Knowing animals and building positive relationships with them is not only a way that can help people feel better and restore and increase weakened or interrupted social bonds. It is also an opportunity that, within a framework of total harmony, fosters the flourishing of seemingly unexpected dynamics. By triggering engaging emotional situations, animals evoke reactions of surprise, curiosity, and enthusiasm that predispose the individual to a general sense of openness and willingness to learn. As a social facilitator, furthermore, animals strengthen proactive attitudes that lead to action and promote the formation of empathetic behavior. As evidence of this, in a group experiencing the same situation, it is easy to notice among the participants an increase in reciprocity and interconnections.

Especially for children, animals are perfect friends to help them establish a communicative bridge between their inner world and the outer world, and their companionship can produce additional benefits of multifaceted significance. A child who lives in contact with a pet usually has a greater ability to consciously evaluate, use, and regulate their own and others’ emotions. By being responsible for another being, they also have the opportunity to increase their self-esteem and understand, through experience, aspects of the life cycle that are also part of human existence.