Do you ever wonder the impacts that animals have on us and the impacts we have on them? Animals do numerous things for us. We have police dogs, guard dogs, therapy animals, laboratory animals, sled dogs, search and rescue dogs, herding dogs, hunting dogs, service dogs, service miniature horses, animals that can move loads, military dogs, and pets or companions. 

Animals and pets can be like superheroes in our lives. Not all of them have physical powers like breathing underwater, being able to fly, or being able to disappear, but most of them have the power of physical and emotional support. Studies show that pets are known to help with health like decreasing stress, helping with emotional and social skills, delaying memory loss, and reducing feelings of loneliness. Dogs and cats are the most common animals to help with anxiety and depression. Dogs are the best pets for a person with anxiety, since dogs can sense emotions and facial expressions. Dogs know a person's individual smell and when illnesses alter that smell, dogs can recognize that as well.

Animals impact us a lot. They help us with several things. Why can’t we give them a hand? Some people don’t even realize that they can affect animals. Some human activities that affect animals are pest control, slaughter, hunting, and toxicology testing. Sadly these activities are planned or intentional, but there are a number of things that we could do to help. Examples include picking up trash, adopting, fostering, making an effort of using reusable products instead of plastic, supporting businesses that share agreeable animal protection values, or helping rescue them from dangerous situations. However, some human activities unintentionally cause harm to animals. People impact animals with transportation, deforestation, resource extraction, industrial manufacturing, pollution, and animal food production. 

About 83 billion animals were killed by humans worldwide in 2021. Intentional animal deaths are caused by meat eating/slaughtering, hunting, poaching, game/trophy hunting, pollution, trash, or traps/nets, and animal abuse. 

There are ways to increase prevention of unnecessary deaths of animals. Some ideas include communication campaigns or protesting to raise awareness and working with legislators to make new laws and increase restrictions on animal abuse/maltreatment.