Spiritual Advantages of Having Pets

There is a growing perception in the media that people who keep animals as pets are healthier than those who do not. Most pet owners agree, even those with allergies! The research is equivocal enough to allow both pet lovers and those less enthusiastic about critters underfoot to claim their views have proved correct.

The Delta Society (USA), for instance, is a provider and supporter of service animals for handicapped people. They quote a number of studies that show loving human/pet relationships can result in physical improvement in blood pressure and other measures of stress, including mental illness.

However, Jon Katz, in his book, The New Work of Dogs, worries that pet owners are very often asking animals to do -- and be -- more than what is healthy for people or pets. Those demands, and resulting disappointments, are the cause of the steady rise in homeless former pets.

Many of you will have lived with pet animals, often in the house with you. But not all of our readership is comfortable even thinking about cats or dogs living indoors with them, let alone rabbits, pigs, birds, pygmy goats, miniature horses, and an increasing number of even more exotic creatures.

In some parts of the world, animals are considered so unclean that they are barred from any building in which people live and do business, or hold religious services. There is research, not to mention historical evidence, supporting this position, too.

The Bahá'í Writings make it clear that Bahá'ís are to respect and treat animals with no less compassion than we are to care for our fellow human beings. There are, however, no specific 'pet' laws.

"Briefly, it is not only their fellow human beings that the beloved of God must treat with mercy and compassion, rather must they show forth the utmost loving-kindness to every living creature. For in all physical respects, and where the animal spirit is concerned, the selfsame feelings are shared by animal and man. Man hath not grasped this truth, however, and he believeth that physical sensations are confined to human beings, wherefore is he unjust to the animals, and cruel.

"Train your children from their earliest days to be infinitely tender and loving to animals. If an animal be sick, let the children try to heal it, if it be hungry, let them feed it, if thirsty, let them quench its thirst, if weary, let them see that it rests." ('Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha, p. 158-9).

One important characteristic of those people who have animals in their lives as pets, is their common perception that their pets love them. "He/she is the only one who is always glad to see me no matter what."

For religion, the primary point of creation is that God loved, that all creation comes from that love, and that we are loved unconditionally. For instance, Bahá'u'lláh, speaking as the Voice of God to mankind, states, "I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life." - The Hidden Words, p. 4

The Bahá’í Teachings point out, however, that as the created cannot encompass the creator, 'knowing' that love can be a challenge. Most of Bahá’í religious laws and ordinances, then, provide the guidance necessary to assist each of us to feel that unconditional love for which we hunger, and to reassure us that we are worthy of that love.

Perhaps the secret that pet owners have discovered is that animals can help in those endeavors. Certainly a great deal of research has been done that shows the positive effects on mental and physical health that accrue from the perception of being loved.

Love is probably the major motivation and sustaining force for self-improvement. Ideally, we are loved, we love others, we love God, we love ourselves. Without fully developing any one of those aspects of love and loving, our physical, spiritual, mental health suffers. Improve any one, and we can improve the others.

Religion tells us to love God and God's creation (including our relatives, neighbors and coworkers), but some days, maybe it takes a loving pet to remind us of our priorities...and help us do what it takes to become better people.