Science facts: Health benefits supported by scientific evidence

Having a cat or a dog is considered beneficial on many levels - for the pet, the owner, and the community at large. And these benefits can increasingly be supported by robust scientific evidence:

• Many studies have shown evidence-based benefits of cats and dogs on human health: the power of pets has been seen to influence physical and mental health, child development and social integration.
• Several studies evaluating and reporting the potential ability of trained dogs to detect certain diseases thanks to their sense of smell have raised many hopes.

Discover recent studies on these topics:
Health benefits of human-animal interactionFor almost forty years, the Waltham Petcare Science Institute has been researching human animal interaction (HAI), with dozens of papers published over the years, all helping to better understand the human-animal bond and how certain populations may benefit from these interactions.

Discover here their library of publications

Dogs detecting COVID-19Dogs have the ability to distinguish diseases thanks to their high sense of smell. Many studies have shown that dogs can detect metabolic disorders, such as cancer and hypoglycemia, predict epileptic seizures, or even distinguish various pathogens. But what about COVID-19?

Discover expert considerations for using dogs to detect human SARS-CoV-2-infection

Dogs detecting cancer and infectious diseasesMedical detection of cancer and infectious diseases with dogs has been an increasing field of research these last 20 years. The possibility of implementing such a technique in the clinic raises many hopes.

Discover here a systematic review performed to determine the evidence and performance of such methods and assess their potential relevance in the clinic.