Pets for Life was founded in 1984 and has been serving the Kansas City community ever since. The focus for the first several years was to visit the elderly in nursing homes. Over time services were expanded to include therapy visits to hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, shelters for domestic violence, residential treatment programs for troubled youth, correction centers, and several hospice facilities. The organization serves people of all backgrounds whose life is compromised by being institutionalized, cut off from home and family, lonely, confused, despondent, discouraged, and depressed. The goals are to improve the quality of life by bringing the joy and comfort of a pet visit to the individual, and also to assist institutional staff in carrying out the individual's care plan. Clients who usually have difficulty expressing themselves in a constructive way show a softer side when the pets come to see them. Withdrawn patients come on their own to join the activity and become expressive and talkative. Pets for Life currently has over 200 volunteers serving 100 facilities all over the Kansas City metropolitan area. The organization also serves Jackson, Cass, and Clay counties in Missouri, and Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas.

The purpose of Pets for Life, Inc. is to enhance the care and treatment of people in local hospitals, nursing homes, domestic violence shelters, mental health programs, youth treatment centers, corrections facilities, and hospices through the use of certified therapy teams of pets and volunteers.

The benefits of pet/volunteer visits to people in the community include increased emotional/sociological well being of these individuals and positive physiological changes.

The benefits of pet/volunteer visits to people in the community include increased emotional/sociological well being of these individuals and positive physiological changes. Research studies have proven the following: decreased feelings of loneliness and depression, increased socialization and communication with peers, increased participation in facility organized activities, decreased hypertension, lowered heart rate, better participation in physical therapies and rehabilitation, and lowered levels of perceived pain.