a good life. The motto would be: fewer pets with better lives. “You’re dealing with a sentient being who has very specific and enduring needs, and if you can’t fulfill them,” you should think twice, he said.

Pierce, a parent herself, has written about the importance of families with children thinking twice about getting a pet. Kids can be excited about a new pet one month and move on to another interest the next month — or just fail to take good care of the animal in the unique ways the pet needs (because they’re a child!). Families with children can also be more prone to neglecting their pets because child care, understandably, comes first.

While a lot of people call their pets “fur babies,” we’d be wise to think of them more as actual dependents, because they are. For most of human history, childhood wasn’t really a thing — children existed, at least in part, in service of their parents as additional labor. That has, of course, changed drastically over the last few hundred years, and with it, attitudes and habits around how we treat children. As part of that shift, though, the expectations for parenting rose as well, so much so that those expectations have become a major reason why people are having fewer or no children . Perhaps the same should happen for pets in the future. While the average pet probably has a much better life today than they did just 50 years ago, there’s still much room for improvement, but the demands would be such that fewer people would be in a position to become pet owners.

What pet owners should know

If you do decide to get a cat or dog, it’s imperative to adopt so as to prevent one more euthanasia among the millions of animals languishing in shelters, living lives that are likely worse than what they might experience even with a generally neglectful owner. And experts say it’s critical to understand that a good life is subjective — every individual animal is different — but it goes far beyond the basic requirements of sufficient food and water, protection from injury, and a walk here and there.

When surveyed , people are motivated to acquire a pet to fulfill their own emotional or practical needs: companionship, love, and affection, someone to greet them, property protection, or help while hunting. But taking a more animal-centered approach to keeping pets — focusing as well on what the human can give in the relationship — would go a long way to improving their quality of life.

For example, it doesn’t just mean taking the dog on a walk but letting them direct the route and giving them as much time as they’d like to smell , which is how they make sense of the world around them. For Bekoff, it also means ensuring they’re not left alone all day while their human is at work.

“Some people I know just leave their house at seven in the morning, they go to work, they go work out, or they go out for dinner, so the average dog is just going to be alone all day,” he said. “And then they get home and they’re tired, and they don’t walk them and they give them crappy food. Those people should not have a dog.”

While most veterinarians oppose letting cats free to roam outdoors, largely to prevent more cats from becoming roadkill, only six out of 10 are kept entirely indoors. Whichever side of the indoor-outdoor debate you choose, there are ways to give cats more of what they need. If your cat does have outdoor access, try giving them a colorful collar , which catches birds’ attention, gives them time to fly away, and can drastically reduce the avian body count. You can also try taking your cat for a walk on a leash (even if your neighbors might give you a double take).

“If you decide to keep a cat indoors, then you really have to work hard to compensate for what you’ve taken from them,” Pierce said. “[Your house] should look like a house where a cat lives, with perches and highways that they can walk across high up above the floor.” She recommends the book — this is the real title and author name — Total Cat Mojo: The Ultimate Guide to Life with Your Cat by Jackson Galaxy , whose YouTube channel includes videos on how to cat-ify one’s home.

Pets could benefit from more diverse diets , and there are also plenty of “enrichment” toys for cats and dogs. More importantly, enrichment games can be played with dogs to put their innate scavenging and sniffing skills to work. Good starting points for more animal-centered pet keeping include applying concepts like positive reinforcement training and cooperative care , and studying material from experts like Pierce, Horowitz, Galaxy, Bekoff, and anthrozoologist and cat expert John Bradshaw.

It’s harder for me to conceive of how one could ethically keep smaller animals, like birds , reptiles , rodents , fish , and amphibians . Unlike cats and dogs, these are naturally wild, undomesticated animals who are social and meant to fly, swim, or move great distances in a single day. As pets, they suffer in isolation and intensive confinement. It might be time we stop breeding them (or taking them from the wild, as some are actually trafficked wildlife ). We should give as good a life as possible to the ones who remain, through larger and more enriching enclosures, and eventually phase out of keeping them as pets.

For the animals we do have in our homes, we need to bring an attitude of give and take to the relationship, and we’re going to have to give a lot more than we’re currently taking.

“You’re really still asking these dogs or cats or other animals to live in a human-dominated world,” Bekoff said. “Cutting them some slack and giving them more choice and control or agency over their lives is a win-win for everyone.”

When my partner and I adopted Evvie six months into the pandemic, like so many others , I figured that a brisk walk or two a day, occasional playtime with other dogs, and brief games of tug-of-war between work meetings was enough to give her a good life. I’ve come to realize that’s the bare minimum.

I think a world with far fewer pets is a better one, though I know Evvie won’t be my last, so long as there are animals in need of adoption from shelters. But rescuing a dog or cat is just the start. Those who are mildly interested in acquiring a pet need to think long and hard about the steep responsibility that lies ahead, and us self-described animal lovers ought to do much more to live up to our stated values.

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10 Mental & Physical Health Benefits of Having Pets

Pets are family members. Like humans, they need love, health care, and attention. But pet parents’ relationships with their pets are not one sided. Pets give so much back in return, improving the health of our minds, bodies, and hearts. 

The benefits of having pets are plentiful — and scientifically proven. Pets help their humans live longer, happier, and healthier lives mentally and physically. The Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) gathers the latest information on the positive health effects of companion animals. These researchers help make the case for adding a pet to a household. 

Let’s talk about those benefits.

Better Mental Health

Pets can contribute to positive mental health through emotional work and practical work. The emotional work can be described as alleviating worries, stress, and depression . You may have noticed that your pet wastes no time noticing and springing into action when you are upset or sad. Their intuition is what makes them great support and therapy animals, and animal-assisted therapy is effective in treating PTSD, anxiety, and depression. 

Then there’s the practical work that comes with caring for a pet. This means making sure their individual needs are met. Developing a daily routine of walks and feeding times can help pet parents  with mental health conditions feel a sense of purpose that affects other areas of their lives.

The Data: Pets and Mental Health 

A 2016 HABRI study explored the role of pets in the social networks of people managing a long‑term mental health problem.

• Pets were found to contribute to a stronger sense of identity in pet owners with mental health conditions, including reducing negative perceptions of a mental health condition or diagnosis.
• Pets provide a sense of security and routine in the relationship, which reinforces stable cognition.
• Pets provide a distraction and disruption from distressing symptoms , such as hearing voices, suicidal thoughts, rumination, and facilitating routine and exercise for those who care for them.

Better Physical Health

Every little bit counts when it comes to physical health benefits, and those daily walks really add up for dog owners. Since they are more likely to meet the criteria for regular moderate exercise, dog parents have lower instances of obesity. 

Your heart is one of the biggest spots to see the full benefits of pet ownership. Just the presence of animals has significant impacts on blood pressure, with pet owners having a lower resting blood pressure than people without pet babies. 

Cat parents aren’t left out of the healthy heart race. A feline friend in your home reduces your risk of death due to cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and heart attacks. According to the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI), people without cats have a 40% higher relative risk of heart attack than non‑cat owners.

The Data: Pets and Physical Health 

• Approximately 60% of dog walkers met the criteria for regular moderate and/or vigorous leisure‑time physical activity compared with about 45% for non‑dog owners and dog owners who did not walk their dog in a 2005 Michigan Behavioral Risk Factor Survey.
• In a study of adults over the age of 50 with mildly elevated blood pressure, the presence of a pet dog or cat had a significant impact on blood pressure, with dog ownership being associated with lower diastolic and systolic blood pressure compared to people who did not own pets.
• A study of over 2,400 cat owners concluded there was a significantly lower relative risk for death due to cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and heart attack, compared to non‑owners during a 20‑year follow‑up.

Healthier Aging Process

Research has shown that older adults get social and emotional support from their pets that combats loneliness and depression. Aside from promoting exercise and reducing stress, pets also assist in the treatment of long‑term diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia. 

Pet companionship is also key for hospital and cancer patients. When coupled with animal-assisted activities, pets help patients with pain management and in interactions with doctors and nurses. Those patients also responded better to treatments and reported improvements in their quality of life.

The Data: Pets and Aging 

• Results of a study of older adults who live alone suggest that pet ownership may act as a buffer against loneliness .
• Results of a one-year study that examined the impact of animal‑assisted therapy (AAT) on patients with chronic pain demonstrated that, following AAT, patients reported reduced pain, discomfort, and stress . Additionally, stress among nursing staff was found to decrease significantly following AAT.
• A study of older adults with mental illness living in long‑term care facilities concluded that AAT reduced depressive symptoms and improved cognitive function.

When we look at the data on mental health, physical health, and aging, it’s clear that pets contribute much to people’s lives in these areas, as well as being the loving companions we’ve always known they are.

15 reasons why having a pet is good for you and your family

• Owning a pet can positively impact not only your health but also your lifestyle.
• Couples who own a pet together have lower blood pressure and interact with each other more than couples who do not own a pet.
• Studies show that pet owners are more likely to get to know people in their neighborhood than those who do not have a pet.
• Animals can help children by teaching them about empathy and responsibility, and can even boost their literacy skills.

• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories .

Whether you have a dog, cat, bird, or anything in between, pet ownership can be an adventure.

A furry friend can also keep you company through the stress or isolation of the coronavirus pandemic — this may be why pet adoption and fostering have spiked recently .

While people who adopt an animal usually think they're changing its life for the better, pets have just as much of a positive impact on the lives of their owners. If you're still on the fence about whether or not you should adopt a pet, here are 15 reasons why you need one in your life.

Having a pet can improve your mood.

Owning a pet can help reduce stress you're feeling amid the pandemic. According to studies , spending time with your pet can trigger an increased level of oxytocin, also known as the "love hormone." This is responsible for the feeling of closeness and increased bonding with your pet. It can also increase your overall mood .

Pets can also improve your social life.

Your pet could be the perfect conversation starter for your next Zoom call, but owning a pet could also help you make more friends once social distancing guidelines lift. 

Dogs are naturally curious about their environment, including other dogs and people, and they can be the catalyst for social interactions. If you own a dog, you might find strangers approaching you to ask about them.

But other pets like cats can increase your social circle  as well. According to a 2015 study conducted in Australia and the US, pet owners were significantly more likely to get to know people in their neighborhood than those who did not own a pet.

If you're looking for love, a pet can help with that, too.

Pets can be a great way to increase your chances of finding love . According to a survey by Purina , 54 percent of surveyed pet owners said their pets helped them start a conversation with someone they were interested in. Nearly two thirds of people said they were likely to date someone who owned a pet, and one in three would want to meet someone who has pictures of their pet in their online dating profile.

And if you're in a relationship, a pet can make you both happier and less stressed.

According to research cited by Psychology Today, couples who own a pet together have lower blood pressure and are happier on average than their peers. They also interact more with each other than couples who don't own a pet.

Owning a pet can make you a better person.

According to a study by BarkBox , owning a dog can make you a better person (or at least make you think you are!). Of those surveyed for the study, 93% of pet owners said they could easily name at least one way their pet had made them a better person, including making them noticeably more patient or affectionate.

Bringing your pet to work can boost your morale and help control your stress levels.

Showing off your pet can brighten those work-from-home video meetings, not only for yourself but also for your co-workers.

A 2012 study conducted at a North Carolina manufacturing company found that employees who brought their dogs to the workplace experienced lower stress levels throughout the day, reported being happier in their jobs, and had a higher opinion of their employer.

Pets can also help you unwind after a long day at work.

Pets can give you comfort and a sense of relief. A 2003 study  found the act of petting an animal after a stressful situation reduced feelings of anxiety. "The anxiety-reducing effect applied to people with different attitudes towards animals and was not restricted to animal lovers," the study noted.

Having a pet nearby, especially a dog, can make you feel more secure.

Large dog breeds like German shepherds and Rottweilers make for great deterrents from outside threats, allowing their owners to feel safer. The popularity of Rottweilers has risen in recent years thanks to " their loyalty, confidence and protective instincts. "

You always have someone to snuggle with on cold nights.

While pets may disturb their sleep at times, some owners enjoy the comfort of curling up with their pet close by. They can make you feel at peace as you drift off to sleep.

Whether it's taking them for a walk or doing yoga, pets can make you more physically active.

Dubbed the " Lassie effect ," taking your dog for a walk also makes you more physically fit and increases the chance you're going to get your daily exercise.

You'll find immeasurable joy in playing fetch with your dog, or teaching your pet tricks.

Almost every dog owner knows the joy of playing fetch with them on a nice summer day. You can teach your dog to shake hands, roll over, and bark on command, but dogs aren't the only ones that can be taught tricks. Cats can also be trained to sit and high five on command. 

While they're not as fluffy as cats or dogs, birds like parrots can be life-long companions.

Birds are social creatures and love to play games and perform tricks. But unlike other animals, parrots and other birds have the ability to learn and mimic human speech. They also have life spans on par with a human's, with some parrots living to be over 100, meaning you'll have a friend for life.

Owning a pet can help your child's learning.

Having a pet at an early age can boost a child's confidence and empathy levels , according to Blue Cross. Pets are natural listeners, and your child may feel more comfortable practicing their reading skills aloud in front of a pet than another person. 

A pet can also teach your child about responsibility.

According to a national survey by the American Pet Product Association, 58 percent of pet owners said their animals help teach their children to be responsible. From an early age, a child can help feed, walk, and bathe a family pet.

Pets can also be the inspiration for great creative works.

Pets inspire people in various of ways. English actor Oliver Reed reviewed his movie script with his cat, Felix, nearby. When he was coming up with his theories, Albert Einstein would often watch his cat, Tiger, move about. It was an injured dog that inspired Florence Nightingale to become a nurse. 

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Faculty & Research | 4.11.2023

The Health Benefits of Owning a Pet

Animal companions help their owners live longer, happier lives..

Today is National Pet Day , and pet owners have another reason to celebrate: their pets are helping them live healthier, longer lives. “Pet owners are less likely to die,” said Harvard Medical School clinical assistant professor Beth Frates, citing the American Heart Association’s finding that owning a furry (or scaly, or hairy) companion reduces a person’s mortality rate by 24 percent.

In a talk yesterday at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Frates and Megan Mueller, associate professor of human-animal interaction at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, discussed the health benefits of being around companion animals—whether one owns a pet or not.

From lowering blood pressure to assisting in clinical mental health settings, there are many ways pets make people healthier, according to Frates and Mueller:

Exercise:  Research has found that those who own dogs are more likely to achieve 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week—the medically recommended guideline. “If you do reach those exercise guidelines, you will have lower blood pressure, you can lower your cholesterol, you can lower your triglycerides,” Frates explained. She added that studies show when a pet owner tries to get her obese dog get to a healthy weight, the owner reaps health benefits, too: “Owners will go on more walks for the health of the dog—more so than they will for themselves. Of course, the exercise helps both the animal and the human.” Most research focuses on dogs, because they are a popular pet and require frequent walks, but these benefits aren’t restricted to dog owners. For instance, Frates noted that riding a horse is a full-body workout.

Social connection:  “Anyone who owns a dog, and walks that dog, knows it is an invitation for conversation,” Frates says. “It can reduce loneliness and create social connections.” Harvard tutors who own dogs often have the most highly attended study breaks (a chance for students to step away from schoolwork and mingle), she continued, referencing a 2015 University video on dogs in the Houses. Animals, in effect, brought more people together, and social connection is critical to a healthy life. According to data from the Harvard Study of Adult Development—which followed a cohort of Harvard graduates for 80 years—having close relationships is one of the top predictors of maintaining good health, even in old age.

Stress resiliency:  Petting, playing with, or even just maintaining eye contact with pets, releases oxytocin in the brain, which in turn lowers stress levels in the body. Interestingly, research with dogs has shown that they also get an oxytocin boost from these interactions. Pets boost their owners’ stress resiliency by regularly getting them out of the house, into dog parks, and meeting new people. Frates said, “When we are connected, we actually feel less stress, because we can talk to our family, friends, and other connections about how we’re feeling.”

Sleep:  The regular exercise of walking a dog, riding a horse, or playing with pets improves quality of sleep, Frates said. But there’s a caveat: “If people choose to sleep with their pets, that means their sleep is often interrupted. We do want people to get seven to nine uninterrupted hours of sleep, so that is something to consider.”

Mental health:  According to Frates, lifestyle medicine guidelines recommend that people spend 120 minutes in nature each week to lower blood pressure and stress levels—which can often be achieved while playing with, tending to, or walking a pet. Pet fish bring the benefits of nature indoors, too. Studies have found that watching fish lowers a person’s blood pressure, and some research has shown that having fish at home helps the owners maintain their own life routines. Research with elderly widows and widowers found that pet ownership instilled necessary routine and responsibility into their days. “Pets provide a powerful sense of purpose—a routine and a responsibility to care for another living creature,” Mueller said. “That can provide a driving force for getting someone out of bed in the morning.” 

Nutrition:  “When you feed your pet, it’s usually on a schedule. It turns out, it’s good for us to be on an [eating] schedule, too, because it helps us plan what we want to eat helps us make healthier choices,” Frates said. Research into the relationship between pet and owner nutrition is still evolving, but she said anecdotally, “More and more people are making food for their pets that is delicious and nutritious, and hopefully that’s carrying over to quality of food they make for themselves.”

Avoiding risky substances:  In a video presented during the panel, veterinarian Kwane Stewart, founder of Project Street Vet that provides care to homeless pets, said that caring for a pet sometimes deters homeless pet owners from substance abuse. “I can’t say that my pet is my reason for living,” Stewart said, “but for a lot of these people on the streets, that is the case.” Frates added that pet ownership can incentivize some people to quit smoking, just as parents concerned about secondhand smoke might nix their cigarette habit.

Therapeutic benefits:  Beyond the well-known therapy animals like dogs and cats, mental health clinicians also employ rabbits, birds, llamas, and even guinea pigs in their therapeutic practices. Niki Vettel, a mental health clinician specializing in addiction disorders, shared that structured therapeutic time with guinea pigs has helped her patients practice mindfulness and trust. A video from clinicians at Lovelane Therapeutics—an equine therapy group for children with special needs, in Lincoln, Massachusetts—highlighted how horses can help people physically and mentally. A mother of a child with Down Syndrome noted that when her son first started riding at age three, he could not walk. She believed, however, that the muscular strength and confidence he built while riding was key to him later taking his first steps.

“It’s powerful to hear the stories, it’s powerful to read the research. But I think the most powerful thing is the experience of actually being with animals,” Frates said. Fittingly, the organizers treated audience members to a “pet play date” after the talk, featuring therapy animals Sophie the Golden Retriever and Hermie the guinea pig.

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May 1, 2015

Why Do We Have Pets?

People have an innate interest in other species, but we like having pets for a variety of social reasons

By Daisy Yuhas

Getty Images

On my 10th birthday, I got a puppy. I was so shocked—I had wanted a dog for as long as I could remember—and so overwhelmed with happiness that I burst into tears. For the next 14 years, Happy, a beagle, charmed everyone he met. And when he passed, all of us who had known him mourned, as we would for any loved one. Two in three American households have a pet—that is, an animal kept primarily for companionship. And despite the fact that these housemates may bear scales, fur, fins or feathers, people often view their animals as family members. In 2017 we spent an estimated $69 billion on our animal companions and untold hours caring for them.

For 50 years psychologists have been trying to unravel the appeals of animal companionship in hopes of deciphering just why we invest so much in these creatures. In the process, anthrozoologists—scientists who study human-animal relationships—have discovered a window into human sociality more broadly. Our interactions with animals can be useful models for understanding how issues of identity, nurturing, support and attachment play out in a relationship. “It’s all about human psychology,” says anthrozoologist Pauleen Bennett of La Trobe University in Australia. “Pets help us fill our need for social connectedness.”

Although the motivations for pet ownership may vary as much as a Golden Retriever and a goldfish, scientists are finding that some common threads tie people to their household pets. Our attraction to animals may be subconscious, driven by biological and social forces that we do not fully acknowledge. In addition, the emotional bond between pets and their owners can bring varied benefits, from lowered stress to novel adventures. The more we uncover about our companion animals, the more we may learn about our human attachments as well.

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Inborn Attraction?

Part of our attraction to animal companionship is innate. In 2013 psychologist Vanessa LoBue of Rutgers University and her colleagues revealed that toddlers one to three years old spend more time interacting with live animals—whether fish, hamsters, snakes, spiders or geckos—than they do with inanimate toys when given a choice between the two.

Humans even have specialized brain cells for recognizing animal life. Researchers led by Christof Koch of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle (he also serves on Scientific American ’s board of advisers) have found neurons in the amygdala, an area involved in emotions, that respond preferentially to animal images. The 2011 finding hints at a neural basis for the powerful emotional reactions animals elicit from us.

Many animals seem to tap into humans’ attraction to the adorable, a drive that also may motivate good parenting. Behavioral researchers have long noticed that humans seem to have inborn, positive responses to beings with characteristics typical of human infants—such as wide eyes, broad foreheads and large head-to-body ratios.

To better understand the responses that cuteness can elicit, psychologist Hiroshi Nittono, then at Hiroshima University in Japan, and his colleagues published a series of experiments in 2012 in which college students, 132 in all, searched for a digit in numerical matrices or lifted tiny objects from small holes using tweezers. Afterward, participants viewed a series of photographs before attempting the attention or motor task for a second time.

Nittono and his colleagues found that students who viewed adult animals or food—stimuli they had rated as pleasant but not cute—did not improve between trials. But the students who saw cute baby animals did the tweezer task faster and more dexterously and performed the visual search task faster the second time, suggesting that being exposed to such creatures motivates focused, attentive behavior. This finding suggests that humans are primed to attend to fragile, young infants, who may require greater care than other beings. Clearly, baby animals exploit the same instinctive responses in us that human infants elicit.

Such findings lend credence to the idea that our interest in pets stems from what biologist E. O. Wilson has called “biophilia,” or an inherent tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes. Our fascination with all manner of fauna might explain why people adopt such a wide range of animal life, from tarantulas to salamanders.

Yet Wilson has also acknowledged that our interest in animals depends on personal and cultural experience. For example, dogs are popular in many Western countries but are considered unclean in traditional Islamic communities. Indeed, psychologist Harold A. Herzog of Western Carolina University has argued that pet keeping is driven principally by culture. In a paper published in 2013 Herzog and his colleagues assessed the fluctuating popularity of dog breeds using the American Kennel Club’s registry from 1926 to 2005. They found no relationship between a breed’s health, longevity or behavioral traits such as aggressiveness or trainability and its popularity. Instead, they argued, the trends in top dogs were erratic and seemed to shift suddenly, as if driven by fashion. In 2014 three of the authors, including Herzog, further discovered that movies featuring specific dog breeds would boost that pooch’s popularity for up to a decade. In the 10 years following the 1963 release of The Incredible Journey , starring a Labrador Retriever, people registered Labs in the kennel club at an average rate of 2,223 dogs a year, in contrast to 452 dogs a year in the previous decade.

Massachusetts General Hospital researchers discovered that similar brain regions, including the amygdala, engage when women view their own children ( a , b ) and dogs ( c , d ). The overlap is not absolute, however. Certain midbrain areas (SNi/VTA) activate only when mothers see their kids. Credit: “Patterns of Brain Activation When Mothers View Their Own Child and Dog: An FMRI Study,” by Luke E. Stoeckel et al., in PLOS ONE , Vol. 9, No. 10, Article No. E107205; October 3, 2014

Extending these findings to other species, Herzog posited that people may keep pets simply because other people keep pets, reflecting our penchant for imitation. He pointed to a brief craze in the U.S. for turtle keeping, a koi fish fad in Japan and what he jokingly identified as a brief “epidemic of Irish Setters” as further evidence.

Friends with Benefits

But even if imitation plays a role in their choices, most people profess to wanting pets for companionship. This friendship then sustains the connection despite the costs of ownership. Indeed, some animal-human relationships feel similar in certain ways to human relationships. In a study published in 2014 Massachusetts General Hospital veterinarian Lori Palley and her colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure brain activity in 14 mothers while they were looking at pictures of their children or their dogs or at pictures of other people’s children or unfamiliar dogs. The researchers found that the brain activation patterns evoked by images of the women’s own children and dogs were very similar and that those patterns were distinct from those elicited by unknown children and canines, suggesting that maternal feelings may extend to animals. Pets may thus help fill a human need to nurture other living beings.

Our interest in other animals may be partially innate. Children are fascinated by diverse creatures from a young age. Credit: Jeff Greenough Getty Images

Some researchers think we are drawn to cute animals because aspects of their appearance, such as large eyes and so contours, somewhat resemble a human infant’s features. Credit:  Getty Images

An animal also can be on the flip side of this relationship, serving as a source of comfort. In the 1960s Yeshiva University child psychologist Boris Levinson observed that troubled, socially withdrawn children became talkative and enthusiastic about therapy when his dog, Jingles, was present during a session. This observation spurred a series of investigations into whether or not keeping pets could improve well-being. In a 1980 study of 92 people, biologist Erika Friedmann, then at the University of Pennsylvania, reported that pet owners were more likely to be alive a year after a heart attack than were people who did not have a companion animal—possibly because the animals afforded some form of stress relief. Yet efforts to replicate such findings have had mixed results, and animal-assisted therapy, the field that Levinson’s work inspired, has been criticized for overstating the ability of animals to ameliorate mental illness [see “Can Animals Aid Therapy?” by Scott O. Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz].

Credit: Getty Images

Nevertheless, some people may gain psychological support from their pets and keep them for exactly this reason. In a study published in 2012 psychologist Sigal Zilcha-Mano, then at the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya in Israel, and her colleagues asked 285 cat or dog owners to answer a questionnaire assessing their emotional connection with their pet. Then the researchers asked 120 of these pet owners to take a challenging word test. By recording her subjects’ blood pressure—a measure of stress—during the test, Zilcha-Mano found that individuals who had their pet present or thought about the pet before taking the test had lower stress than people who had no contact with the pet. Yet the strength of this benefit depended on how attached the owner was to his or her pet. In other words, the level of emotional sustenance a pet owner receives depends on how close he or she feels to the animal.

Different hormonal cocktails seem to underpin various degrees of animal-human attachment. In a study published in 2012 biologist Linda Handlin of the University of Skövde in Sweden and her colleagues measured levels of the bonding hormone oxytocin and stress hormone cortisol in 10 owners of female Labrador Retrievers and correlated the results with self-reported data about the owners’ relationships with their dogs. Owners who had higher oxytocin levels and lower cortisol levels when interacting with their dogs tended to have closer bonds with their pets. People who frequently kissed their dogs, for example, had higher levels of oxytocin, and women who reported that they dreaded their dog’s death had lower cortisol levels, perhaps because they rely on their animals for stress relief.

A person’s social orientation could also factor into the strength of the pet-person tie. In a study published in 2012 psychologist Andrea Beetz of the University of Rostock in Germany and her colleagues asked 47 seven- to 11-year-old boys who had difficulties forming social attachments to present a story before a committee of unfamiliar adults and then take a math test. During this ordeal, 24 of the children were accompanied by a dog, 10 had a friendly human by their side and the others had a toy dog nearby.

Beetz found that children accompanied by a real dog had the lowest cortisol levels and that those with human company had the highest, probably because people made these boys nervous. Furthermore, among those boys who benefited from the dog, those who engaged in the most petting and other physical contact with the dog during the test showed the least stress, as measured by salivary cortisol. Thus, interacting with animals may be an especially good buffer against stress for those who find human social interaction difficult. “Some things are much easier with animals,” Beetz says. “They are easier to forgive, don’t talk back, and there’s less inhibition when it comes to physical contact.”

Animal Antics

Yet pets are much more than human substitutes. Many people with no obvious social deficits reap varied psychological benefits from owning a pet. A 2015 phone survey of Australian city dwellers found dogs were “social icebreakers”: a puppy can be a great way to meet neighbors. In 2016 a small Korean study found that seniors who tended crickets for eight weeks had improved mental states, perhaps because the responsibility gave their routine added meaning.

In 2012 Bennett presented preliminary findings from a student, psychologist Jordan Schaan, then at Monash University in Australia, who had interviewed 37 dog owners who were personally and professionally successful and had an above-average connection to their animals. (The subjects were educated and affluent and had fulfilling romantic partnerships, for instance.) Among the benefits of dog ownership that these individuals reported was amusement; the animals’ antics made their owners laugh. Furthermore, many pet owners described their companion animals as instructors in a simpler, more virtuous lifestyle. Bennett and Schaan discovered that their highly successful subjects actually looked to their dogs as role models for a better life. People felt they could derive unconditional love and forgiveness from their dogs, whereas human beings seemed more likely to disappoint one another. “There’s something about animals that’s very genuine and honest,” Bennett says. “We miss that in our human interactions.”

Bennett and other anthrozoologists acknowledge that owners project some of this dynamic onto their animals. An owner can “read” a response into an animal companion’s behavior regardless of the animal’s intentions. Yet such projections are precisely what make this field ripe for psychology: they reveal our own social needs and desires. Animal relationships may someday provide useful comparison points to human connections—a benchmark for investigating empathy, caring and even decision making. That these creatures can fit many molds while being so different from us makes these friendships uniquely valuable.

The study of animal companionship is still in its infancy. But without this research, we could not begin to fathom the rich and varied range of relationships that make up human experience.

Daisy Yuhas edits the Scientific American column Mind Matters. She is a freelance science journalist and editor based in Austin, Tex. She is author of the Kids Field Guide to Birds .

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February 2018

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The Power of Pets

Health Benefits of Human-Animal Interactions

Nothing compares to the joy of coming home to a loyal companion. The unconditional love of a pet can do more than keep you company. Pets may also decrease stress, improve heart health, and even help children with their emotional and social skills.

An estimated 68% of U.S. households have a pet. But who benefits from an animal? And which type of pet brings health benefits?

Over the past 10 years, NIH has partnered with the Mars Corporation’s WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition to answer questions like these by funding research studies.

Scientists are looking at what the potential physical and mental health benefits are for different animals—from fish to guinea pigs to dogs and cats.

Possible Health Effects

Research on human-animal interactions is still relatively new. Some studies have shown positive health effects, but the results have been mixed.

Interacting with animals has been shown to decrease levels of cortisol (a stress-related hormone) and lower blood pressure. Other studies have found that animals can reduce loneliness, increase feelings of social support, and boost your mood.

The NIH/Mars Partnership is funding a range of studies focused on the relationships we have with animals. For example, researchers are looking into how animals might influence child development. They’re studying animal interactions with kids who have autism , attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) , and other conditions.

“There’s not one answer about how a pet can help somebody with a specific condition,” explains Dr. Layla Esposito, who oversees NIH’s Human-Animal Interaction Research Program. “Is your goal to increase physical activity? Then you might benefit from owning a dog. You have to walk a dog several times a day and you’re going to increase physical activity. If your goal is reducing stress, sometimes watching fish swim can result in a feeling of calmness. So there’s no one type fits all.”

NIH is funding large-scale surveys to find out the range of pets people live with and how their relationships with their pets relate to health.

“We’re trying to tap into the subjective quality of the relationship with the animal—that part of the bond that people feel with animals—and how that translates into some of the health benefits,” explains Dr. James Griffin, a child development expert at NIH.

Animals Helping People

Animals can serve as a source of comfort and support. Therapy dogs are especially good at this. They’re sometimes brought into hospitals or nursing homes to help reduce patients’ stress and anxiety.

“Dogs are very present. If someone is struggling with something, they know how to sit there and be loving,” says Dr. Ann Berger, a physician and researcher at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. “Their attention is focused on the person all the time.”

Berger works with people who have cancer and terminal illnesses. She teaches them about mindfulness to help decrease stress and manage pain.

“The foundations of mindfulness include attention, intention, compassion, and awareness,” Berger says. “All of those things are things that animals bring to the table. People kind of have to learn it. Animals do this innately.”

Researchers are studying the safety of bringing animals into hospital settings because animals may expose people to more germs. A current study is looking at the safety of bringing dogs to visit children with cancer, Esposito says. Scientists will be testing the children’s hands to see if there are dangerous levels of germs transferred from the dog after the visit.

Dogs may also aid in the classroom. One study found that dogs can help children with ADHD focus their attention. Researchers enrolled two groups of children diagnosed with ADHD into 12-week group therapy sessions. The first group of kids read to a therapy dog once a week for 30 minutes. The second group read to puppets that looked like dogs.

Kids who read to the real animals showed better social skills and more sharing, cooperation, and volunteering. They also had fewer behavioral problems.

Another study found that children with autism spectrum disorder were calmer while playing with guinea pigs in the classroom. When the children spent 10 minutes in a supervised group playtime with guinea pigs, their anxiety levels dropped. The children also had better social interactions and were more engaged with their peers. The researchers suggest that the animals offered unconditional acceptance, making them a calm comfort to the children.

“Animals can become a way of building a bridge for those social interactions,” Griffin says. He adds that researchers are trying to better understand these effects and who they might help.

Animals may help you in other unexpected ways. A recent study showed that caring for fish helped teens with diabetes better manage their disease. Researchers had a group of teens with type 1 diabetes care for a pet fish twice a day by feeding and checking water levels. The caretaking routine also included changing the tank water each week. This was paired with the children reviewing their blood glucose (blood sugar) logs with parents.

Researchers tracked how consistently these teens checked their blood glucose. Compared with teens who weren’t given a fish to care for, fish-keeping teens were more disciplined about checking their own blood glucose levels, which is essential for maintaining their health.

While pets may bring a wide range of health benefits, an animal may not work for everyone. Recent studies suggest that early exposure to pets may help protect young children from developing allergies and asthma. But for people who are allergic to certain animals, having pets in the home can do more harm than good.

Helping Each Other

Pets also bring new responsibilities. Knowing how to care for and feed an animal is part of owning a pet. NIH/Mars funds studies looking into the effects of human-animal interactions for both the pet and the person.

Remember that animals can feel stressed and fatigued, too. It’s important for kids to be able to recognize signs of stress in their pet and know when not to approach. Animal bites can cause serious harm.

“Dog bite prevention is certainly an issue parents need to consider, especially for young children who don’t always know the boundaries of what’s appropriate to do with a dog,” Esposito explains.

Researchers will continue to explore the many health effects of having a pet. “We’re trying to find out what’s working, what’s not working, and what’s safe—for both the humans and the animals,” Esposito says.

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Essay on Pets are Our Best Friends

Students are often asked to write an essay on Pets are Our Best Friends in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Pets are Our Best Friends

Introduction.

Pets are more than just animals; they are our best friends. They offer companionship, love, and fun, making our lives more enjoyable.

Companionship

Unconditional love.

Pets love us unconditionally. They don’t judge us and are always happy to see us, which boosts our mood.

Fun and Play

Playing with pets is fun. They make us laugh and help us to relax, reducing stress.

250 Words Essay on Pets are Our Best Friends

The bond between humans and pets.

Pets are not just animals; they are companions, therapists, and best friends. They offer a unique relationship that is hard to find in human interactions. Pets provide emotional support, unconditional love, and a host of health benefits that contribute to a better quality of life.

Emotional Support and Unconditional Love

Pets are incredibly empathetic creatures. They sense our emotions and respond accordingly, providing comfort during difficult times. They are non-judgmental and accept us as we are, teaching us the essence of unconditional love. This emotional bond often helps alleviate feelings of loneliness, anxiety, and depression.

Health Benefits

Numerous studies have shown that owning a pet can lower blood pressure, reduce stress, and improve overall physical health. The act of petting a dog or cat releases oxytocin, a hormone associated with bonding and stress relief. Pets also encourage physical activity, whether it’s a walk in the park with a dog or playing with a cat.

The Lessons Pets Teach Us

Pets teach us valuable life lessons. They show us the importance of living in the moment, expressing joy freely, and offering compassion to all creatures. They also teach us about loss and grief when they pass away, helping us understand the cycle of life.

In conclusion, pets are more than just animals; they are our best friends. They provide emotional support, improve our health, and teach us invaluable life lessons. Their companionship is a gift that enriches our lives in countless ways.

500 Words Essay on Pets are Our Best Friends

The unbreakable bond, emotional support.

Pets, be it dogs, cats, birds, or even reptiles, provide a remarkable level of emotional support to their human companions. They have an uncanny ability to sense human emotions and respond accordingly. When we are sad or stressed, they offer comfort, often simply through their presence. Research has shown that interaction with pets can lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels, reduce feelings of loneliness, and boost overall mental health. This emotional symbiosis makes pets invaluable companions, particularly in our increasingly isolated modern society.

The love and loyalty pets offer are unconditional and unwavering. They do not judge us based on our looks, social status, or failures. Instead, they love us for who we are, without any pretense or expectation. This unconditional love can be a soothing balm in the harsh realities of life, offering a sense of acceptance that is sometimes hard to find among our fellow humans.

Life Lessons

Active lifestyle.

In conclusion, pets are indeed our best friends. They offer emotional support, unconditional love, teach us valuable life lessons, and encourage an active lifestyle. They are not just animals; they are companions, confidants, and family. In a world that can often feel lonely and uncaring, pets provide a source of comfort, companionship, and love that is truly unmatched. It is no wonder then that we often find ourselves turning to them in times of joy and sorrow, for they are always there, ready to share in our emotions and offer their unwavering support.

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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IELTS Essay, topic: keeping pets to live a more enjoyable life

• IELTS Essays - Band 5
• by Simone Braverman

Some people believe that having a pet such as a cat or a dog helps old people to live a more enjoyable life and to stay healthier. How do you think old people benefit from having a pet? Do you think there are any problems related to old people who have pets?

In conclusion, it is true that obstacles still exist for elderly people in adopting pets, but the benefits of this topic its . For such reasons, instead of , further support would be far more beneficial.

You have made an attempt to accomplish the task response. However, there are quite a few mistakes in the essay – the main problematic areas are grammar, sentence structure and word choice. In addition, the length of the task response could be reduced. This task response needs to be worked on and improved. Revise grammar and work on your sentence structure. Avoid writing more than 280 words to save time and reduce the number of mistakes, and remember to always proofread your work once you’re finished. Overall, this looks like a Band 5.5 essay

Click here to see more IELTS essays of band 5

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My Pet Essay

500 words essay on my pet.

Pets are a blessing that only lucky people get to have. I have been lucky enough to have many pets since my childhood. My pet is a cat whom we call Mingi. It is white and grey in colour. Mingi is 3 years old and has been with me ever since she was born. Through my pet essay, I will make you learn all about Mingi and why it is so dear to me.

How Mingi Became My Pet Essay

Mingi has short hair and also a glossy coat. It is a female and love to have milk and chicken. Sometimes, I treat it with fish as it loves the taste of tuna. Moreover, Mingi is a very loving pet that stays with me at all times.

Ever since I was little, I liked cats. I love how clean and majestic they are. Although, there were no plans to keep a pet cat. My mother did not allow me as she would end up doing all the work for the pet.

However, she used to keep a bowl of fresh water in our garden to ensure no birds or animals remain thirsty during the summer season. A lot of pigeons and sparrows come to my garden to quench their thirst.

One fine day, a cat came to drink the water. It started coming regularly afterwards and gave birth to kittens in our garden. My mother gave them food as well and some milk every day.

However, one day all of them were gone except for a little kitten. I started to feed it regularly and became close to it. As the mother did not return, I decided to keep it as my pet.

After taking permission from my mother, I finally got to keep Mingi by promising to bear its responsibility. Ever since Mingi has been in my life. It was so little but now has grown into a big and beautiful cat.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

A Clean Pet

Cats are one of the cleanest pets that do not require a lot of effort to maintain. I hardly have to worry about Mingi being dirty as it cleans itself regularly. I conduct a bathing session every month with my mother.

It is not easy but Mingi is now used to it. We also comb Mingi’s coat twice a week so no dead hair remains and her hygiene is intact. Moreover, it may sound rare but we also brush Mingi’s teeth every week.

During winters , Mingi gets cold so we have got her a warm coat to protect her from the cold. Mingi remains indoors mostly and never dirties our house. Ever since it was little, she knew where to relieve herself so she’s always been low maintenance and love.

Conclusion Of My Pet Essay

All in all, Mingi has been a blessing that happened by chance. However, she is now an inseparable part of my life. I love spending time with her and she manages to make my saddest days happier.

FAQ on My Pet Essay

Question 1: Why are pets important?

Answer 1: Pets like cats and dogs can reduce the stress and anxiety of a person. Moreover, they also help to ease loneliness and reduce depression. Children become more secure and active when they care for animals .

Question 2: What do pets need?

Answer 2: Pets needs food, water, shelter, exercise, and socializing. It is essential to give your pet all this so they can lead a comfortable and happy life.

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Essay on Pets | Essay on Pets for Students and Children in English

Essay on Pets: Keeping pets is also a pleasant hobby. A dog has ever been a favorite pet with people. There is quite a reason for this choice. A dog is a very faithful and loving pet as well as a great watchful creature.

Long Essay on Pets 400 Words in English

Short essay on pets 150 words in english, 10 lines on pets.

• What is the importance of pets?
• What are the pets?
• What are pets for?
• What animals can be pets?

Long and Short Essays on Pets Kids and Students in English

Given below are two essays in English for students and children about the topic of ‘Pets’ in both long and short form. The first essay is a long essay on the Pets of 400-500 words. This long essay about Pets is suitable for students of class 7, 8, 9 and 10, and also for competitive exam aspirants. The second essay is a short essay on Pets of 150-200 words. These are suitable for students and children in class 6 and below.

Below we have given a long essay on Pets of 400 words is helpful for classes 7, 8, 9, and 10 and Competitive Exam Aspirants. This long essay on the topic is suitable for students of class 7 to class 10, and also for competitive exam aspirants.

People keep a dog as a pet for reasons a liking for them as also a constant watchman by night and day. There are signboards at the gate of persons keeping dogs as pets ‘Beware of dogs’ which means that the dogs kept as pets would not allow any unknown person to enter the premises of the house. This is a great advantage and great protection. There are different species of dogs, some are just lovely, furry, fluffy beings who sit crouched cozily in the lap harmless ones harmless even to an outsider. There are the other ones who are the bigger ones in size and ferocious indeed. They can tear an intruder apart, would bark, aloud to awaken the whole house.

They may be ferocious to an outsider or an intruder but to their master and to the family they are docile and cool abiding by their every command or direction. The master and the dog are inseparable when the master is back home after his day’s work. It must jump up to reach the master, feel contentment only after being given a loving pat, not without it. Faithful they are to that extent that stories go about some of them who gave up food and drink and gave up their lives after their master was no more.

Dogs have a great instinct for learning. Though animals, they exhibit a great sense of intelligence. They can be trained even by the crime-investigating agencies and have successfully worked out to catch the criminal.

Loving, faithful, ferocious, and intelligent with an instinct to learn that is all about dogs as pets.

Below we have given a short essay on Pets is for Classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. This short essay on the topic is suitable for students of class 6 and below.

Cats are kept as pets too. But as contrasted with dogs cats are less faithful, less loving more self-loving. They cannot be any risk to an intruder and can be lured away.

There have been no cases of cats sacrificing themselves for their master. But they are lovely creatures who would cozily comfort themselves in the bed of their masters and love to be in the lap. People keep cats as pets just for their looks their fluffy purring behavior. They are loved for their looks that is what cats are.

Keeping pets is both a pleasure and a task. Once one gets lured to keep pets, one cannot give up one’s liking for them, so much so that pets — dogs and cats once kept, they become a part of the family, a part of life, and one cannot give them up. It is a love that lasts.

Students can find more English  Essay Writing Topics, Ideas, Easy Tips to Write Essay Writing, and many more.

• Pets — keeping is a pleasant hobby.

A pet, or companion animal, is an animal kept primarily for a person’s company or entertainment rather than as a working animal, livestock, or a laboratory animal.

• When it comes to the types of animals that can be kept as pets, there are many to choose from.
• Dogs and cats are the most common types of pets.
• Dogs are kept as pets both for liking as well as for protection.
• Dogs are very faithful pets ferocious for intruders but most caring and loving for the family.
• Dogs have the instinct to learn if trained.
• Cats do not have those loving and faithful qualities. They care for themselves.
• Keeping pets is a pleasure as well as a task a hobby which once developed cannot easily be given up.
• They become a part of the family, a part of life, and one cannot give them up. It is a love that lasts.

FAQs on Essay on Pets

1.  What is the importance of pets?

Pets are part of our everyday lives and part of our families. They provide us with companionship but also with emotional support, reduce our stress levels, sense of loneliness, and help us to increase our social activities and add to a child’s self-esteem and positive emotional development.

2. What are the pets?

A pet is a domesticated animal that lives with people, but is not forced to work and is not eaten, in most instances. In most cases, a pet is kept to entertain people or for companionship.

3. What are pets for?

4. What animals can be pets?

When it comes to the types of animals that can be kept as pets, there are many to choose from. Dogs and cats are the most common types of pets.

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Band 9 sample essay about pets and children

Home  »  IELTS BAND 9 ESSAYS  »  Band 9 sample essay about pets and children

Some people think that keeping pets is good for children while others think it is dangerous and unhealthy. Which opinion do you agree with? Discuss both options and give examples.

In recent times, pet related injuries and mortalities have sparked heated debates about whether it is healthy for children to be around pets. In this essay I shall argue that such dangers are overemphasised and that children receive substantive psychological benefits through having pets.

To begin with, although exotic pets (e.g. snakes, spiders, apes, etc.) have been known to occasionally hurt and even kill children, such incidents are so statistically rare as to be negligible. This is because the overwhelming majority of children have non-lethal cats, dogs, fish, rodents and rabbits for pets.

For example The Child Safety Institute found that over 90% of children owned the aforementioned pets, and professed that they had never felt in the least bit endangered by them. Seen in this light, it is clearly unfounded to claim that pets present any physical danger to children.

Secondly, pets can impact positively upon child psychology. This is because young pet owners frequently empathise with their pets and perform a diverse range of actions to maintain their well being (e.g. feeding, grooming, administering medicine, etc).

For example, the Cambridge Developmental Psychology Unit found that children who had grown up with pets were 30% less likely to bully others and resolve conflicts through aggression. Consequently, it is undeniable that a child’s pro-sociality and mental health can be improved through exposure to pets.

In conclusion, the cited evidence provides strong support for the view that children owning pets is a good thing. In the future, as more laws are introduced to ban the ownership of illegally acquired exotic pets, this viewpoint will no doubt surge in popularity.

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Essay on keeping pets: close but not too close, 500+ words essay on keeping pets.

Pets bring us an extra dimension in our lives. Pet owners often have great affection for their pets and treat them with loving care, as they do the members of their family. Is this a bad thing? The answer depends on the degree and nature of this loving care.

It is quite good for a person to be fond of a pet and treat it accordingly. Medical research suggests that the fond association of a pet may prolong a person’s life and keep their health in good condition. On the other hand, a pet gets a good home. It is as if a pet becomes one of the children of a family. It plays a more important part in those families of husband and wife who have no children. A pet owner says, “Nobody waits for me as my dog does.”

It is regarded as a good thing for a child to have a pet to take care of. It teaches the child, playfully, a sense of responsibility for maintaining duties and showing affection to a dependent. On the other hand, it is found that people who have abused animals in their childhood abuse others in their adulthood. So, pets deserve due affection and attention.

But the problems arise when pet owners are too indulgent with their pets. The pets cannot understand what and how far they should go and what they should not do or what limits they should not cross if they are given too much indulgence. An overindulgent pet owner does not like the idea of his or her pet sleeping in a basket or on a separate bed, however comfortable, and the pet is often found sharing the owner’s bed. This practice is very unhygienic and should not be encouraged. Letting a pet sit on the armchair just before an important guest arrives is not such a good idea either. The pets, especially dogs, should be trained on how to behave.

It is all very well to give pets a few food treats as a bait during the training of obeying commands. But if they are given food bites too frequently, they become too fat. Some cats and dogs are by nature quite greedy, and animal obesity, like human obesity, can lead to major health hazards. It is also not any favour when pet owners give their pets food designed for humans. The owner may love chicken in a spicy sauce and cream-filled chocolate cakes, but these are very bad for the pet’s digestive system. They should be given simple food according to their requirement.

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It is one thing to treat an animal with love and care; it is quite another to treat the animal like a human being with overindulgence. This is the line that should not be crossed, though we see it is frequently crossed. Some pet owners even dress their dogs as though they were dolls fitted in knitted coats. When they have perfectly warm coats of their own, it is harmful to cover them with unnecessary extra coats, especially in hot countries. It is fine to comb the pet’s hair and keep it neat and clean, but not to tie up the hair with ribbons for fashion only. Rather, it is important to take care of hair fall here and there as it is unhygienic.

Treating animals like humans in all matters and manners can have very bad effects on their health too. Under the influence of such treatment, some dogs become aggressive or adopt other behaviour problems.

So, by all means, let people treat their pets with due care, kindness, and love. But they must remember that an animal is an animal, not a human being. The nature of an animal and a human being has been differentiated by Nature herself. This principle should be taken care of for the sake of both the pet and the owner.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Pet — Overview of the Benefits of Having Pets

Overview of The Benefits of Having Pets

• Categories: Pet

About this sample

Words: 1413 |

Published: Oct 2, 2020

Words: 1413 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, works cited, improving health, making new friend, being more responsibility, having security.

• American Pet Products Association. (2016). Pet Industry Market Size & Ownership Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp
• London, K. B. (2018). The Physical and Psychological Benefits of Dog Ownership. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 187-191. doi:10.1177/0963721417748426
• Kruk, J. (2018). How Does Exercise Reduce the Risk of Breast Cancer? Current Oncology, 25(3), e325-e327. doi:10.3747/co.25.4034
• Oaklander, M. (2017). Science Says Your Pet is Good for Your Mental Health. Time. Retrieved from https://time.com/4728315/science-says-pet-good-mental-health/
• Vieira, M. (2018). Pets and Mental Health: Enhancing Well-Being and Building Resilience. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 514. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00514
• Dumain, T. (2019). Stroke Prevention: What You Need to Know. Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic. Retrieved from https://health.clevelandclinic.org/stroke-prevention-what-you-need-to-know/
• Thakur, A. (2021). 10 Benefits of Having a Pet at Home. The Times of India. Retrieved from https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/pets/10-benefits-of-having-a-pet-at-home/articleshow/82166879.cms
• University of Western Australia. (2015). The Role of Pets in Human Societies: Implications for Human Health and Well-Being. Retrieved from https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa/pets-make-people-healthier-ng-864a670fd8740e063c71d9253e3d7751
• Cowan, L. (2017). The Benefits of Pets for Children. Bright Horizons. Retrieved from https://www.brighthorizons.com/family-resources/e-family-news/2017-the-benefits-of-pets-for-children
• Forma, A. (2020). Dog Saves Boy, 4, from Cougar Attack in Canada. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/dog-saves-boy-cougar-attack

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Ielts essay # 1233 - keeping pets is good for children, ielts writing task 2/ ielts essay:, some people think that keeping pets is good for children while others think it is dangerous and unhealthy for them., discuss both these views and give your own opinion.

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Watch CBS News

How to keep pets safe during the summer heat, according to experts

By Sara Moniuszko

Edited By Allison Elyse Gualtieri

August 7, 2024 / 12:41 PM EDT / CBS News

The dog days of summer are in full swing, which means it's important to keep your pooch protected from the heat. 

The U.S. has experienced unrelenting temperatures this year, with triple-digit highs seen across the country, from the Southwest to the nation's capital. This week another summer heat wave is hitting Southern California , with temperatures rising into the upper 90s and triple digits in the valleys.

And while we're all feeling the impact of the heat, it can be even harder for animals to regulate extreme temperatures.

Dogs, for example, have sweat glands but don't use them the same way humans do.

"They really just have to pant off all the heat they get, and it can be very difficult for them to regulate their body temperature," Dr. Joe Snock, a veterinarian at Mount Laurel Animal Hospital,  recently told CBS News Philadelphia . "With dogs, it's going to be a big concern if they're left outside, especially with this heat."

So, how can you keep you four-legged friends happy and healthy amid the heat? Here are some expert tips:

"Water is really the most important thing you can take with you when you're exercising your pet outside in the heat," Dr. Christie Long, chief medical officer at veterinary clinic Modern Animal in California, told CBS News.

In general, dogs and cats normally drink between 20 and 100 milliliters of water per kilogram of body weight per day, Long said, and can show similar signs when dehydrated, including: 

• Sticky or tacky gums
• Skin is slow to return to normal positions when pinched or "tented."
• Eyes appear sunken or recessed in socket

Limit exposure

If you're outside with your pet for a walk, opt for shadier spots in order to protect them from the direct sun.

"A covered area, almost like a shedded area, or just a bunch of trees somewhere they can get away from the direct heat is good," Snock said.

Pets can also burn their paws on hot concrete and asphalt. 

"Burns can be mild and superficial or serious and deep, depending on the temperature and the length of exposure," said Long. "The best way to test the temperature is to feel the surface yourself with your hand. If it feels too hot to keep your hand on the ground, then it's too hot for your pet to walk on."

If temperatures are just too hot, try inside activities like hiding treats in puzzle feeders or playing fetch with soft toys, Long said. You can also increase bonding time with brushing or other grooming, she said.

• What happens to the human body in extreme heat? Experts explain the heat wave's dangerous impact.

Watch for warning signs

Amid summer heat, Long said to look out for signs of heat stroke in pets, which include: 

• Bright red gums
• Decreased mental state/responsiveness
• Excessive panting

"Pet owners should seek medical attention as soon as possible if their pet displays any symptoms of heat stroke," she said. "After removing your pet from the heat and into a cooler area, use cold water to wet the ear flaps and paws to start the cooling process and transport them in a vehicle with direct air conditioning."

Sara Moniuszko is a health and lifestyle reporter at CBSNews.com. Previously, she wrote for USA Today, where she was selected to help launch the newspaper's wellness vertical. She now covers breaking and trending news for CBS News' HealthWatch.

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Search form, the dangers of leaving an animal in a hot car and other heat-related hazards.

Even if it’s just for a moment, and even if the windows are cracked, it is never safe to leave an animal in a parked vehicle alone. Not only can leaving an animal in a hot car lead to fatal heat stroke, but it is also illegal in several states! 

As of 2024, 31 states and the District of Columbia have laws that address leaving an animal unattended in a confined vehicle under dangerous conditions, such as intense weather conditions. Some of these laws involve legal action against the vehicle owner, while other laws provide immunity to those who may use forcible means — such as smashing a window — to rescue a vulnerable animal in a car. 

To better understand the laws in your state, and to better prepare yourself for an emergency situation such as this,  check out this full list of state laws concerning animals left unattended in vehicles . Also be aware that even in jurisdictions without such specific laws, endangering an animal’s life in this way could be prosecuted under general anti-cruelty statutes.

Keeping an animal in a parked car isn’t the only way the heat can endanger pets. While spending time outdoors on the long, sunny days of summer with our furry friends can be fun, being in the heat can cause heatstroke. 

Symptoms of heatstroke in pets can include:

• Excessive panting or difficulty breathing
• Increased heart and respiratory rate
• Mild weakness 

Symptoms can also include seizures, bloody diarrhea and vomit along with an elevated body temperature of over 104 degrees. Keep an eye out for these signs of distress. 

Never let your dog linger on hot asphalt. Being so close to the ground, your pooch’s body can heat up quickly, and sensitive paw pads can burn. Keep walks during peak daytime hours to a minimum.

Also keep in mind that animals with flat faces, like Pugs and Persian cats, are more susceptible to heat stroke since they cannot pant as effectively as others. These pets, along with elderly and overweight animals and those with heart or lung diseases, should be kept cool in air-conditioned rooms as much as possible.

To help prevent overheating, make sure your pet is properly hydrated at all times with plenty of fresh, clean water. Ensure that your pets have a shady place to get out of the sun, be careful not to over-exercise them and use your best judgment to keep them indoors when it’s extremely hot. 

Haircuts can also be helpful in keeping pets cool. Feel free to trim longer hair on your pets, but never shave them down to the skin. The layers of dogs’ coats protect them from overheating and sunburn. Brushing cats more often than usual can prevent problems caused by excessive heat. Be sure that any sunscreen or insect repellent product you use on your pets is labeled specifically for use on animals.

For other ways to help,  check out our full list of hot weather safety tips .

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Help the ASPCA Put a Stop to Animal Cruelty

‘Keeping People and Pets Together’ fundraiser set for Sunday Aug. 11

BANGOR, Maine (WABI) - Lindsay Wicklund of Pet Care by Lindsay joined us on Saturday Morning Maine to talk about ‘Keeping People and Pets Together.’

Their goal is to help underprivileged people be able to stay with their pets by providing free pet care, helping with basic needs such as pet food and litter, and helping with medical expenses.

They will be holding a fundraiser on Sunday at the Furniture Gallery on Broadway in Bangor from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.

VERY excited about these! Two footballs, one signed by Mike Devito, a retired Chiefs player who now coaches for the... Posted by Pet Care by Lindsay on  Friday, August 9, 2024

All proceeds will go towards their fund to help people and their beloved pets stay with each other even if times get tough.

There will be a craft fair, a silent auction, food trucks and more.

Copyright 2024 WABI. All rights reserved.

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Samsung Recalls Slide-In Electric Ranges Due to Fire Hazard

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Front-mounted knobs on the ranges can be activated by accidental contact by humans or pets, posing a fire hazard.

About 1,120,905

Samsung toll-free at 833-775-0120 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, email at  [email protected] , or at  samsung.com/us/support/range-knob-kit to request free knob locks.

Recall Details

This recall involves Samsung Electric Slide-In Ranges with the model numbers below.

The model number is located on the ranges on the inside upper left corner of the oven door or inside the storage bin located on the bottom of the oven.

Consumers should contact Samsung to receive a free set of knob locks or covers compatible with their model of electric slide-in range to install.

Consumers using the recalled ranges without knob locks or covers are cautioned to keep children and pets away from the knobs, to check the range knobs to ensure they are off before leaving the home or going to bed, and to not leave objects on the range when the range is not in use.

Consumers with Wi-Fi enabled ranges can enable the “Cooktop On” notification on the Samsung SmartThings app to receive alerts on their smartphone when a cooktop burner is turned on.

Samsung has received over 300 reports of unintentional activation of the front-mounted knobs by humans or pets since 2013. These ranges have been involved in approximately 250 fires. At least 18 fires caused extensive property damage. Approximately 40 injuries have been reported, eight of which required medical attention, and there have been reports of seven fires involving pet deaths.

CPSC urges consumers to follow the following safety advice to avoid the risk of fire:

• Never place, leave, or store anything on the top of your range. Such items can ignite if the range is accidentally activated or left on. Fires can occur when items are left on the top surface of any range that is accidentally activated or left on.

For more information on Range and Oven Safety, visit  https://www.cpsc.gov/Safety-Education/Safety-Education-Centers/Fire-Safety-Information-Center

Note: Individual Commissioners may have statements related to this topic. Please visit www.cpsc.gov/commissioners to search for statements related to this or other topics.

Related Recalls

The refrigerator door can detach and fall off, posing an injury hazard.

The glass mugs can break and crack when filled with hot liquids, posing burn and laceration hazards.

The containers can separate from the blade base exposing the blades, posing a laceration hazard to consumers.

Depending on the model, the surface heating elements can: 1) turn on spontaneously without being switched on; 2) fail to turn off after being switched off; or 3) heat to different temperatures than selected. This poses fire and burn hazards to consumers.

The oven door hinge can dislodge, releasing the spring, which can damage or break through the door trim, posing an impact injury hazard to consumers.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risk of injury or death associated with the use of thousands of types of consumer products. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product-related incidents cost the nation more than $1 trillion annually. CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products has contributed to a decline in the rate of injuries associated with consumer products over the past 50 years.

Federal law prohibits any person from selling products subject to a Commission ordered recall or a voluntary recall undertaken in consultation with the CPSC.

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