Purpose: Aging society becomes a globing phenomenon. The busy society lifestyle, different marriage forms, low
birth rate, and life span extension are making the issues of aging society more severed. However, lacking companions and
siblings aggregate elders’ social support issues. According to the previous studies in U.S.A. and Europe, playing with pets and
animals provides the source of comforting and sense of companionship. In the different culture, the purpose of this study was
to determine the leisure therapy’s physical and psychological health effects by applying animal-assisted leisure activity (AALA) to rest home elders. Method: The research objectives were elders who resided in a private rest home in northern Taiwan. The
researchers conducted a one-hour a time and 6 times a week longitudinal AALA experiment to the experimental (AALA
participants) and control group (AALA non-participants) elders for 6 weeks. Questionnaires, interview, and on-site observation
were applied for both groups. Results: In the physical health aspect, the AALA had slightly positive influence to the two groups’
elders. Additionally, in the psychological and social health aspect, the experiment group had improved much better than
the control group. Conclusion: The elderly who lived in the rest home for a long time were obviously unable to take care of
themselves. By applying AALA recreation therapy, the elders’ physical, psychological health and sense of social support had been
improved, especially psychological health and sense of social support.