How Dogs Forge a Bond with Rio’s Homeless That Is Life-Saving for Both

"This subject also enables us to better comprehend the universal human need for love, companionship and social integration; the destructively false nature of stereotypes we implicitly embrace about human beings who live on the street; and the special ability of dogs to penetrate, touch and fulfill the exact emotional and psychological realms whicht humans often protect most vigilantly.

Birdie describes his experience this way: “If I lie there on the sidewalk, nobody talks to me. They even change their path to avoid me. … But if the dogs are playing, they’ll say: ‘oh, how cute.'” Even knowing that it is the dogs, and not him, that trigger the interaction doesn’t dilute the importance of being seen. This relationship with his dogs enables a critical human need: to be acknowledged by other humans."

read the news story by Glenn Greenwald

How Dogs Forge a Bond with Rio’s Homeless That Is Life-Saving for Both