GULFPORT — The Paws and People Festival and membership drive will take place March 14 at Jones Park, bringing pet owners and therapy organizations together to raise awareness about animal-assisted therapy.
The event, sponsored by Memorial Hospital, was previously limited to members but will now allow pet owners to begin the selection process for their animals to become therapy volunteers.
Organizers said pets and their owners work together as a volunteer team. Animals go through an evaluation process to determine which environments best match their temperament, including how they respond to noise, unfamiliar people and new surroundings.
Donna Strickland, organizer for Paws and People, said pet therapy focuses on the connection between humans and animals.
“Pet therapy uses the human-animal bond to bring comfort and joy and the love of that bond to people who are in need,” Strickland said.
Pet Partners, the parent organization of Visiting Pet Teams of South Mississippi, registers nine different species as therapy animals across the country.
Locally, Visiting Pet Teams of South Mississippi provides therapy visits to hospitals, nursing homes and colleges. The group also hosts community programs, including a children's reading event scheduled for March 21 at the Pass Christian Library.
“Children often find it much easier to read to an animal because they're not going to judge them,” Strickland said.
More information about the program is available on the Visiting Pet Teams of South Mississippi website.
This article first appeared on RHCJC and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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