Give your opinion on the relationship between human beings and animals. Give examples from personal life and explain the bond in around 200 words.
Answers
Humans have a long history of relationship with domestic animals and nowadays pets
often act as “social substitutes” through bonding. There is some evidence that pet presence at home
may induce well being in people and the development of social skills in children. Animal assisted therapies aim at developing these skills in patients on the basis of human animal interactions.
Experimental data obtained on animal models suggest that this is indeed a promising line. There is
however a lack of clear scientific data that would help defines what the most appropriate procedures
or species may be. Improvements are observed, but again sound scientific data are mostly missing.
Attention must be given to the welfare of the animals being used.
Although there are some examples of interspecific
relationships between animal species in the wild (e.g.
clown fishes and anemones, ants and aphids, mixed
species groups of primates) where both species have
benefits from the association, the human-pet relationship is rather unique in its current form.