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Animal Therapy and Building an Appreciation for Animals

The domestication of animals began around 12,000 years ago and still continues today. The domestication of animals has allowed us to bring animals into our homes, to enjoy them in nearby settings, and has also increased our scientific knowledge on our environment and species. Throughout time people have always been able to appreciate animals especially as pets. However, as more research is done on animals they may be helpful in various medical settings. The earliest recorded use of animals in health care was by Florence Nightingale in 1860 as she observed that: "a small pet is often an excellent companion for the sick, for long chronic cases especially". Animal therapy continues to become more popular and used in various settings but some implications of animal therapy are often overlooked. Animal therapy can help people build relationships with animals they may not have interacted with otherwise. For example, children with down syndrome have interacted with horses in order to help treat their symptoms and establish trusting relationships with animals. The relationship formed with the horse allows the children to experience a different scenario and build confidence. As the patient rides the horse not only do they relax and enjoy themselves, they also build balance and motility.

Allowing the animal to help people not only benefits the animal and the person but it benefits the relationship between them. As people appreciate animals more they are more likely to want to take care of animals and want to take care of the environment.

Through animal therapy, patients are shown the health benefits of having a pet or interacting with a service animal. There is also social benefits to having animals such as higher self esteem in children with animals, better non-verbal communication, and social competency. Nurturing relationships with animals can also prevent criminal behavior and help create positive social behavior. As stated by Loving, it has been reported that early cruelty to animals is a reliable indicator of child abuse and other criminal behavior later in life. It has been hypothesized that encouraging nurturing traits by the supervised introduction of companion animals may have the effect of reducing the levels of crime and other antisocial behavior exhibited by young people. This would allow for people to build relationships with animals at young ages to ensure they develop the best character possible.