Because of extensive media coverage, it is now widely believed that pets enhance
their owners’ health, sense of psychological well-being, and longevity. But while
some researchers have reported that positive effects accrue from interacting with
animals, others have found that the health and happiness of pet owners is no better,
and in some cases worse, than that of non–pet owners. I discuss some reasons why
studies of the effects of pets on people have produced conflicting results, and I
argue that the existence of a generalized “pet effect” on human mental and physical
health is at present not a fact but an unsubstantiated hypothesis.
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