Shelter Plays Classical Music for Animals

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - The Arizona Animal Welfare League has started playing classical music to calm animals at its no-kill shelter.

The music comes courtesy of Scottsdale residents Scott Goldberg and Hannah Romberg, who paid for the installation and service for the Muzak system that provides the music continuously via satellite, said Cheryl Weiner, the league's vice president.

A United Kingdom study published in the journal Animal Welfare says shelter animals overwhelmingly spend more time in a relaxed state when exposed to classical music.

Goldberg said he noticed the calming effect of music on his two cats and two dogs, and he wanted to extend the service to the shelter animals.

There are other benefits.

"The dogs bark less and are more relaxed when people visit the shelter," Weiner said. "Visitors stay longer and spend more time with animals, so more may be adopted."

That's a great idea! I thought my cat that loves classical music was just weird!

Isn't that a great idea? As soon as I saw it, I was reminded of Hissy's tips for socializing ferals, one of the first things is to play soft music in the room, I think she uses harp music?

It is so nice to see something good about a shelter in the news!

I think that's fabulous!!! (It really does work!)

Also, I recently saw on Animal Planet on one of those rescue shows a shelter that has a "living room," and has volunteers come in to take the animals in there to play with them (if possible). It has TV, etc. The point isn't to calm them, it's to get them used to what they'll face in a new home.

I think it's a really good idea. My cats prefer only classic music! espesially Mozart.

I play it all the time for new arrivals. It calms the ferals right now- harp music has an almost hypnotic effect on them.I set the CD on endless play, turn the volumne low and let it spin away.

How neat ... I wonder if my "kid" would listen to it?

Mozart is very orderlly, intelligent music, which has a calming effect on people. I'm not surprised that it also calm cats. A study was done a few years ago that discovered that listening to Mozart increases the IQ (temporarily) by as much as 6 points! Plants also like Classical music.