Charity Spotlight: Pet Partners

Pet Partners is our chosen charity for our Second Chance anthology series. 

Together we can improve human health and well-being through the power of the human-animal bond.

Pet Partners, formerly known as the Delta Society, is the national leader in demonstrating and promoting the health and wellness benefits of animal-assisted therapy, activities, and education. Since the organization’s inception in 1977, the science proving these benefits has become indisputable. With more than 13,000 registered teams making more than 3 million visits annually, Pet Partners serves as the nation’s largest and most prestigious nonprofit registering handlers of multiple species as volunteer teams. Pet Partners teams visit with patients in recovery, people with intellectual disabilities, seniors living with Alzheimer’s, students, veterans with PTSD, and those approaching end of life, improving human health and well-being through the human-animal bond. With the recent release of its Standards of Practice for Animal-Assisted Interventions and international expansion, Pet Partners is globally recognized as the industry gold standard.

As a leader in the field, we also maintain publicly shared position statements and calls to action on issues affecting therapy animals and animal-assisted interventions.

In the more than forty years since our organization’s inception, the science that proves these benefits has become indisputable.

Our Therapy Animal Program represents the best that the field of animal-assisted interventions has to offer. Volunteers in the Therapy Animal Program interact with a wide variety of clients including veterans with PTSD, seniors living with Alzheimer’s, students with literacy challenges, patients in recovery, people with intellectual disabilities, and those approaching end of life.

At Pet Partners, we believe that the human-animal bond is a mutually beneficial relationship that improves the physical, social, and emotional lives of those we serve. We are motivated by connection, compassion, and a commitment to sharing this meaningful bond with everyone who can benefit from time spent with an animal.

“In an age of research when it is tempting to reduce emotions to biochemical reactions and to rely heavily on the technology of medicine, it is refreshing to find that a person’s health and well-being may be improved by prescribing contact with other living things.”

— Michael J. McCulloch, MD, co-founder

All info from: https://petpartners.org/