A heart warming June 2024 event highlighting the emotional bonds between humans and all creatures great and small.

The autism and animals event provided for a different emotional tone and audience rapport, compared with previous events. For this event, the therapeutic benefits and emotional connections between autistic people and animals were highlighted by speakers and members.

The event opened with the benefits of having a pet, the extent of animal therapy used to support autistic children especially in North America and the impact of assistance dogs. This was followed by two speakers. First, hearing from Sarah about the amazing work of her dog ‘Skyla’ with autistic children. Next came the more emotional and heart warming part of the evening as a member of ALAG spoke about their connection with several dogs and the impact this has had. This came with plenty of pictures of lovely dogs for the audience to look at and comment on in the chat. It was great to see so many comments about the pleasure that household pets bring to people, the bonds that form and the support that is felt. Of course, this was tempered with difficulties faced when losing or being no longer able to see animals.

In the final section there was a fun quiz, fun facts and a fun animal referendum. When asked whether the audience preferred cats or dogs, I think the vote for the dogs might have just had the edge.

This emotional and joyous event had plenty of comments about past and present relationships with animals. Equine therapy was an unexpected recurring theme – with plenty of people sharing happy experiences of horse riding and looking after horses. There were also plenty of pictures of cute animals to enjoy. On a personal note, I’ve now been introduced to a new favourite – the pygmy goat.

Nick Stone, Autism Hub peer support facilitator & ALAG member, 5 June 2024