Paws Of Comfort

Peachez And Moose Lift Spirits

From a home in Hilliard, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Peachez and a Ragdoll cat named Moose have been dispensing cross-country joy via live video-conferencing.

Guided by owner Jennifer Kirkland, they lift the spirits of people who are in hospitals and nursing homes and feel socially isolated because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kirkland is a volunteer for the New York-based Animal Farm Foundation’s new Pet Together program, which schedules real-time visits for people needing a boost to interact with the animals and have conversations with their owners.

“I was newly empty-nested and wanted to give back to the community,” Kirkland said.

The 30-minute sessions start as group chats with volunteers and patients. Each volunteer has five minutes to tell the group about them and their pets and then spend time with individuals.

Those one-on-one interactions, Kirkland said, usually begin with questions about her animals and the weather in Florida but can evolve to all sorts of topics. Sometimes she shares unusual stories about all her pets — she has five — such as the kitten that tried to nurse on the dog.

“You’re talking to people all across the nation, all walks of life,” she said. “I want to make them happy.”

On a recent Tuesday, Kirkland was on a call to an Arizona memory care facility with four or five residents and a caregiver. They asked questions about the animals, which they called “adorable,” and enjoyed a few tricks from dogs that were on the call.

“Another Pets Together volunteer had a chubby English Bulldog who did his ‘Army crawl’ for a treat that everyone loved. There were some large Poodles that did some tricks and a few small dogs that tried to do tricks but mainly looked cute and sweet,” she said. “The residents loved talking with the volunteers and seeing all the animals. Lots of smiles.”

The sessions not only benefit the patients, but help keep animal-therapy teams at the top of their game after months away from in-person hospital or nursing home visits. If Kirkland’s Peachez and Moose lose focus during the calls or wander away from the screen, she has treats on hand to redirect them.

Occasionally she needs more than treats.

“They may fall asleep. I have to wake them up,” she said.

As with any video-conferencing call, the sessions are occasionally interrupted by people walking through the setup on the other end. Volunteers also sometimes liven things up by wearing costumes, as was the case for Halloween.

Kirkland said she particularly enjoys interacting with elderly patients.

“I like learning their stories,” she said, and letting them “know someone cares.”

The Pet Together program began at a nursing home in Towson, Md., and was so well-received that the Animal Farm Foundation took it national. It is also available for doctors, nurses and other health professionals fighting the coronavirus crisis.

“One of the many effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is social isolation and loneliness, which were already highly prevalent before the crisis,” said Stacey Coleman, executive director of the foundation. “We designed Pets Together to adapt to these unprecedented circumstances by tapping into the power of pets to spread joy and bring people together.”

The mission of the foundation is “to bring dogs and people together to end discrimination,” according to its website. The nonprofit also has a service-dog program, enlists correctional facility inmates to train dogs, funds the training of K-9 detection dogs, advocates for non-discriminatory laws and policies and the end of breed-specific legislation and offers free resources to animal welfare workers and community advocates.

Therapy Dog Marcus

One of the newest members of the Children’s Hospital of San Antonio’s staff has four legs, a badge, a new Instagram account and a whole lot of love and support to give young patients and their families.

His name is Marcus, a Labrador-Golden Retriever mix who recently arrived in San Antonio from Georgia. The golden-haired pup is the first member of the hospital’s recently launched “PUPPYatrics” program of the child life department. He trained for months with the Canine Assistants in Milton, Georgia, and its Children’s Hospital Initiative. Marcus was welcomed to town with a pep rally-like reveal in November hosted by Children’s Hospital of San Antonio associates. The event featured balloons, banners, pom poms and a “blessing of the paws” from the hospital’s in-house spiritual care team.
Marcus also has an Instagram account showing him settling in to his new job, which was made official with what’s been dubbed a “bawdge,” or badge.

Therapy Dog Program

China Guide Dogs

As the Chinese economy has grown into the second largest in the world, the country lags far behind in another marker – the availability of guide dogs for the blind.

There are less than 300 guide dogs in China for 17,300,000 visually-impaired people, leaving less than 0.001% of people with access to a guide dog, according to the Zhengzhou Love Guide Dog Service Center, a guide dog training school.

This compares to the United States where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are 1.02 million blind people. According to Guiding Eyes for the Blind there are about 10,000 guide dogs for the blind. That means about 1% blind people have guide dogs – 1000 times the ratio of China.

Other places have varying rates:

The United Kingdom. The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association says there are currently 5,000 active guide dogs for 2 million living with sight loss – a rate of 0.25%.
Germany. According to a recent article in Die Zeit’s there are 180,000 blind people in Germany, and 2,700 guide dogs in service, meaning the 1.5 percent of the blind have guide dogs.
Japan has 909 guide dogs with 320,000 registered blind people as of 2020, according to The Japan Guide Dog Association. That means 0.28% of blind people own a guide dog.
Taiwan. Data from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics of Taiwan shows Taiwan has less than 50 guide dogs for 60,000 visually impaired people as of 2013, leaving 0.08% with access to a guide dog.
Asia is steps behind the western world in guide dog training. According to the International Guide Dog Federation (I.G.D.F.), only five countries and regions have I.G.D.F. accredited members, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.

Guide dogs are not yet widely accepted in China, despite a rapid increase in people owning pets. According to Frost & Sullivan, a market research company, pet owners represented 16% of china’s population in 2013. By 2018 it was up to 22%.

Yet some people find guide dogs unacceptable in public places.

On April 26, a traffic police officer in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province, tested the system by posing as a blind person. She was barred from boarding a bus even though she told the driver she was blind and needed her guide dog, Taobao.

“People will get rabies from dog bites. Are you leaving or not? I’m calling the cops,” said the bus driver after the traffic police officer, still posing as a blind person, explained the law several times and presented the dog’s identity document. She was also scolded by passengers who said she was “wasting their time.”

Taobao’s actual owner, Zhipeng Gao, told the Chinese news outlet “The Paper” that this kind of thing happens almost every day since he got his dog in 2014.

This incident recorded on video soon became the number one trending on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.

China’s Construction of Barrier-Free Environments Regulations enacted in 2012 gave guide dogs legal access to public places. Cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, have their own regulations granting guide dogs access. But some local governments failed to educate and disseminate this law to its departments and workers, and many people remain unaware of this national law.

Besides the lack of acceptance in society, lack of funding is the main reason for the scarcity of guide dogs in China.

There are six guide dog training schools in China. The first, the China Guide Dog Training Centre located in Dalian, Liaoning province opened in 2006.

As the biggest verified guide dog training facility, it receives funding from the Chinese government. The other five training centers, such as the Zhengzhou Love Guide Dog Service, rely solely on donations from people and its founders.

The Zhengzhou center was founded in 2009 by Li Guan in the capital of Henan province. The facility has successfully trained seven guide dogs in 11 years, with three dogs still in training. The process of making a guide dog takes time and money; it can take more than two years and cost about 200,000 yuan (around $29,777) per dog, according to Guan.

Guan, an animal lover who got into guide dog training to help disabled people, said her operation is small because relying on donations is unstable, making it difficult to develop sustainably and reliably.

Another guide dog school founded in 2016 in Xi’an by Guowang Zhang also struggles for funding. According to the facility’s official social media account on Weibo, when they first opened, construction costs had drained almost all of their funds. They had to use freight containers as dorms for dog trainers. Without a budget for air conditioning, trainers had to rest in the kennel during summertime when the surface temperature reached 140 degrees (60 Celsius).

They soon faced another dilemma when the government’s forced demolition in 2018 forced the school to relocate. Without money to find a new location to conduct proper training, Zhang said almost all dogs were disqualified and eliminated from the program as they failed to learn certain things.

“Two years of efforts were entirely wasted,” Zhang said.

The Xi’an center restarted dog training and got back on its feet in April when it received donations from the Raising Guide Dogs Online donation program, along with volunteers’ help.

The online donation platform is an income source for four dog schools in China, including both schools in Xi’an and Zhengzhou. This online platform presents profiles on each dog in training. People can choose to “raise” a dog of their choice virtually by donating and receiving updates on dogs’ daily lives, performance, and exam grades.

Puppies are sent to a volunteer’s home to learn how to interact and live with humans 60 days after birth. They return to the training center when they are around 12-14 months old to study for 18-24 months and then take their official exam.

A guide dog needs to know how to safely and swiftly lead its owner to avoid obstacles, understand and complete more than 30 commands, lead someone to at least five destinations, and serve as emotional support in the meantime.

Many dogs don’t make it to the graduation.

“They are constantly tested on their ability even before their official exam, and the success rate for dogs to officially become an eye-seeing dog is only around 30%,” said Guan.

More than 700 people are waiting for a guide dog from Zhengzhou Love Guide Dog Service Center. Guan said that with over a million visually-impaired people in Henan province alone, some have waited for more than 10 years.

“People can request a guide dog directly through us or China Disabled Persons’ Federation,” Guan said. “They have to meet some of our requirements before we evaluate their eligibility to see if they can get a guide dog. Then they need to pass our training with a guide dog.”

Those who finally get their turn will be invited to live in the training facility for a month or two and work closely with a guide dog. That’s when a person and a dog learn each other’s personalities, daily habits, and behavioral characteristics. If they don’t match, the person will be placed at the end of the line and wait all over again.

“The dog has to become a part of that person,” Guan said. “Whatever a guide dog can do with their trainer, that person has to be able to do the same.”

Disabled people receive some help from the government, depending on their level of disability, location, and total family income. Take Wenzhou, an industrial city located in southeastern Zhejiang province as an example –  disabled people receive ranging from 125 to 500 yuan (about $17.8 to $71.4) every month, along with grants to help them start their own business and/or go to school, according to the government.

“You have no idea how hard a blind person’s life is. They just stay in the house every day in their little black room, and no one takes care of them. They can’t do anything, and many of them are very depressed,” Guan said.

Being an animal lover since she was a child, Guan taught her dog many skills before she founded her dog training center. When the first guide dog school opened in, she immediately flew there to intern.

“We want to raise guide dogs, so visually-impaired people can go out, live with dignity, and walk like a normal person. The warmth and confidence from a guide dog is not something that a white cane can bring,” she said.

Guan hopes more people learn about her work and provide funding help.

“This career has turned me from rich to broke,” Guan lamented. “I paid for many things myself, but even me investing all my money into this cause is not enough. There’s only so much one can do.”

Service Animals On Planes

Federal regulators are firming up a slate of new rules limiting service animals traveling on airplanes in a bid to ensure that the animals are truly assisting people with disabilities.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said this week that it is finalizing a rule specifying that only dogs trained to aid those with disabilities will be considered service animals under the Air Carrier Access Act.

Emotional support animals will no longer qualify as service animals for plane flight, according to the rule, but psychiatric service animals will.

Airlines will be able to require passengers traveling with service animals to complete a Transportation Department form “attesting to the animal’s training and good behavior, and certifying the animal’s good health.”

Service dogs cannot be barred based on breed alone, but airlines can refuse animals that display aggressive behavior or pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others.

What’s more, the new regulations allow airlines to require that service animals be harnessed, leashed or tethered, fit within the handler’s foot space and carriers can limit each passenger with a disability to two service animals. Those traveling with service animals must be allowed to check in for their flight online, rather than having to physically check in at the airport.

The rules, which were first proposed early this year, came after an increase in the number of animals brought on planes led to problems and, with only vague federal parameters, airlines started setting their own standards.

Delta Air Lines, for example, cited issues with urination, defecation, biting and other aggression that prompted the company to implement a new policy in 2018. The carrier said customers had sought to bring comfort turkeys, gliding possums known as sugar gliders, snakes, spiders and other animals on its planes.

The Transportation Department said that requests to bring unusual animals aboard have “eroded the public trust in legitimate service animals” and the agency indicated that the growing number of people falsely representing their pets as service animals as well as misbehavior by emotional support animals made the changes necessary.

Airlines for America, which represents U.S. carriers, welcomed the regulations.

“The DOT’s final rules will facilitate a smooth and safer travel experience for qualified individuals with a disability who need to travel with a service animal but will also prevent service animal-related fraud and abuse that has become so prevalent that it has jeopardized health and safety in the cabin, placed an unacceptable and unsustainable burden on airlines and caused a negative stigma for legitimate service animals,” said Nicholas E. Calio, the group’s president and CEO.

However, Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, said he’s “extremely disappointed” by the regulations, adding that they “will only serve to exacerbate existing inequities for people with disabilities participating in air travel.”

“This new rule will most certainly undermine the rights of people with disabilities and instead almost exclusively accommodate the interests of the airline industry,” he said.

The Transportation Department proposal drew more than 15,000 comments. The new rule will take effect 30 days after it appears in the Federal Register.

Flying With Emotional Support Animals

People who fly with their pet because they need them for comfort will notice some changes are coming to airlines.

The new airline rules essentially ban emotional support animals, many of which people said could help with an emotional medical condition such as anxiety or panic attacks.

Travelers had to register pets online and have a doctor’s note. Now, it’s no longer allowed.

“There’s too many people that used it and didn’t need it and hurts the people who really need it,” said Lu Picard, East Coast Assistance Dogs.

The new rule, which starts in 30 days, will only allow service dogs on commercial flights in the cabin.

All others will have to be checked into the cargo hold for a fee.

Service dogs are trained to perform work for a person with a disability. Like open a door.

It said there was an increase in the number of passengers “fraudulently representing their pets as service animals.”

“I have seen dogs waiting to get on a plane that were nervous, barking, growling, and not acclimated enough to feel comfortable there and that’s why the DOT did what they did,” Picard said.

Picard said she hopes more people will now recognize the service dog industry as a profession.

“This dog has to be at a certain level at a certain task-wise, personality-wise, temperament-wise, before it can be a service dog and it will help validate us,” she explained.

If a support dog performs tasks to help emotionally, it could be considered a service dog. That person would need to get the dog certified.

Dogs Favorite Person

I rescued my little Foxy several years ago. I wasn’t looking for her, but she just crawled up on to my lap and went to sleep, so I took her home. She spent the night with her head on my pillow, and I knew she belonged with me.

It wasn’t all green grass and fire hydrants. She had been abused, was not socialized well and not trained at all, so we walked and worked every day to give her the most comfortable life possible, and she adapted pretty well.

I was her person. She didn’t really like other dogs or people … until I met my to-be wife. The day Angelika came over to visit for the first time was the last time Foxy was truly my dog. She abandoned me for the love of a tender woman, and who can blame her? I would have done the same. Then Angelika and I got married, and we’re a happy family. We always walk together, the three of us, through our village, in and out of the greenbelts and pathways, from the hills to the lake — we cover a lot of ground almost every single day. My wife holds the lead, and I get the poop bag, but it’s all good. We get exercise and have fun, because Foxy enjoys her walks and prances through the neighborhood like a 10-pound prize pony.

How sweet and lovely, you say, but there is a dark side to the furry little mongrel! Foxy is now a one-woman dog — she has totally bonded with my wife and won’t go for a walk at all if Angelika is out. She just lies in her bed by the window waiting for her angel to walk through the door, and I have to tell you, I’m feeling a little rejected. But it’s pretty cute. When mom gets home, the dog runs, barking into my office, so I know to go to the door. She shakes from tail to nose and literally squeals with joy so loudly, you’d think she was in pain. It’s a remarkable ritual that goes on for several minutes until the dog-child needs a drink. I understand animal bonding. My therapy dog, Mercy, was with me for over a decade, and we were a total item. In fact, it wasn’t until Mercy died that I decided to remarry. That’s how much unconditional love she gave me. She was ill for a year before she passed, and we went to the vet every single day for IV fluids. At that time, my life was truly dedicated to her, and she deserved it.

Now my wife is getting to experience that kind of bond for the first time. You can have a very deep connection with a dog or a cat. Young or old, big or little, when your dog finds you, it’s an amazing experience, and the love you feel doesn’t take anything away from anyone else — it just makes your life sweeter. This may be why there have been so many more adoptions of so-called pandemic puppies.

I need to mention here that when you adopt an animal, it is a lifetime commitment. It doesn’t end when the quarantine is over or you go back to work. Too many people give up their pets when life gets inconvenient, but by that time the animals have bonded with them, and it just isn’t fair to the dog or cat. It breaks their little hearts, and it is traumatizing for them to be back in a shelter. If you do adopt, remember it’s for life. And if your pet falls for your other half, just enjoy watching the love.

Moose The Therapy Dog

The Virginia Tech community is mourning the loss of a local celebrity. This comes as its first-ever therapy dog named Moose passed away after a nine-month battle with prostate cancer.

Moose Davis quickly grabbed the hearts of Hokies and the surrounding Blacksburg community when he came to Virginia Tech as its first official therapy dog.

“I think his very presence was healing and he loved to serve,” said Moose’s handler Trent Davis. “You could tell he was happy to be there and happy to see you.”

Davis was his handler when he arrived on campus in October 2013.

“I love dogs, but I thought, boy, that’d be a lot of work to have a dog in a session, but it turns out it’s worth it and it’s been the greatest thing that has ever happened in my career,” Davis said.

But Moose left a huge paw print on the community. One of his favorite things to do was read at the Blacksburg Library’s “Paws to Read”.

“He came to my birthday,” said Sarah Crotts. “And I read to him.”

Crotts met Moose at one of the most difficult times of her life. She had just lost her younger brother and her ability to walk.

“We went to the library in December of 2018 never knowing what was going to happen and we are different people for it, we both are,” said Sarah’s mom Margie Crotts.

That’s what Moose did, he was there to listen and ready to be pet. Something everyone always needed.

“He made you feel like the most important person in the world and that doesn’t happen a lot in life.”

Last year, he won the Animal Hero Award from the Virginia Veterinary Medical Association for his service, and has set the standard for animal therapy.

“We are so blessed to have been able to be part of his life,” Margie said.

After they met in December 2018, Sarah read to Moose once a month and celebrated both hers and his birthdays.

“I hope that he inspires people to be better and to serve.”

ESA On Planes

A service-dog group and the MSPCA both support new federal rules allowing airlines to bar people from bringing emotional-support animals with them in the passenger section on flights, but People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says forcing animals to travel in the cargo hold is inhumane — and sometimes fatal.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that airline carriers “are not required to recognize emotional support animals as service animals and may treat them as pets.”

NEADS World Class Service Dogs in Princeton, Mass., applauded the decision, saying it has long called for the “critical” need for a nationally recognized, “legitimate” service dog certification to prevent “service dog fraud.”

“Although many pet owners believe there’s no harm in passing off a pet as a service dog, untrained and uncomfortable emotional support animals … can not only be dangerous for the true working service dogs but also for other passengers, gate attendants, flight crew and TSA (Transportation Security Administration) personnel,” the group said in an email. “The experience can also be cruel to the pets themselves because when an improperly trained or untrained pet is placed in a situation it isn’t prepared for, it can become nervous, afraid and unpredictable.”

Unlike emotional support animals, service dogs fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), so businesses and organizations that serve the public are required to allow service animals to accompany people with disabilities. However, with no national Service Dog licensing or credentialing system in place, NEADS said, “there’s plenty of opportunity for abuse. The new DOT rule is only a first step.”

NEADS is working on the state and national level to make service dog regulations and credentialing a reality. In Massachusetts, NEADS is working with lawmakers to enact service dog fraud legislation.

But PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said forcing animals to travel in the cargo hold is inhumane.

“No animal should be forced to travel in the cargo hold, with its confusion, noise, extreme temperatures and sometimes improper pressurization,” Newkirk said. “Animals have died during delays, temperature control failures and have been lost or have died during the journey due to luggage falling on their crates. It’s as simple as that.”

More than 500,000 pets flew safely as cargo on U.S. flights in 2017, the most recent year for which statistics were available Saturday, but 24 died in the air, according to government data.

But Kara Holmquist, director of advocacy at the MSPCA-Angell in Boston, said: “We’re pleased that the DOT rule prevents airlines from discriminating against service dogs based on their perceived breed, and prohibits wild animals on board, which we believe can be dangerous for people and animals.”

“For people planning travel with their emotional support animal — and who are concerned that their pet will now travel in the cargo hold — we urge them to speak with their veterinarian, and research airline safety protocols before traveling,” Holmquist said.