Comments on: Article Discusses Debate Over Allowing Sick People to Spend Time With Pets

By: Mewsmom

Mewsmom — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:15:53 +0000

If you have ever seen an elderly person in a skilled nursing facility when the pets come around, you would know that the benefit they receive from that visit is well worth any health issues having a pet around would cause. Their eyes light up like it’s Christmas, they are again transported to a time and place where they had their own pet and their stories come out about some animal who made a difference in their lives. If an animal is clean and tidy when presented for a visit I see nothing but positives coming from it.

By: Lucky

Lucky — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:33:36 +0000

Having a retired therapy dog I agree with those who believe pets help heal those that are sick or ill. I also would love to see a doctor try to tell me I couldn’t back to a home with pets. HAHA yea right.

By: Tabby

Tabby — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 22:51:18 +0000

As a therapy cat in training, I agree on how beneficial it is to have pets in the household of a sick person. But it depends on what the illness is. Most of the illnesses covered in this article aren’t zoonotic (able to be transfered from human to animal and back again). When there are zoonotic diseases, then there sometimes have to be special accommodations, just as if a child got the flu in a household with someone in the last stages of AIDS.

By: Rowan

Rowan — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:14:00 +0000

My pets have always been sensitive to what was going on if I was ill. As soon as I stopped being on my usual schedule, they got worried and came to sit and whine/meow at me to ask what was wrong.
My Aussie shepherd sat with me through a very long, very serious illness even though she was an active dog. I was too sick to do anything except sit and sleep in the chair and she sat with her nose on my knee. Probably part of why I survived because most of the time, I was otherwise alone for the day.
Currently, I have three cats. If I go back to bed sick, they tend to show up and cuddle and act worried, breaking from their usual patterns of kittenish behavior.
I agree with the first comment left: children are every bit as prone to carry disease and disaster as any animal. My elderly aunt tripped over someone else’s unattended child who ran into her in a store and she broke her arm in the fall. These days it is very, very rare that children are told to stay away from a sick family member, or vice versa. (Though when I was 9, back in 1963, I was a few years too young to be allowed in to see my grandfather in the hospital and it was only after I’d proven my ability to be quiet, well-behaved and follow directions that the nurse changed her mind and let me in to see him.)
My furry friends are the ones who stick with me and stay when I’m hurting, more than any group of humans.
From having been the sick person, I KNOW that sick people need their own pets to talk to just as much as any adult human or any child. This goes double if the person, like me, is one who is very connected to their furry friends.

By: eilu

eilu — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:55:44 +0000

While it is true that there are physical risks from allowing sick people to visit their pets, the emotional & psychological gains far outweigh them, It is extremely rare that an ailing parent is told to “stop seeing his/her child” even if children carry similar risks- it is time to acknowledge that for some people, the pet is every bit as important and as loved as a (human) child.