A Michael Broad Blog
This discusses the advantages of ‘virtual’ animal-assisted therapy for seriously ill children. Instead of direct interaction aimed at enhancing the child’s life quality, this study had sick children become pen pals with similarly ailing cats and dogs. The pets’ owners received training to craft replies to the children’s letters, optimizing the benefits for the …
A recent study from Washington State University found “that students who exhibit the big five emotionality trait[s] are especially interested in cat visitations” according to MEDICAL NEWS TODAY. The Big five personality traits are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism”. “Emotionality” means the strength of a person’s emotional response to stimulus. A high score …
Can cats be support animals? Or can they be assistance animals? Or can they be emotional support animals? Or can they be service animals? The language and the law are muddled. It depends where you live. An American pet insurance company says that cats cannot be service animals because cats are not recognised by …
The question is asking whether domestic cats can help a person get over PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). And the answer is going to be a qualified yes. The reason why I have introduced the word “qualified” into the last sentence is because people reading this want hard evidence through a scientific study that cats …
A teenage girl who lived with foster parents moved in with her real parents in 2019. Before the move she adopted a kitten. Her parents agreed that it would calm her down. She bonded with the kitten and the relationship calmed her. She said, “I bonded quickly and she helped me a lot with …
Under certain circumstances, as a self-employed person, it is possible to make a tax deduction for the maintenance of a cat or cats. For the sake of complete clarity I will briefly go over when you might want to do this. Self-employed people need to file a tax return to the IRS in America …
The Royal College of Nursing is running a trial on selected wards in hospitals to investigate the benefits of “one-to-one animal therapy” for patients. There are numerous articles on this website about the benefits of cats and dogs to a wide spectrum of people including those at work, those in hospital, elderly people, patients …
Children should grow up with animals as the relationship brings many rewards such as coping with feelings, managing oneself better and learning about responsibility. Phillippa Denney, the head teacher at Kilby St Mary’s CofE Primary school near Leicester, UK believes that: “Fewer and fewer children have the opportunity to have pets these days. It’s …
