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00:00Come, come, get it, go get it, get it, get it.
00:30So this is a bill that we've introduced in the New York City Council to make pet ownership
00:51easier.
00:52It would provide sick leave for people to take care of their companion animals, which
00:57we believe is very important from a health standpoint.
01:01When you take care of your animals, you're taking care of yourself too.
01:27The benefits are pretty significant.
01:30When you take care of your animals, it means that your cortisol levels go down, which means
01:35it improves your issues with anxiety.
01:38It encourages physical activity, like walking your dog, which also reduces depression.
01:45Having an animal is so important for our mental health and so important for our physical well-being
01:50too.
01:51And so we need to do everything that we can to make pet ownership easier.
01:54By allowing individuals to take care of their furry animals, who I believe are also part
02:00of our extended family, it's great for our health.
02:06It's also a good work issue as well, giving workers more flexibility in how they use their
02:13time.
02:23I think it's honestly a great idea.
02:26I think pets are super important parts of people's families and if something, you know,
02:32unfortunately were to happen to a pet that would require extra care or attention or something,
02:37I think it's important to be able to be there for them.
02:39So I think that'd be a great idea.
02:54I think that that's an awesome idea.
02:56A lot of us consider our pets as family.
03:00They take care of us as much as we take care of them.
03:02So if we could get paid leave to take care of our beautiful pet babies, I would love
03:07that.
03:08I think that would be awesome.
03:23Can you sit?
03:33I think in a society that's built for couples to have children, there's a lot of benefits
03:41for that.
03:42But people that choose not to have children and are going into old age, being single,
03:49people don't consider the importance of companionship and the value that it brings to your life.
03:56And you know, for a lot of people, dogs are the most important things in their life.
04:00So I think that while it might not be the most important issue facing our current system,
04:06I think that it's not anything that's going to hurt anybody.
04:11And I think that it's a realistic expectation for people to be able to take breaks and pauses
04:17in their life when they need it.
04:25I think that's great.
04:26I think a lot of people right now, especially younger people, are not having children.
04:30So their animals are their children, you know, their dogs are their children or their cats
04:35or whatever.
04:36So I think that it's actually really important to cater to that, kind of the new family.
04:40Sit.
04:41Good girl.
04:42Yeah.
04:43You stay.
04:44You stay.
04:45You stay.
04:46You stay.
04:47You stay.
04:48You stay.
04:49You stay.
04:50I think that would be really nice.
04:51I work in a job where taking time off to go and do things like take her to the vet is
04:58just like completely fine.
05:00Or you know, take her for a walk at 10 in the morning and then come in a little bit
05:03late.
05:04But for people who are working jobs where it's like paid by the hour, I can imagine
05:08that it would be, they should have the same treatment that I can get and be able to, you
05:12know, take the dogs to the vets during work hours, which is really the only time that
05:17you can actually take them.
05:42We're seeing a lot of surrenders.
05:55I mean, shelters across the country are just packed with animals.
05:58And this type of legislature is going to recognize that pets are family and pets belong with
06:04their families and anything we can do to keep pets and families together is going to help
06:10shelters and help people.
06:12The mental health benefits of having a pet are really unmatched.
06:16So by alleviating the fear of repercussions, either financially or just with your work,
06:22if you have to take off to care for your pet, that might not only prevent surrenders coming
06:27in, but also might help increase adoptions as people get more comfortable with the fact
06:33that, you know what, I'm taking in a new family member and I'll have the ability to care for
06:37that family member if anything goes wrong.
06:47We're not giving any additional days.
06:49We're just saying, let's give individuals the flexibility to use that time as they wish,
06:56particularly if it promotes healthy activities and healthy behavior.
07:25I know that when I'm with my cat, Rocky, at home, I have two cats, Rocky and Nina,
07:30all my anxiety melts away.
07:33And there are 50% of households here in New York State that have animals.
07:42And every time when we think about mental health, we often think about, you know, what
07:47medication should we prescribe and, you know, what treatment should we take?
07:51And all of that is important.
07:52But there are protective factors.
07:54What can we do to take care of individuals before they get sick in the first place?
08:00And that's where, you know, having an animal makes a big difference.
08:05And when I'm with my boy, Rocky, and I'm with Nina, all my anxiety melts away.
08:10I'm in a, I mean, I'm present in the moment.
08:15I'm in touch with my feelings and I'm more focused and more positive.
08:22My whole well-being has improved.
08:25We need to be replicating that for a lot of people here in this city and throughout the
08:30world.
08:31And, yeah, you can give your belly, okay, give your belly.
08:37So I think it's a little strange, honestly.
08:43This is the second dog we've had, and I've had cats before I had dogs, and I never felt
08:49the need for any paid leave.
08:55You know, I've had to say goodbye to our previous dog and to cats before, and it was terrible.
09:01But you know, at the same time, like I was able to work, having paid family leave wouldn't
09:09have gotten me to get a pet earlier or to get more pets or anything like that.
09:15You know, the saying goodbye part was, as I said, awful, but I might've taken an afternoon
09:22off or something, but there wasn't really any need to do anything more than that.
09:30So yeah, so I think it's a little, a little odd.
09:33So this is Birdie, and we got her right before the pandemic in February of 2020.
09:41I know that dogs and pets, just pets in general, can help our mental health, and at the same
09:48time they're not the answer to caring for our mental health.
09:52If we're really concerned about the stress that we're under as people and the level of
09:57competition we feel and the insecurities we feel as workers, I think we need to take care
10:04of those problems, not just add an animal that actually takes a lot of time and energy
10:09and you better be ready for it before it comes.
10:12So let's work with some of the root causes of what this mental health crisis that we're
10:20in as a country, rather than try and legislate our way into something which might or might
10:28not actually have an impact on the work that we're able to do.
10:35So it just seems like it's a weird backdoor way in to not really solving a problem that
10:43is really significant in our country and in our city.
10:48So the hard part is in training them.
10:53City government seems to do a lot of things that don't make a whole lot of sense when
11:00we have a lot of problems in the city that actually need to be taken care of.
11:05So focus on the real stuff, man.
11:11So yeah, which isn't to say I'm a pet hater or anything like that, not at all, but we
11:18have real problems.
11:20We have real problems here and this isn't going to, I don't see how, I don't see the
11:24connection.
11:25Yeah.
11:26Until you use the word treat and then she'll come running, of course.