Pets and People: Whose Leisure? Whose Health?

The aim of this chapter is to explore the intersections between human and pet animal health and leisure, with the central question being: Is an ideal of high-quality human and pet1 animal leisure and health possible, desirable or indeed realistic, even in the context of close interspecies relationships that many humans consider very positive? The growing consciousness of animals as sentient others (Duncan, 2006), arguments against having pets (Spencer et al., 2006), increasing awareness of how human–animal relationships are qualitatively different to human–human relations with specific benefits to humans (see section re. pets and people’s health), all indicate that there is a need to grapple with the greyness in the interests of multispecies wellbeing and care.
The chapter is about intersections. Human leisure and human health; animal leisure and animal health; human and animal leisure; human and animal health. Figure 10.1 provides a visual of the ideal or perhaps (as we will be exploring) idealized scenario of high animal health and leisure in partnership with high human health and leisure.