Pets and Stress: Are Pets Sensing Our Stress?

Allie Phillips is the CEO and founder of Sheltering Animals and Families Together, which is exactly what’s gone on as a result of the pandemic. We’ve known for a very long time that companion animals can be stress busters. At this time, in particular, according to a Banfield Study, that is certainly true. I on my national Steve Dale’s Pet World radio show, I wonder, does it also work the other way around? Do our animals pick up on our stress? Phillips says “absolutely.”

Can it be that our pets even pick up on the community frustration and anger?

You can help by improving your own physical and emotional health, and sometimes you can do that with your pet(s) participating.

Phillips and I both serve on the National Link Coalition Steering Committee. This ties in because the Link Coalition investigates the Link between animal abuse and domestic violence, and anecdotally some report that is now on the rise. And I talk about how the same may be true for suicides, also on the rise. Can all this pressure and stress be too much for some pets to tolerate?