Feb 12, 2008 11:05 pm US/Central
Good Question: Why Do Humans Bond With Animals?
(WCCO)
More than 80 million Americans are pet owners. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, we spent nearly $25 billion on veterinary care for our pets in 2006. Just for vet care!
At one point, animals served a largely utilitarian purpose. People had a horse to pull the cart, dogs protected the farm and cats ate rodents. However, over the past 100 years, in the United States, pets have become more central to life.
According to that same AVMA survey, nearly 50 percent of pet owners consider their companion animals to be a "part of the family."
"Our society has so much communication: e-mails, voice mails, it's non-stop. So wordless communications are really valuable," said Dr. Margaret Duxbury, an animal behaviorist at the University of Minnesota's School of Veterinary Science.
According to Duxbury, the first evidence of the human-animal bond came 12,000 years ago. Archeologists have dated the discovery of human skeletal remains with the human's arm around the skeletal remains of a puppy.
"Many dogs have the face in the proportion of a juvenile. When we see that, our nurturing instinct kicks in," she added.
According to the AVMA, there are nearly 82 million pet cats in the U.S. and 72 million pet dogs. However, dog owners outnumber cat owners.
"They can figure out what we're thinking just by our body language," said Carol Ouhl, a Certified Therapy Animal Trainer in Minnesota.
She said many owners underestimate their pets' intelligence, largely because humans are used to verbal interaction, and pets communicate almost entirely non-verbally.
However, according to Ouhl, researchers have discovered that pet attraction is more than just an emotional one.
"There's a physiological reaction to pets. Blood pressure drops when you pet an animal. It drops even more when you pet your own animal," she said.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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