During the epidemic, humans and their pets became closer. However, the proprietors still felt anxious and alone.

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• coronavirus
• veterinary
• covid
• loneliness
• epidemic
• dog
• cat
• outbreak

You are not alone if you feel a deeper connection to your pet as a result of the outbreak.

Over the course of COVID-19's first two years, the bond between American cat and dog owners and their pets deepened steadily. Despite owners' claims of their dogs' good effects, researchers writing in PLOS ONE on April 26 found that overall stress and loneliness were not reduced.

"The one very clear message is that the human-animal relationship is very complicated," says Hsin-Yi Weng, a veterinary epidemiologist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Weng and his colleagues saw the coronavirus epidemic as a tragic but fascinating chance to investigate the complexities of pet ownership in the midst of a widespread catastrophe. Around the middle of the year 2020, the group sent a survey that inquired about respondents' experiences with stress, isolation, and their pets. Both in February of 2020, before the epidemic, and in April through June of that year, during lockdown, participants recorded their feelings. In order to collect data on the reopening and recuperation stages, questionnaires were conducted in September 2020 and periodically until 2021.

More than 4,200 people were surveyed, and the results showed that pet owners' feelings of attachment to their cats and dogs increased with time, both before and after the epidemic. Researchers speculate that such improved connections may be attributed to individuals spending more time at home and less time interacting with others.

However, it was less clear how having a pet might affect one's mental health. Despite the authors' hopes that owning a pet would reduce feelings of isolation, the opposite was true: pet owners reported feeling just as lonely, and in some cases much more stressed, than those who did not have pets (SN: 2/20/15). However, the data did hint that pet ownership mitigated the lonesomeness associated with a lack of romantic partnerships.

Cat owners reported the greatest levels of stress, whereas pet-free folks reported the lowest. Pet owners' stress levels may have been elevated due to the cost of providing for their animals, both in normal times and during the lockdown.