In my town, kids grow up around animals, they live and work with them, they understand them. Animals build confidence, they keep the young connected to natural, and not on screens all day and night. Kids who handle horses, cows, steers, oxen have a sense of confidence in themselves and their ability to navigate the world. If you tell a kid up here that it is abuse for draft horses to pull carriages, they will just laugh and ask you if you are kidding.