A large number of people have pets and love their pets, and there’s a lot of work that shows health benefits of owning a pet. Now, once again, it’s not a treatment for any specific condition; it’s part of enjoyment of life. Most of the attention has been on the ownership of dogs. Having personally owned cats and dogs over the years, and had a few other different types of pets as well through the journey—I’m not saying in any way that I’m an expert across all of those things—but they all have their pluses and, like with everything in life, there are some minuses as well.
The health benefits of dogs have probably been more comprehensively studied and might be a little bit more obvious because dogs typically need to be walked. Therefore, if you’re not doing much exercise and you get a dog and you need to walk the dog, then you may well do that. If it were just for you, hopefully you would go out and do a walk and some exercise, but it is the case that a lot of people may need a little bit of a prod or a prompt, and having the dog gets you to do that, and that’s a good thing. It’s also known that, particularly if you’re walking down the park and you’ve got a dog, it can also be a social component to that. People may well stop and talk to you if you’ve got a dog. They might not stop and talk to you if you haven’t. It just does depend on the individual and the circumstances, but there is some social ability about owning a dog, and we spoke before about the cardiovascular and fitness benefits.
Cats get a little bit less airtime. Not everybody is a dog lover, but it’s relatively rare to find people who are quite anti-dogs. They might not want one themselves, and some people are scared of dogs, but it’s rare to find people who are really quite passionately anti-dogs. Cats are a little bit different. Some people are very passionate about their cats, and some people take that a little bit too far. It certainly is the case that having a dozen or so cats in an urban situation is probably not a great idea. One can take any good idea too far, and I won’t go into any of the clichés. But some people just feel like cats are the devil incarnate and are to blame for everything. It’s particularly in Australia that cats get the blame for loss of bird life and wildlife. Nobody actually knows that it’s cats; they may be a contributor, but wildlife since the year dot, to quote the late Crocodile Hunter, are subject to nature’s way. We know there are foxes around the place as well, and it’s not like there’s a crime scene investigation, but it’s easy to blame cats. And yes, cats will chase after birds, but they’ll also chase after rats. The story of the Pied Piper is again an interesting one: they banished him, all the rats came back. If you get rid of all the cats and keep them all indoors, we may or may not see a surge in rats. Anyway, an interesting article, and we’ll put it in the description as usual, about cats and the scientific benefits of being a cat lover.
I’m always a little bit conflicted when we talk about these sorts of studies because I’m not quite sure why such a study would get done and who’s paid for it. We’ve spoken about garbage research before, and I don’t think there’s any basis to having a pet other than you want to look after it, and you’re going to care for it, and you have some genuine love and/or affection for that particular animal. Almost don’t do it otherwise. This story says that 49 million homes in the USA have a cat. That strikes me as a reasonably high number. They spend over $1,000 in US dollars per year on them. Australian data and UK data may be comparable. A lot of people have a cat, some people have two. For people who love them, they really do bring some joy to life, especially in an older age group. I can say my late mother was a cat lover, and in the years after my father passed away, having a cat brought her some significant comfort. She was living by herself and found having a cat very, very comforting, though again, not a cure for illnesses.
So, the number one reason is yes, it can reduce loneliness. Cats can be a little bit aloof, but when they live with you, typically they’ll either come and sit on your lap or next to you or purr or do something that just makes you feel good about them and about you having them. Apparently, for Gen Z, and this is surprising, cats are more part of the family than ever before. They’re the largest percentage of pet owners, and 59% of them own at least one cat (American data). In Japan, people own more cats than dogs, which probably does make some sense. People don’t have a lot of living space in Japan. I’ve not been there, but there’s a lot of people on not a large amount of land, say compared to Australia or the USA. It’s probably easier to have a dog, even a slightly bigger dog, particularly if you’re on some larger acreage, or even if you’re not, there are plenty of parks nearby. I suspect in Japan, having a smaller animal is a little bit easier. People can go over the top, throwing birthday parties; I’m not sure that really is a great idea. 82% of pet owners say their pets are like their little child, and a pet is not a child, but in their own way, they see it as they like.
Interacting with cats (and I think this will probably be broader for other pets) has a positive effect on the brain. It activates the prefrontal cortex, so it’s going to release some of our endorphins, our happy hormones, because we’re happy. There are other ways we can be happy as well, sure, but to get back to what we’re talking about here, yes, pet ownership and interacting with your pet, in this instance a cat, makes you feel good. Yes, cats can be a bit more aloof. They don’t tend to come when you call them, but they also are quite faithful in their own way. A 2024 study confirmed people who have a dog or a cat generally are happier than those without. Now, maybe it also is if you’re a bit happier, you go and get yourself a pet; it may cut two ways, we don’t really know. Petting an animal does reduce your stress. You tend to get out of fight or flight. It has a nurturing effect. You’re nurturing something; you have some responsibility, a bit like with a child (again, a pet is not a child). But that nurturing is good for us. We’re in a positive frame of mind, and it gets us out of fight or flight, and we are less stressed.
It also causes us to be responsible. We are responsible for feeding that animal, for looking after it, for brushing it, for caring for it, for keeping it out of harm’s way. It develops a sense of responsibility. And that’s where having pets is very, very good for children, again, age-appropriate and animal-specific. Probably don’t buy them a pet snake. A pet can be something for a child to start to learn to take care of and have some limited responsibility for a living thing other than his or herself. Even cat owners are a little bit more likely to get outdoors, perhaps into their backyards. And no, it’s not a great idea to let cats run feral around the entire neighborhood, notwithstanding what I said before that no, they’re absolutely not to blame for everything that certain academics and people in government tend to want to blame them for.
When a cat purrs, it creates a consistent pattern frequency between 25 and 150 hertz. Fun fact, I didn’t know this. Typically, humans tend to react to that as well, and again, it has this sort of slightly calming effect. So, pets are good for us. It’s interesting, nobody has to tell you to get a pet. We don’t need government incentives to get a pet. We don’t need tax breaks to get a pet. It’s interesting how steps that people are happy to take and that they see benefit them, you don’t need to get the government involved. People will do it off their own volition because they know it’s good for them. I’ve never seen tax breaks for people to get a mobile phone, but just about everybody has one these days. You don’t need subsidies to get a pet. You don’t need subsidies to get a mobile phone. You do it because it benefits you and you want to do it. That tells us something. Again, you can draw your own conclusions as to what I might have in the back of my mind, but that’s perhaps for another day.
Conclusion: We need more objective studies. No, we actually don’t. There is such a thing as emotional support animals, and they can be used, and we know about guide dogs, and that’s something different as well. But we can make our lives simple. If we like pets, then yes, we should look into getting one, and we should get one that we know we can look after and that we can afford and that we’re not going to get tired of after a week, and certainly that we’re not going to dump. So there’s responsibility with pet ownership. Don’t do it if you’re not going to be responsible and if it’s not for you. But for a large number of people, and the data bears this out, it is, and they are a joy. Whether that is a dog or whether that is a goldfish for those that way inclined, or a cat, and I’ll put my hand up—I’ve had a cat most of the time that I’ve been on this planet, and yes, it is a joy, but absolutely not for everybody. Then do that and get the enjoyment and behave as a responsible owner of whichever pet or pets you have.
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Dr Joe Kosterich – Doctor, Health Industry Consultant and Author
Doctor, speaker, author, and health industry consultant, Joe is WA State Medical Director for IPN, Clinical editor of Medical Forum Magazine, Medical Advisor to Medicinal Cannabis company Little Green Pharma and Course Chair, and writer for Health Cert. He is often called to give opinions in medico-legal cases, has taught students at UWA and Curtin Medical schools and been involved in post graduate education for over 20 years.
A regular on radio and TV, Joe has a podcast – Dr Joe Unplugged, has self- published two books and maintains a website with health information. He has extensive experience in helping businesses maintain a healthy workforce.
Past Chairman of Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association, current Vice President of Arthritis and Osteoporosis WA, Joe previously held senior positions in the Australian Medical Association and has sat on numerous boards.
