Service animal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Service animals are animals that have been trained to perform tasks that assist people with disabilities. Service animals may also be referred to as "assistance animals," "assist animals," "support animals," or "helper animals" depending on country.

Contents

[edit] Definitions

The international assistance animal community has categorized three types of assistance animals:[1]

  1. Guide animal—to guide the blind
  2. Hearing animal—to signal the hearing impaired
  3. Service animal—to do work for persons with disabilities other than blindness or deafness.

In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines a service animal as any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal "individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability."[2][3]

[edit] Animals for individual assistance

Most service animals are dogs; however, members of other species may be trained to perform tasks to help their disabled partners live independent lives. Other animals include:

  • Capuchin monkeys, which can be trained to perform manual tasks such as grasping items, operating knobs and switches, and turning the pages of a book.[4]
  • Miniature horses, which can be trained to guide the blind,[5] to pull wheelchairs, or support for persons with Parkinson's disease.

[edit] Monkey helper

A monkey helper is a type of assistance animal, similar to an assistance dog, that is specially trained to help quadriplegics, other people with severe spinal cord injuries or others with mobility-impairments.

Monkey helpers are usually trained in schools by private organizations, taking 7 years to train on average, and are able to serve 25–30 years (2-3x longer than a seeing-eye dog).[6]

After being socialized in a human home as infants, the monkeys undergo extensive training before being placed with a quadriplegic. Around the house, the monkeys help out by doing tasks including microwaving food, washing the quadriplegic's face, and opening drink bottles.

[edit] In popular culture

  • The horror film Monkey Shines features a monkey helper.
  • In a side plot in The Simpsons episode "Girly Edition", Homer manages to get a helper monkey who becomes as fat and lazy as he is.
  • In the Eisner Award winning comic, Y: The Last Man, the main character Yorick acquires his Capuchin monkey in order to train it to be a monkey helper
  • In the Malcolm in the Middle episode "Monkey", Craig Feldspar gets a monkey helper which goes crazy and tries to kill him
  • Giuseppe Sanchez Monkey, a white faced capuchin, is a helper monkey and the title character of Brett Kihlmire's mock children's story, Smash! The life and times of Giuseppe S. Monkey.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ International Association of Assistance Dog Partners Retrieved on October 17, 2007.
  2. ^ Commonly Asked Questions about Service Animals in Places of Business, US Department of Justice. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
  3. ^ A Brief Information Resource on Assistance Animals for the Disabled, National Agricultural Library, Animal Welfare Information Center. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
  4. ^ Helping Hands Retrieved on October 17, 2007.
  5. ^ Guide Horse Retrieved on October 17, 2007.
  6. ^ "Monkey Helpers Lend a 'Helping Hand'". http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4361694. Retrieved August 14, 2006. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_animal"