Mind, Body and Spirit

New research sheds light on how pets benefit our mental and physical well-being.

By prioritizing research, fostering partnerships, advancing best practices, and advocating for pet-inclusive policies, we can unlock the full potential of the human-animal bond to improve mental health outcomes for everyone, said Steven Feldman, president of the Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI).

HABRI is a 501(c)(3), nonprofit research and education organization funded by a myriad of stakeholders across the pet care community, including the NAVC, AVMA, American Pet Products Association and World Pet Association. “We bring together all parts of the pet care community,” Feldman said.

HABRI funds scientific research focused on the different ways that pets benefit our mental, physical and social health. Every year, the organization receives proposals from academic institutions all over the world. HABRI received 73 proposals for the current cycle and will fund approximately 10% of the proposals received. A scientific advisory board made up of leaders in the field of human-animal interaction helps select from the proposals.

In February 2025, HABRI released a new report, “The Role of Companion Animals for Improved Mental Health,” focused on providing data, insights and best practices to move society towards more widespread awareness and implementation of policies and programs that elevate the role of pets for improved mental health.

“Increasingly, it’s not enough to just do the research and hope people find out about it,” said Feldman. “We must educate people. We have to see how that research translates into practice, so that more people can benefit from this knowledge and from the human-animal bond. I think that’s where we are with this report on mental health and companion animals, which is talking about not only the research showing how beneficial these pets are for people, but then how do you proliferate programs that acknowledge the bond and make sure people can benefit from it?

In the following interview with Vet-Advantage, Feldman discussed the report, potential applications of the research findings and what’s on the horizon for HABRI.

What was the most compelling take-home message from the recent report?

Pets are not only beneficial to mental health, but also beneficial for the long-term management of mental health conditions. They provide stability, consistency and a level of connection over time.

One in five people in the United States has a mental health challenge at some point in their life, and some people live with those challenges and conditions over a lifetime. Knowing that pets can be an important complementary therapy is one of the things we have to get out there.

What are some ways we can turn these findings into programs or initiatives?

Housing is one of the areas that’s a barrier for all people with pets, but in particular for people facing mental health challenges.

There’s an organization called BestyBnB that provides emergency housing for people who need to go in for treatment or who have an unstable situation. So, if you’re going to the hospital to seek mental health treatment but you can’t find accommodations for your pet, you’re not going to be able to engage in that treatment. BestyBnB partners with social service agencies to provide temporary housing for pets.

This is also important in cases of domestic violence, so victims of trauma can benefit from pets in their lives. They might not leave a dangerous situation unless they can take their pets with them, and there’s good evidence to show that the healing and recovery process can be facilitated by these pets. Fewer than 20% of domestic violence shelters can accommodate pets, so there’s a real effort out there, even a federal program passed by Congress to provide grant money to domestic violence shelters so that they could become more pet friendly.

Those are good manifestations of how you acknowledge the mental health benefits and then change things in the real world to make sure that people benefit.

There is also proposed legislation being considered by Congress. What do we need to know about it?

HR 1842, the People and Animals Well-being (PAW) Act, was reintroduced this spring. It’s a bipartisan bill that would allow people to use $1,000 annually from a health savings account or flexible spending account for veterinary care or pet health insurance premiums. There’s no $1,000 limit for service animals.

The idea is that these are pretax funds set aside for health care expenses. Millions of people have these funds. Usually, these are provided through employers.

To be able to use some of that money does two things. First, it makes veterinary care a little more affordable. Allowing people to use this money for a pet health insurance premium extends the value of that money even further.

Second, it sends the message that pets are integral to our health. Most people feel that pets are important to their health. We’re not only putting the science behind that, but then when you put policy behind it too, we’re reinforcing for people that pets are essential.

We’ve always known how pets are good for us, and the better care people take of their pets, the better off both pets and people are. There’s this real halo effect. We know through some important research and survey work that the stronger the bond, the greater the uptake in preventive and therapeutic veterinary care, thus increased veterinary visits. So, there’s a real benefit to both pets and people by engaging in policies like this.

Can you elaborate a little bit more on the barriers pet owners face in the housing market?

We did some work with the Michelson Found Animals Foundation several years ago, and we still have an ongoing partnership called the Pet Inclusive Housing Initiative. But the first thing we did was research, asking renters with pets and renters without pets what was going on. We also spoke to owners and operators of rental housing, landlords. Even though about three quarters of landlords said they were pet friendly and offered pet friendly housing, when we really started asking them about restrictions, it turned out that, restrictions to one animal, restrictions by weight, by breed, etc., that only about 8% of rental housing was fully unrestricted. The renters told us that pet friendly housing was hard to find, and this was especially true for lower- and middle-income pet owners, so there was a disconnect.

Just to bring the point home, 33% of renters who had one pet said they’d get a second pet if they could, and 35% of renters who didn’t have pets because of restrictions said they would get one if they could.

These findings are a few years old, so the numbers may have changed a little bit, but basically, we could make more than 8 million new homes for pets if we could ease those restrictions over time if you apply the percentages to the number of rental units and the number of people, number of households. Shelters could reach their goals, and people who provide the products and services to care for pets are going to have a better opportunity in the future if we can just work on housing.

To connect that to mental health, in our survey, about one in five people said, yes, my animal is an emotional support animal, and we know this is especially true for younger pet owners. Every pet is an emotional support animal at some level.

The Fair Housing Act says that even if housing is otherwise restricted for pets, if you suffer from a mental health condition and that animal can help you with that mental health condition, it can be an emotional support animal, and the housing provider has to let that pet in.

Operators won’t even have to deal with those particular circumstances if they’re fully pet inclusive anyway. That’s our message to the landlords – people will pay a little bit more, they’ll stay a little longer, and an empty unit doesn’t make any money. Renters who are consistent and committed to their housing situation because they’re accommodating their pets can actually be an economic opportunity for those housing providers.

Then there’s the policy side, which is to remove some of those restrictions. For example, if public housing authorities have a 30-pound weight limit, then there are a lot of 40-, 50-, 60-pound dogs who aren’t going to be able to have a home. So that’s one of the things we want to take on.

Then there are incentives. The state of Ohio is providing incentives for builders of low-income housing to receive state funding. There’s usually a scoring system, and they get points if they’re pet inclusive. That’s a good example of not just removing restrictions, but incentivizing people to build this kind of housing.

What are future research projects you’re excited about?

Everyone is anxious when they go to the emergency room, especially kids. A recent research project found a significant reduction in anxiety levels, and a clinically significant reduction in the medication needed for anxiety and pain just by having a therapy animal and handler present in addition to usual treatment. We’re getting to a place where there are measurable medical outcomes. It’s sometimes hard to measure with pets. It’s easier to measure with therapy animals, but I think most people get that if you can show this kind of significant impact in a specific situation like the emergency department with therapy animals, there’s an impact for pets as well.

There are a couple of studies looking at the connection between pet ownership and gut health. We know that a healthy gut microbiome is important for our immune systems and may even be important for our mental health. We have a couple of studies looking at how pet ownership can enhance the health of our gut microbiome. This is one of the hypotheses behind the fact that pet ownership early in life can reduce the chances of allergies and asthma later in life for kids.

Steven Feldman

Steven Feldman is the president of the Human-Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI). His mission is to advance the science that demonstrates the positive roles that pets and other animals play in the integrated health of individuals, families and communities.

Photo credit:

istockphoto.com/Kiwis