Animals are good for keeping illnesses at bay, experts say

Dubai: Pets offer unconditional love and also help people heal. As the debate rages of pawprint versus environment, animal experts feel the advantages far outweigh their ecological impact.

Kirsty Peake, a US-based companion animal behaviour practitioner told Gulf News in an email interview: "Keeping a pet makes people less selfish. Training a pet can be a challenge and this keeps people mentally active.

"There is a documented case [in the UK] wherein an elderly man, in his eighties, showed signs of dementia. But, because he had to take his dog for walks and feed it, it prolonged the time he was able to live independently."

According to Peake, dogs help lower blood pressure and research teams are working on the fact that dogs could detect cancer through sniffing.

Jaime Samour, director of the wildlife division at Emirates Heritage Club, in Abu Dhabi believes pets play a role in a child's development. "Children tend to study pet behaviour ... they connect easily with animals," he said.

Samour spoke of a documentary called Prison Pups that shows prisoners in Massachusetts working with an organisation that teaches dogs to work with the blind, deaf and disabled.

He said: "I think this is quite a productive activity. The bond between animals and humans can be good for therapy."