Pets as therapy

Since then, we have campaigned successfully to eradicate, in Britain, euthanasia of dogs by electrocution, and attempts to ban dogs from exercise in parks in Edinburgh and the Royal Parks in London. Injustices against dogs and their owners are a daily occurrence whether perpetrated by local authorities, national organisations, or private landlords, and our vigilance never flags.

In 1983, Lesley founded our sister charity Pets As Therapy which shares our national headquarters in Kent. Pets As Therapy largely comprises of dogs (but are now joined by an increasing number of cats, and hopefully in the future other companion animals) and, having passed a test to ensure that their temperament and behaviour is extra-special, P.A.T. animals are taken on a regular basis by their devoted volunteer owners to visit the elderly in residential homes, children in schools, and patients in hospitals and hospices who are, by necessity, separated from the contact and interaction with their loved pets throughout the length and breadth of the England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Indeed, the scheme has developed to encompass people rehabilitating from drug dependancy and many with psychiatric or psychological conditions because of the very special one-to-one interface between animal and humans.

visit them at Pets Therapy