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Lillian Arrick never liked cats growing up. Dogs were fine, but kitties? No thanks. She owned three dogs, but something about cats just rubbed her the wrong way. "They used to give me the chills," said Arrick, a retired social worker.
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Cats haven't gotten the best of her, though. She mastered her feline phobia to the point where she can visit her son, who has a cat. "I don't quake like I used to," Arrick said of her I-ignore-you, you-ignore-me arrangement. "(Cats) know instantly if someone doesn't like them," she said.
Arrick does have her limits, exposed during a visit to the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum in Key West, Fla. Little did Arrick know that the place is known for the many polydactyl cats that live on the property. She walked into the museum - saw felines lounging everywhere - and walked right back outside. "If I knew there were so many cats I wouldn't have gone there in the first place," she said.
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Animal phobias get lumped in with spiders, snakes and rats, but some people are afraid of seemingly harmless puppies, kittens and even stuffed animal-like toys. The phobia makes for such a conundrum that the television network Animal Planet started to air "My Extreme Animal Phobia" in October. One episode featured a tough-looking man - complete with facial tattoo - who was terrified of pitbulls to the point that he could not properly enjoy regular walks with his wife and children. "You really do understand how debilitating that issue is for them," said Charles Foley, the show's head of development.
One in 12 Americans suffers from a specific phobia, including flying, heights and spiders, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health, which does not specifically monitor animal phobias. For one in 50 Americans, the specific phobia is classified as "severe" enough to cause panic, rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath.
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Animal enthusiasts may find it hard to comprehend that anyone would be afraid of a cute, cuddly puppy, but studies prove that animal phobias are quite real and distinct from other types of phobias. A 2011 study published in NeuroImage distinguished dental phobias from a fear of snakes, "characterized by distinct underlying neural systems." The researchers concluded that phobias should be distinguished to better understand them. A 2007 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry found that an animal phobia is distinct from social phobia and agoraphobia, an intense form of claustrophobia.
Common animal phobias include fear of dogs (cynophobia), cats (ailurophobia), mice or rats (musophobia), spiders (arachnophobia), snakes (ophidiophobia) and bees (apiphobia), said William Sanderson, director of the Cognitive Behavior Therapy Program for Anxiety Disorders at Hofstra University in Long Island, N.Y. However, most of the time, people who afraid of these creatures never had experience with them. "It's not like they were conditioned," he said.
Anyone can have a phobia, but some are more likely than others. "Children are more likely than adults and women more than men," Sanderson said. The average age-of-onset for a specific phobia like animals is 7 years old, according to statistics from the National Institutes of Mental Health.
Not all animal phobias are created equally. Experts note that it is normal to be afraid of certain animals.
"It makes sense from an evolutionary perspective for humans to have an evolved response for snakes," said Hal Herzog, a psychology professor at Western Carolina University who has done extensive research on the slithering reptiles. "There's things out there that can hurt you," he said.
Herzog explores the relationship between animals and humans - anthrozoology -- in his 2010 book "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals." The relationship between humans and animals, he notes, is complex. "Easy for people to give money to save the baby seals but it's really hard to get people to give money to save the giant Chinese salamanders," he said.
Herzog's own children showed an interest in snakes for a long time, thanks to his research and a pet snake, but they gradually developed a fear of the slithering creatures, something their father has found interesting. "They never showed any aversion to these snakes," he said.
But not everyone will seek treatment for being afraid of snakes. "Not many people seek treatment for that because it doesn't interfere with their lives," said Michael Kahan, a psychiatrist and physician-in-charge of the Phobia Health Center at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y.
Cats and dogs, however, are a different story, as they are two of the most common house pets. Plus, bugs are everywhere. One of the most extreme animal phobia cases Sanderson came across was a woman whose fear of bugs forced her to be housebound during warmer months.
