Pets Connect in a Heartfelt Way on WGN

I talk to newsman Schwanee HERE on WGN Radio about my blog post about how kindness begets kindness, which is something that working with pets has taught me. I wrote about, climate change, and point out that it is not a political issue, it’s just something that is happening. The idea of climate change being a “left-wring conspiracy” is ridiculous, as the discovery first came from scientists in Australia, who really don’t care about U.S. politics.

Dr. Anne Beall, author of “Heartfelt Connections:How Animals and People Help One Another” (a book which I authored the foreword) talks HERE about the human-animal bond.

We begin by talking about Equestrian Connections, it’s called hippo-therapy – how horses can change lives. Founded in 2001, Equestrian Connection has helped thousands of  children and adults with special needs and their family members. Imagine not being able to walk or to control your own body, but you can control a 2,000 lb. plus animal. And somehow, Beall says she doesn’t exactly know how, these horses can change lives. And we discuss the sensitivity these horses have to do this work.

Rainbow Therapy dogs can do the same, and often for children with serious medical conditions. What can be more heartfelt than helping children? And as one child actually said about bringing dogs into a pediatric intensive care unit, “It’s like wheeling in a little bit of happiness into the room.”

We talk about Pet Partners, and the testing they conduct to determine who may be an animal to serve in a program in the first place.  Nearly forty years since Pet Partner’s inception, the science that proves these benefits has become indisputable.  Today, Pet Partners is the nation’s largest and most prestigious nonprofit registering handlers of multiple species as volunteer teams providing animal-assisted interventions.

Anne also talks about her experience meeting Norman, not just a pig. And we talk – and you won’t hear this every day, therapy llamas.

Anne and I touch some on the research she conducted, which demonstrates what pets mean to us.