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Pets play such an incredible role in children’s lives. Studies show that children raised with pets show many benefits. Pets teach life lessons that stay into adulthood and have a monumental impact in a child’s development.
The experts at North Shore Animal League America would like to express just how beneficial pets can be for children; and how it is never too late to invite a pet into your life.
The Benefits of Children Owning a Pet
- Caring for a pet can improve a child’s social skills, self-confidence and self-esteem.
- Learning how to positively treat a pet is likely to lead to treating people kindly and respectfully.
- Caring for a pet helps children to develop compassion, empathy and non-verbal communication skills.
- Pets serve as an expressive outlet for children and act as their most trusted confidants.
- Pets teach life lessons such as love, loyalty, trust, affection, patience, responsibility, respect for nature and living things, illness and death.
- Pets provide a great source of physical and mental activity.
- Pets provide wonderful company for children that do not have siblings.
Things to Remember
- Children under the age of 10 should not be left unattended with a pet.
- Parents make the best role models and children will learn by observing their behavior.
- It is important for parents to make sure that their children are properly caring for their pets.
- Pet ownership is ultimately the responsibility of the adult – not the child.
To learn more about how pets positively affect children, visit the Mutt-i-grees® Curriculum. The Mutt-i-grees® Curriculum is a revolutionary, national humane education initiative that helps kids develop strong social and emotional skills – making them more resilient, more capable and more compassionate. This curriculum, developed in collaboration with Yale University’s School of the 21st Century (an innovative community-based education model) and the Animal League’s development arm, The Pet Savers Foundation, is graciously funded by the Millan Foundation.
