Survey: Pet Owners and the Human-Animal Bond

The Human Animal Bond Research Initiative (HARBI) supports scientific research to prove what many of us believe to be true – humans and pets share a special, mutually beneficial connection or bond.

So why is this new study news worthy – it is the first survey of its kind to explore the connection for pet owners’ knowledge about the health benefits of the human-animal bond impacts pet care and welfare. The results of this survey released by The Human Animal Bond Research Initiative (HABRI) shows that knowledge that pets improve our health boosts animal welfare.

The study is available at https://habri.org/2016-pet-owners-survey

A summary of a few findings are:

The majority of pet owners are aware of the health benefits of pets. They also have personally experienced those benefits.

The more pet owners learn about scientific research on the benefits of the human-animal bond, the more likely they are to take actions to improve pet health.

“Scientific research shows that pets are good for our health, improving heart health, relieving stress and positively impacting conditions from autism to PTSD,” said HABRI Executive Director Steven Feldman. “Now, for the first time, we have data to show that it’s a two-way street – when we know how good pets are for us, we are more likely to take better care of them!”

http://www.petage.com/survey-knowledge-that-pets-improve-our-health-boosts-animal-welfare/

In many ways all of us share in the good news of this survey. As pet lovers we often share our personal stories about how much we love our pets and how much they’ve helped us. This sharing does make a difference.

Find out more about the work of HABRI – http://habri.org/