Thursday, January 31, 2013 11:25:00 AM | by v-nihill
Unusual therapy and service animals
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Parrot
Jim Eggers gets help from his parrot Sadie. Eggers suffers from bipolar disorder and Sadie helps keep him focused and alert.
Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images for New York Times Magazine
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Iguana
Cosmie Silfa and his therapy iguana Skippy. Silfa experiences depression and his pet iguana, Skippy, helps him to maintain a stable mood, and provides companionship and motivation in daily life.
Jake Poehls
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Horse
Mona Ramouni as she rides a bus to work with her guide horse, Cali, in Lincoln Park, Mich. Ramouni, 30, went blind shortly after birth. Growing up in Detroit, she could never get a dog because her devout Muslim family considered dogs to be unclean.
Carlos Osorio/AP
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Duck
A resident at Lakeside Nursing Center in Harvey's Lake reaches to pet VonDrake. This photo shows the joy and animation that a therapy duck can bring to people of all ages and abilities. According to the Delta Society Pet Partners, Young's Funny Farm are the only people in the country who have tested and use ducks for therapy work.
Courtesy of Young's Funny Farm
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Donkey
Henry waits in the hall at Lakeside Nursing Center for his turn to visit with residents there.
Courtesy of Young's Funny Farm
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Parrot
James Eggers carries his assistance parrot Sadie in a special backpack built around her cage. Rebecca Skloot, author of 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,' wrote an article about unusual therapy animals that included a mention of Sadie.
www.rebeccaskloot.com
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Monkey
Debra drives with her service monkey, Richard, who helps her overcome agoraphobia. Debra and Richard are also mentioned in Rebecca Skloot's article about service animals, 'Assistance Monkeys, Ducks, Parrots, Pigs and Ducks … Should the law protect them?'
www.rebeccaskloot.com
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Donkey
Residents at Elmcroft senior home in Bloomsburg greet Honeybun and Henry, their therapy donkeys.
Courtesy of Young's Funny Farm
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Dolphin
Gleb, a 5-year-old boy from Russia, plays with a dolphin at a special center for people with disabilities in Moscow. Gleb, who suffers from cerebral palsy, has 30-minute sessions with dolphins as part of his treatment.
Sergei Karpukhin/Newscom/RTR
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Horse
Carissa Boulden, 10, kisses her pet horse Princess as it stands on her bed at her family home in Sydney. Princess, a Shetland pony, is given free run of the suburban Sydney house, eats with her owners at meal times and drinks beer every Sunday, but also provides therapy for Carissa, who suffers from cerebral palsy.
Tim Wimborne/Newscom/RTR
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Monkey
Aila, a 10-year-old capuchin monkey, retrieves a compact disc from inside a closed CD player for Travis Roy, who is quadriplegic, at the 'Helping Hands: Monkey Helpers for the Disabled' organization's 'monkey college' facility in Boston.
Jim Bourg/Reuters
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Rats
Runcho sniffs the mouth of a police animal trainer at a police school in Sibate, Colombia. Colombian police are training white-furred, pink-eyed rats to locate landmines in Colombia.
Daniel Munoz/Newscom/RTR
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Dolphin
Ety Napadenschi of Peru, who is eight months pregnant, is touched by a dolphin named Wayra during a therapy for pregnant women at a hotel in Lima. The therapy is supposed to stimulate the brain of the fetus.
Pilar Olivares/Newscom/RTR
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Horse
Mona Ramouni, left, and her guide horse Cali attend class at Michigan State University in Lansing, Mich.
Mira Oberman/AFP/Getty Images
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Llama
Hospice patient Helen Kress feeds Pisco, a 13-year-old therapy llama, during his visit to the Hospice of Saint John in Lakewood, Colo. The llama visits the hospice each month as part of an animal therapy program designed to increase happiness, decrease loniliness and calm terminally ill patients.
John Moore/Getty Images
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Monkey
Craig, who is quadriplegic, shares his dinner with Minnie, a capuchin monkey, in La Habra, Calif. Helping Hands trains capuchin monkeys to help humans with simple tasks.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images
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Horse
Shari Bernstiel secures a harness on Tonto, her guide horse, before they go for a walk in Lansdale, Pa.
William Thomas Cain/Getty Images
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Llama
Marisco the llama visits with a patient in Bellingham, Wash.
Courtesy of Pet Partners
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Dog
Therapy animals are most commonly dogs. Misty, a standard poodle, encourages a man recovering from a recent stroke to reach out and pet her.
Courtesy of Pet Partners
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Dolphin
Leonardo Araujo, 12, swims with a pink river dolphin during a dolphin therapy session in Brazil. The therapy involves swimming with the animals in the hope that the ultrasonic waves emitted by the dolphins will help cure a range of health problems.
Ricardo Moraes/Reuters
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Donkey
A teacher helps a student from Bloomsburg Middle School Life in Pennsylvania reach out to touch Honeybun, a donkey.
Courtesy of Young's Funny Farm
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Bird
The variety of species of therapy animals brings back special memories for seniors who may have had cats, birds, rabbits or other animals as pets during their lifetimes. Here Noelle, a cockatiel, delights the residents of a nursing home by whistling along with her human handler.
Courtesy of Pet Partners
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Guinea pig
Some therapy animals often have unique means of transport and require special accommodations during their visits. Outlaw, a therapy guinea pig, is transported in a basket during his visits, and his on-board miniature fan helps cool him down on breaks between petting sessions.
Courtesy of Pet Partners
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Duck
Afro the duck visits residents at Emmanuel Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation in Danville, Pa. Duck therapy works best for people with dementia and autism. There is a tactile stimulation from stroking the soft feathers of a trained duck.
Courtesy of Young's Funny Farm
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Cat
Although most commonly visited by therapy dogs, hospitals across the nation are beginning to welcome other species. This child is comforted during his hospital stay by a brown tabby therapy cat called Dakota.
Courtesy of Pet Partners
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Rabbit
Research has shown that reading to an animal causes less an anxiety and creates more motivation than reading to a human, and it can also result in dramatic improvements in a child’s reading ability. The animal need not be a dog, as demonstrated by Oreo, a therapy rabbit.
Courtesy of Pet Partners
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Goat
Therapy animals of many species can provide comfort, healing and companionship. Gracie is a therapy goat.