Animals can make a person’s face light up with joy, but they may also have the power to send blood pressure and stress levels down.

Some MSU faculty and community members believe there’s more to learn about the human-animal link and they have joined to form the Human Animal Bond Initiative - an effort to uncover the hidden healing powers of animals.

“The overall goal is to scientifically validate the importance of animals in the health and well-being of people and families,” said Lana Kaiser, a professor of nursing who is leading the project. “Then we will be able to utilize animals as therapeutic tools.”

Kaiser said although there is doubt about the project, the possible benefits are promising.

“There are a lot of people who seem to think that this is fuzzy science,” Kaiser said. “But if we can prove that animals have a therapeutic profit, then maybe we can aggressively promote the use of animals in therapeutic settings throughout the state.”

Sally Walshaw, a national expert on the human-animal bond and associate professor of small animal clinical sciences, said the initiative may be able to increase the use of animal therapy.

“The only way we will get health care providers to prescribe this kind of therapeutic activity is through research, which demonstrates it works,” she said.

The initiative, which formed within the last year, has combined faculty input from several disciplines including nursing, human medicine, veterinary medicine, social science and agriculture and natural resources. In addition, nurses, veterinarians and physical therapists from the private sector are participating.

Many projects have already begun, including studying the influence of animals on nursing home residents and children with chronic diseases.

The group is also working with companies already providing different forms of animal therapy.

“It opens the venues for us in terms of having access to multiple settings where animals are being used therapeutically,” said Linda Spence, a psychologist and assistant professor of nursing.

The group working on the initiative has met Haley, a golden retriever who is one of several therapy dogs that visit chronically ill patients, through Therapaws of Michigan Inc. in Ann Arbor.

Sue Fischer, a program consultant for Therapaws, said most people don’t realize the healing benefits of animals.

“Our dogs are called the great stress relievers,” she said. “They are used as mood elevators and they make the patient think of something else other than their body.”

The Cheff Therapeutic Riding Center, located in Augusta, Mich., uses horses to treat several physical and mental disabilities and ailments.

John Hanieski, treasurer of the board of trustees for the center, said therapy services like those the center offers will play an important role in the initiative.

“We have records related to our clients that can serve as a database for the research this organization wants to uncover,” he said. “So in effect, we become an operating laboratory they can use in order to document clinical outcomes.”

The group is planning a conference to be held on campus in September that will direct the group’s future plans.

“We hope to have cutting-edge research presented so that we will know what has been scientifically validated, what is being done therapeutically right now and where we should go from here,” Spence said.

As time progresses, group leaders say they hope to widen the use of animal therapy for those who can benefit from it.

For more information about the initiative, e-mail jrichard@msu.edu or call (800) 605-6424.