From Emmy-winning producers of Discovery Channel’s popular Why Dogs Smile and Chimpanzees Cry, which itself has been nominated for a 1999 News and Documentary Emmy Award, comes the next look at the emotional lives of animals. Narrated by Rebecca DeMornay, PET LOVE examines the bonds between people and pets, combining the latest science with heart-warming stories. The U.S. premiere special debuts on Monday, October 16 from 9-10 PM (ET/PT).
PET LOVE reveals how our pets serve as our teachers, healers, sentries, caretakers and best friends. PET LOVE explores what actually goes on inside pets’ hearts and minds and why human-pet bonds are the deepest, richest inter-species bonds in all of nature.
Filled with fascinating facts – for example, more U.S. homes have pets than children and 40% of pet parents carry photos of their pet or display them at work – PET LOVE looks at what each side of the equation brings to the other. Petting cats lowers humans’ blood pressure and studies show that cuddling rabbits actually lowers their heart rates. PET LOVE explores the evolutionary roots of the human-pet relationship, from pre-history when early humans lived with wild wolves, to ancient Egypt, where cats were revered in part for their ability to kill rats that helped to restore grain crops. Horses, says “horse whisperer” Buck Brannaman, overcome their inbred fear of attack by mountain lions every time a rider mounts their back.
PET LOVE introduces the very special story of Dakota, a dog who is able to” predict and warn his parent, Mike Lingenfelter, when he is about to have a heart attack. Mike, confined to his home due to a life-threatening heart condition, had been prescribed … a dig, Dakota had been taught to demand attention and affection – to prevent his human partner from slipping into the lethargy and isolation that accompanies depression. Only six months after Dakota comes to live with Mike, he was able to get off all of the tranquilizers and anti-depressants he had been taking for three years. Fortunately, Mike found out, while visiting a school and talking to kids about animals, that Dakota had another talent when he warned him, by pulling and tugging on his shirt sleeve, that he was about to have a heart attack. Remarkably, Dakota has accurately “diagnosed” others who didn’t know they had coronary disease, perhaps by smelling chemical changes undetected by medical instruments. Viewers also meet Sadie, the life-saving English setter who dragged her parent- four times her weight – almost a mile back home when he was having a massive heart attack.
The program is filled with unique pet stories, such as the formidable “Towser,” the cat who caught 28,899 mice in a lifetime of protecting Scotland’s Glenturret whiskey distillery.
PET LOVE also moves through recent history, explaining the nature of animal domestication – when a species becomes completely dependent on humans – and describing how animals were bred for looks starting in the 19th century. It follows household pets and the spread of their popularity through many centuries beginning at a time when only the very rich could afford the luxury of keeping animals as non-laborers to the French Revolution, when the middle and working classes were freed and gravitated towards pets.
T” he program visits the San Francisco shelter that displays its homeless animals in stylish kitty condos and doggie apartments; the innovation nets virtually all their pets new homes. Finally, PET LOVE takes a shot at predicting the future of pets. As humans become more entrenched in the computer age, and more mobile, pets will provide them with the constant companionship, loyalty and affection they’ll strive for in an increasingly hard, high-tech world.
