Pet therapy with chickens helps sick children find their smile again

Pet therapy is a consolidated reality with projects and initiatives featuring animals of all kinds.Like roosters and hens for example

There pet therapy dedicated to childhood is making giant strides.And it is becoming a method to regain the well-being that many hospitals And care facilities they work to help children to smile and forget for a while the inconveniences linked to the disease and the ongoing therapies.With therapeutic methods that focus on pets the fulcrum of the project and they especially help the weakest to help them deal with the stress of care in the best way, in fact unexpected results are obtained.

One of the latest examples comes fromSan Paolo hospital in Milan where he has recently been active One paw is enough created and promoted by For a smile onlus – a non-profit organization that gives 16 years aims to improve the quality of life of children in Italy and in the world, through fundraising, mobilization of resources and raising public awareness – and from Elanco, one of the most important companies dedicated to the world of health and well-being of four-legged friends.A union that saw the two realities come together to create a project within the department pediatrics of the Milanese hospital with the help of four dogs trained for pet therapy by professional educators of Time for childhood which allowed the young patients to feel less alone during their hospital stay.Important activities, therefore, which deserve to be known and appreciated and demonstrate, once again, how animals can be useful to humans in many fields and aspects of everyday life.

When animals help

The Basta una zampa project was implemented in a network of Italian hospitals – as well as in schools – with pet therapy interventions from 4 years and, together with Elanco, will continue in the coming months in various hospitals throughout the national territory.The recipients of the initiative are both i children and theirs families who, thanks to the activities with the four-legged friends proposed by the operators, can experience moments of lightness and detachment from hospital reality, both hospital medical staff, which thus operates in a situation of less tension.The activity with i dogs, in fact, it gives young patients a sense of protection in a phase dominated by uncertainty, diverts attention from the hospital environment, strengthens complicity towards hospitalization, and increases trust in healthcare workers, helping to develop a language verbal and non-verbal in communication.

Roosters and hens and pet therapy becomes avian

And in Milan, again with a view to the contribution given by pet therapy therapies, another important initiative is underway.At the Farm of the Trotter park of the Municipality of Milan, school and educational services area, the first was born Assisted education center with residential roosters and hens recognized a national level.In addition to the cats In fact, from the facility's feline colony, a group of poultry is involved in the interventions, animals that increasingly enter the homes of Italians such as loving companions and they are authentic protagonists both in the educational farms than in pet therapy assisted activity projects.“Thanks to health and management protocols attentive to the needs of this species, the involvement of animals takes place with an ethical approach, with the utmost respect for ethological needs and well-being, guaranteeing the safety of users who interact with them”, the operators of the cooperative tell us Time for childhood cwho started this activity in municipal spaces.

The association has been active in the Lombardy region since 35 years and deals with countless services dedicated to children and their families.Not only that.From about 13 For years it has also provided pet-assisted interventions and is part of the national network We animals.The cooperative recently carried out its activities on human-animal relationship involving roosters and hens initially only through educational activities directed to the schools of the Town Hall 2, and subsequently, from 2020, thanks to the project Educating Parks , financed by Community Foundation of Milan onlus , also began to experiment with the field of assisted activities.

However, pet therapy with chickens began in Italy already in 2014 with the initiatives of Vidas who saw poultry as an important element in contributing to the well-being of sick or convalescing people.Projects of this type were born in 2011 In the north-east of England, to combat depression and loneliness among older people.It all started in a chicken coop with just 6 chickens, but soon something bigger and more challenging began.And they were beyond that 40 the facilities including schools, care homes and psychiatric hospitals in Great Britain that began to bring less conventional animals into healthcare facilities for pet therapy practices.

In short, not only dogs and cats in the various pet therapy projects, but also chickens, pigs, horses, guinea pigs and hamsters to help men overcome pain and illness by establishing a closer and more vital relationship with nature and its inhabitants.