June 10 - Thera Pets

Animals have played a big part in my adult life, from my first dog (a collie cross) who sat in my dressing room dispelling all invaders - to my current two dogs (both collies).  In between came six  cats and another collie. It is hard to imagine our home without four-legged companions.

So full of animals was our London house that, at one point, a visiting pupil of mine – aged 4 – looked at the menagerie of  two cats, one dog, two rabbits, a guinea pig plus two goldfish and asked “Is this a farm?!”  Indeed, given the amount of work involved, it could well have qualified!  Even now, several young actors – launching into blood-thirsty Shakespeare monologues – will be stopped in their tracks by our rescue blue-merle collie adding her voice to the proceedings. It is all good experience for auditions!

Three of our cats came from The Mayhew Home in north London, arriving there from a series of unsavoury sites – two tiny kittens chucked away in a black bin bag and another rescued from a drain.  The latter was so filthy that it took over a week to clean out her ears and discover that she was a very beautiful tortoiseshell.

Not only does The Mayhew rescue animals and find them homes, but it also delivers a broad range of community-based animal care, education and welfare projects.  Trying to reduce the number of unwanted dogs and cats is just one initiative.  Called ‘Trap, Neuter and Return’, it does just that for the vast community of feral cats living on the streets of London.

So far this year, the Mayhew has re-homed 38 dogs and 121 cats; reunited 16 dogs with their owners; neutered 716 animals; microchipped 414 and helped 393 in the community – an amazing feat.  One of its core values is to “Raise awareness about the needs of companion animals to protect both the the animals of today and the future.”

It is a very sad fact that over 140,000 people in the UK find that going into a care or residential home means giving up their pets. NOAH (The National Office of Animal Health) is calling on the Government to “enact housing regulations that would allow people to keep their pets in care and residential homes”. There are some homes – The Denville Hall at Ruislip (where retired actors often choose to live) – which will allow a resident to bring a pet, providing it is controllable, but the majority of places are not amenable to such a proposition.

To fill the gap in London, The Mayhew Home runs a programme called TheraPaws.  Human volunteers and their animals – usually dogs, but sometimes kittens – visit care and residential homes, day centres, palliative care units or any centre where vulnerable people gather together on a temporary or permanent basis. This is not a new idea – Pets as Therapy has been carrying out similar work since the early 1980’s - but The Mayhew has developed the programme to include centres like those run by St. Mungo’s, for people with alcohol-dependency or who are homeless.

The presence of the dogs has been proven to ease the burden of dementia, loneliness, depression and life-threatening diseases. Luke Berman, from TheraPaws, has witnessed the dogs at work and explained how there is a significant impact on the mood of a person, or in a room.  “Faces light up when the dogs enter” and the medical staff describe how blood pressure is lowered, heart-rates slow down and stress levels are reduced. Patients and staff alike look forward to the visits and the dogs become an essential part of the routine.

Whilst I could not possibly endorse the view of John Bryant - a potential candidate for a seat on the National Council of the RSPCA – whose extreme view is to phase out pet ownership, I do feel that we underestimate our animals. When I asked my Vet why his own dog was not a collie – given his love for the breed – he said he didn’t want a dog that was cleverer than him!  He has a very good point.

Dogs – and cats – have an extraordinary ability to ‘tune in’ to the needs of humans but we are just beginning to understand how much more there is to learn about these four legged creatures. We know about dogs’ noses, which sniff out everything from cancer volatiles to explosives and narcotics, or an impending diabetic hypoglycaemic  attack – not to mention the dogs who are eyes and ears for their humans - but now it is our turn to ‘tune in’ to their needs.

It is not just our pets who need us to view them in a different way. Farm animals – especially pigs – are also intelligent creatures and it breaks my heart to see how we allow them to be treated.

Rather than ‘phasing out pet ownership’, I would hope the RSPCA would begin to live up to its name and raise the bar of farm animal welfare.  If it needs some help, I suggest it contacts The Mayhew Home.

Judith Potts was an actress and is now an acting, voice and presentation coach. She also writes a Health Column for The Telegraph website – http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/judith-potts/  Her email address is [email protected] and she can be found on Twitter @JudithPotts