Humans having been keeping animals around for a long time as workers and pest control. Do they serve another purpose all these centuries later? We explore the proportion of our lives that pets consume, why we keep them, and other ways animals/pets participate in our lives.

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Shane: The Woman King (https://www.thewomanking.movie/)

References and Links:
1. https://www.nature.com/articles/276608a0
2. https://nautil.us/why-did-the-ancients-bury-their-dogs-like-family-members-237208/
3. Fine, A. H., Beck, A. M., & Ng, Z. (2019). The State of Animal-Assisted Interventions: Addressing the Contemporary Issues that will Shape the Future. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(20), 3997.
4. https://monster.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Legendary_Creatures
5. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-egyptian-animals-mummies-archaeology
6. https://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp
7. https://iancommunity.org/cs/articles/asds_and_animal_assisted_therapies
8. https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2015/15_0204.htm
9. https://www.animalbehaviorsociety.org/web/applied-behavior-caab-application.php
10. https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/keeping-pets-and-people-healthy/how.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fhealthypets%2Fhealth-benefits%2Findex.html
11. Ein, N., Li, L., & Vickers, K. (2018). The effect of pet therapy on the physiological and subjective stress response: A meta-analysis. In Stress and Health (Vol. 34, Issue 4, pp. 477–489). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2812
12. Leng, M., Liu, P., Zhang, P., Hu, M., Zhou, H., Li, G., Yin, H., & Chen, L. (2019). Pet robot intervention for people with dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. In Psychiatry Research (Vol. 271, pp. 516–525). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2018.12.032
13. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202105/why-we-love-our-cats-and-dogs#:~:text=The%20researchers%20found%20pet%20owners,interactions%20with%20family%20and%20friends.
14. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4266064/
15. https://time.com/5670965/veterinarian-suicide-help/

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