Walking Together

According to international standards and to ensure the safety and wellbeing of animals, all animals and owners participating in animal assisted therapy are required to be properly trained and evaluated. All animals must be friendly to human and enjoy interacting with people and the environment. They are required to be certified to be healthy by veterinarians on a regular basis every year. Owners and animals will go through proper training in force-fee and humane model to guide the behaviours of the animals. They also need to be evaluated every year by registered therapy animal team evaluator to ensure their suitability and readiness of taking part in Animal assisted services.  HKAATA also follows strict policy on the working hours for the animals (no more than one session per day for 60-75 minutes and no more than 2 days per week) to uphold the well-being of the animals.

Animals who participated in the therapy programme often have their own moving stories. Many of them were abandoned or abused before. Luckily they have found new homes and loving parents, and are able to live happily from then on. Now they have become the sunshine for other people, giving back love to others and continuing to explore the world in new ways. They have taken the steps to contribute to society in their own “paw” ways.