Pets play an important role in providing emotional support to their owners, reducing feelings of stress and loneliness, and increasing social contact. With over 223 million dogs and 220 million cats worldwide, excluding stray animals, pets have truly become a member of the family, sharing our lives and often our homes.
Studies have shown that pets bring us many benefits: providing companionship, encouraging activity, creating a sense of responsibility of care for another being, alleviating loneliness and even lowering blood pressure. Older pet owners are reported to require fewer visits to the doctor. Pets are known to improve the quality of life of people in nursing homes, hospitals, and care centres for the disabled, by encouraging interaction and activity.
In the role of responsible 'pet parents' we need to ensure that we do all we can for the health and well-being of the animals in our care.
Like people, obesity in household pets is on the increase in virtually epidemic proportions. You only need to observe the average dog or cat in your neighbourhood to realise that New Zealand pets are getting fatter. As with people the causes are usually excessive energy-rich food in the form of snacks and treats, together with insufficient exercise.
Not only does responsible parenting include making sure that pets have healthy diets and plenty of exercise, but also ensuring that they get treatment when they get sick. Pets need medicines, just like we do. Preventing and curing disease in companion animals also means protecting people's health because there are many pet diseases that can be transferred to humans.
