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Healthier families.
Stronger communities.
A more connected view of health.
The Pet Variable is working to make the human-animal bond part of how we understand, support, and improve our collective well-being.
Coalition Members:
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Our Mission
More than two-thirds of American families include a pet—a bond that can shape decisions about healthcare, housing, safety, social connection, and daily life. Our mission is to promote healthier families by making the human-animal bond an enduring part of how we think about well-being and shape health policy.
Supporting Human Health and Well-Being
Pets are fundamental to human health, with the power to lower blood pressure, drive physical activity, enforce routine, reduce stress and loneliness, and so much more. When that relationship is disrupted, people lose an important source of stability and well-being.
Supporting the human-animal bond means helping families preserve the connections and routines that drive their long-term health.
Reducing Barriers to Financial Security
Families shouldn’t have to choose between financial security and caring for an important member of their household. The unplanned costs of caring for a pet can weigh on a family budget, especially when food, veterinary care, or other basic needs become unaffordable.
Supporting the human-animal bond means protecting against avoidable costs and keeping pet families together.
Protecting Access to Housing and Transportation
Stable, safe housing and access to essential services like transportation are fundamental to family well-being. Pet bans, additional fees, breed restrictions, and other pet-related rules can limit where families can live and which services they can access.
Supporting the human-animal bond means removing unnecessary barriers
so families have more choices, greater stability, and better access to the places and services they need.
Putting Safety and Medical Care First
The human-animal bond is so strong that many would deprioritize their own health and safety before being separated from their pet. That could look like delaying medical treatment, staying in abusive or dangerous situations, or losing safe housing.
In fact, 61.5% of healthcare providers have reported encountering a patient at least once per month who delayed medical treatment because of pet-related concerns.
In fact, 61.5% of healthcare providers have reported encountering a patient at least once per month who delayed medical treatment because of pet-related concerns.
Supporting the human-animal bond means ensuring people can care for both themselves and their pets in safer, more secure living situations.
Healthy Families and Why They Matter
Healthy families are the heart of our communities. They help our economy thrive and make our society more resilient. When people have the stability, support, and resources they need for their well-being, the benefits extend far beyond individual households.
Human health is shaped by where we live, how we move through the world, and who we build relationships with. For millions of Americans, pets are part of that picture. Yet the human-animal bond is overlooked in the policies and systems designed to support our health and well-being. If we want health policy to reflect how people actually live, it must recognize the role pets can play in shaping human health.
Human health is shaped by where we live, how we move through the world, and who we build relationships with. For millions of Americans, pets are part of that picture. Yet the human-animal bond is overlooked in the policies and systems designed to support our health and well-being. If we want health policy to reflect how people actually live, it must recognize the role pets can play in shaping human health.
What Is the Human-Animal Bond?
Pets can have a profound influence on a person’s physical, emotional, and social well-being. That’s the human-animal bond. Research connects that relationship with important health factors like increased physical activity, reduced social isolation and loneliness, improved emotional well-being, and stronger daily routines.
When the human-animal bond is disrupted or unsupported, pet-related concerns can force families to delay medical care, turn down affordable housing, or put their own safety at risk, turning a “pet issue” into a human health and stability issue. Supporting the human-animal bond can help families avoid these costly tradeoffs, save money, and protect the well-being of every family member—human and pet alike.
When the human-animal bond is disrupted or unsupported, pet-related concerns can force families to delay medical care, turn down affordable housing, or put their own safety at risk, turning a “pet issue” into a human health and stability issue. Supporting the human-animal bond can help families avoid these costly tradeoffs, save money, and protect the well-being of every family member—human and pet alike.
Healthy People 2040
Healthy People is the federal framework that sets national public-health goals and objectives for each decade. The current framework, Healthy People 2030, recognizes that health is shaped not only by medical care, but also by social and environmental factors such as housing, transportation, food access, and physical activity.
We’re working to promote the research, policy experience, and cross-sector support needed for the human-animal bond to be recognized within that framework. But that doesn’t mean we have to wait until 2040 to see that change.
We’re working to promote the research, policy experience, and cross-sector support needed for the human-animal bond to be recognized within that framework. But that doesn’t mean we have to wait until 2040 to see that change.
Momentum around
the human-animal bond is growing.
In 2026, Colorado enacted legislation recognizing the human-animal bond as a social determinant of health, while related pet-family policies continue to emerge in other states. At the same time, states like Massachusetts and Arizona have advanced legislation addressing barriers facing pet families, particularly in housing.
Recognition in Healthy People 2040 could help turn that growing interest into lasting change—opening doors for the human-animal bond to be considered more broadly in public-health policy, research, planning, and interventions. The Pet Variable is building the evidence, state-level precedent, and education needed to help make that case.
Recognition in Healthy People 2040 could help turn that growing interest into lasting change—opening doors for the human-animal bond to be considered more broadly in public-health policy, research, planning, and interventions. The Pet Variable is building the evidence, state-level precedent, and education needed to help make that case.
Leadership
The Pet Variable brings together expertise across the human-animal bond, veterinary medicine, public health, research, and policy sectors. Our leadership is focused on building the evidence and partnerships needed to better explain how the human-animal bond fits into the broader
health landscape.
Anna Stout
Anna Stout connects the human-animal bond with policy and coalition-building, bringing together research, partners, and policy opportunities around the campaign’s public-health goals.
Get Involved
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