Music reduces pet stress in shelters

A veterinarian named Dr. Pamela Fisher decided to put music in some shelters to see the effect that it would have. It ended up taking the stress off of all of the animals in the shelter. It mostly took the stress off of the dogs and the cats. It even stopped a lot of barking.

Fisher asked musicians from around the world to donate cat and dog friendly music. Musicians gave her thirty hours of classical music. It included music by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and nursery rhymes like the tree blind mice. It also included sounds like the ocean, and breezes. The music had instruments like pianos, harps, and violins.

Fisher gave the music to a lot of shelters for free. "I have used therapeutic music in my practice and wanted to figure out a way to help the shelter animals in my own community," says Fisher. There are animal shelters in all fifty states of America. They have over 115,000 dogs and cats in there shelters, and Fisher wants to put music in all of the shelters.

A fan of Fisher is Tina Gunther, and she works at an animal shelter. There was one night when she was working late at the shelter, and there was a storm that was scaring all of the animals. She decided to turn on the radio to calm them down, and other than all of the static, it really calmed down the animals. "The difference has been dramatic," she says.

Nobody has really been focusing on what type of music Fisher has been using, but they have been doing experiments to see if they can calm animals down. Fisher has been enjoying her experiment so much that she even created a website. I have really enjoyed reading about this, so the next time my dog is scared about something, I will play music and see her reaction.