E-Book: How animals affect us: examining the influence of human-animal interactions on human’s health.

Abstract

In the history of human societies, the most important and decisive stage was certainly the transition from the appropriation of spontaneous resources to the production of domesticated resources. Through domestication man learned to take advantage of the potential of the animal that best suited his needs, which allowed us to understand that domestic animals are not the result (only) of natural selection but rather of so-called artificial selection. Practiced over thousands of years, artificial selection gave rise to the large number of breeds of different domesticated species that are currently known, mostly reflecting the different ways of using animals according to different regions. Certain behavioral and temperament characteristics, namely ease of environmental adaptation, tendency to escape or aggression, tameness, docility, sociability, emotional reactions toward humans, have made certain animal taxa, and certain individuals within taxa, better candidates for domestication and a lasting relationship with humans. In addition to these interactions, more of a material and instrumental nature, others emerged from an affective point of view, giving rise to animals kept as pets. These kind of Human-Animal Interactions of an affective nature have developed and consolidated to such an extent that some species are currently used as Animal Assisted Therapy. Included in this E-Book, whose aim was to contribute to a better understanding of the healing power of the bond between humans and animals and how these interactions affect each other, are 12 articles: 8 Original research, 1 Systematic review, 1 Mini review, 1 Brief research report, and 1 Perspective.