Pets Enjoy Healing Power of Music

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From the group Health and Healing

 

Pets Enjoy Healing Power of Music

http://www.livescience.com/animals/080103-harp-therapy.html

By Maryann Mott, Special to LiveScience

 

posted: 07 January 2008 08:31 am ET

 

The healing power of music has long been established in people. Now

a handful of harpists throughout the country are harnessing that

power for animals.

 

Alianna Boone is one of those musicians.

 

" The structure of the harp is considered to be the most healing

instruments next to human voice, " said Boone, an Oregonian who plays

for ill family pets and produced a CD " Harp Music to Soothe the

Savage Beast. "

 

While anecdotal reports abound, Boone conducted one of the few

studies on harp music's effect on animals. In 2000, she performed

for recently hospitalized canines at a Florida veterinary clinic.

The hour-long sessions immediately began to lower heart rate,

anxiety, and respiration in many cases, she said.

 

Cow control

 

Dogs aren't the only animals benefiting from the good vibrations.

 

Cassie, a black and white cow, lives at the Maple Farm Sanctuary in

Mendon, Mass., with about 80 other unwanted livestock. She arrived

there last year after jumping a 7-foot-high fence to escape from a

slaughter house, said volunteer Tracie Russell.

 

Even though the cow is now living the good life, it has demonstrated

anxiety-related behavior issues.

 

On a recent morning, for example, Russell walked into the barn to

find the 1,500 pound Holstein snorting and stomping.

 

" I was little bit afraid for my safety, I have to say, for the first

time, " said Russell.

 

She's not sure what upset Cassie but decided to try calming her by

playing a CD of harp songs.

 

Within 20 minutes, Russell said, the bovine dozed off.

 

Rave gorilla reviews

 

At the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston, a gorilla group appreciated Sue

Raimond's live harp performance a few years ago. The youngest

member, named Little Joe, even blew her a kiss before falling

asleep.

 

Both wild and domestic animals can benefit from music therapy but

not all of them respond to it.

 

" It's not a magic bullet, " cautions Diane Schneider, who

produced " Harp of Hope: Animal Therapy Edition, " the music that

lulled Cassie. " But for animals for which it works, it works

incredibly well. "

 

Schneider trained at the University of Cincinnati's College-

Conservatory of Music. Later, as a pastoral theologian and hospital

chaplain, she began to use the harp with hospitalized human

patients.

 

" I use certain harp vibrations to resonate with, or entrain, a

patient's own cellular rhythms to help release tense muscle tissue,

calm anxiety, improve digestion, induce restful sleep, increase

endorphins for pain management — to aid the body's own efforts to

heal itself, " Schneider said.

 

The same holds true for animals, she said.