pet therapy
by paul m. howey

She instinctively recoiled when the man approached her. It was obvious she’d been abused. Nobody knew how she’d ended up in the Arizona desert with her babies. Maybe she’d finally gotten the courage to run away. Perhaps someone dumped her there. Regardless, she had no reason to trust the man with the gun who was offering her something to eat.

It took several minutes and a lot of gentle coaxing for Lt. Dave Williams of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department to get the dog and her six puppies into his truck. Once back at the county jail in downtown Phoenix, he put them into a cell. There they stayed with three female inmates for nearly two months. The women cared for them until the pups were old enough to be adopted.

On adoption day, the puppies quickly found new homes. Apparently no one wanted the scrawny, beat-up mom. My wife, who’d gone there to volunteer, spotted the little white dog shaking under a cot in a jail cell. Though she’d promised me she wasn’t going to adopt a dog (we already had three at home), Trish knew she couldn’t leave the trembling dog there.

We quickly fell in love with the new dog we named Freckles. While she took to Trish, Freckles would whimper and slink away whenever I approached her. I would often find her hiding behind a tree or a rock. It was several weeks and a lot of patience on both her part and mine before she learned to trust me.

As her personality emerged over the following months, it quickly became obvious that she was an enormously gentle and loving creature. We felt she had a lot of compassion that she could share with others. So after she completed her basic obedience training, we got her some additional instruction and she was soon a certified pet therapy dog.

With Trish as her pet therapy partner, Freckles was soon “working” with at-risk kids in the Phoenix area—many of them from domestic abuse situations or homeless or too often both. She became their confidante, their furry therapist, their friend. These youngsters, many of whom understandably had difficulty relating to adults, would confide in Freckles their deepest, darkest secrets. They told her of their anger and pain and frustration in dealing with a world over which they had so little control. In the finest doctor/patient tradition, Freckles always respected the confidentiality of their conversations. She has never revealed to us a word they’ve said.

More than a “feel good” process

That it makes the kids feel good to experience the unconditional love of an animal cannot be denied. It makes us feel good, too. But there is definitely more at work here.

Domestic violence continues to plague our society. As of last month (October was “National Domestic Violence Awareness Month”), 52 women had died in North Carolina at the hands of their male partners. Seventy-one North Carolina women died as a result of domestic violence last year, a year in which more than 1,000 women died across the U.S. That puts our state near the top in the number of women killed per capita. Forty percent of all murdered North Carolina women are killed by their intimate male partners. Because it is the single major cause of injury to women (more than muggings and car accidents combined), the American Medical Association has declared domestic violence one of the top five health problems in America.

Perhaps one of the most insidious parts of this problem is its cyclical nature. The National Association of Attorneys General estimates that each year, more than three million U.S. children witness domestic violence in their homes.

“A child exposed to the father abusing the mother is at the strongest risk for transmitting violent behavior from generation to the next,” according to American Psychological Association’s 1996 Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family. In other words, young boys from a domestic abusive home are more inclined to grow up to be abusers themselves; whereas the young girls are more inclined as they grow older to become victims of domestic abuse. Left alone, the circle remains unbroken.

More than three-fourths of all women seeking protection in domestic abuse shelters across the country report that their pets had been threatened, injured, or killed by their male partners (“The Abuse of Animals and Domestic Violence: A National Survey of Shelters for Women Who Are Battered” by Frank R. Ascione, Ph.D, Claudia V. Weber, M.S., and David S. Wood, Utah State University, 1997). Often, these women say they stayed in the domestic abuse situation longer than they should have because of their concern for the animal’s welfare.

Therapists and law enforcement officials now recognize the irrefutable connection between animal abuse and domestic abuse. The Humane Society of the United States lists these as just some of the reasons batterers threaten, abuse, and kill animals:

To demonstrate and confirm power and control over the family
To isolate the victim and children
To eliminate competition for attention
To force the family to keep violence a secret
To teach submission
To perpetuate the context of terror
To prevent the victim from leaving or coercing the victim to return

Armed with the knowledge of these facts, the importance of the work of pet therapy animals becomes clearer. It is crucial to breaking the cycle of violence to reach these children and permit them to experience the joy and comfort of an animal’s love. By allowing them to acknowledge the value of another creature’s life, they are less likely to repeat the violence they have witnessed and sometimes personally experienced. Quite simply, children who are nice to animals are apt to be nice to each other. Sadly, we know the reverse is also true.

The connection to societal violence

The FBI, Scotland Yard, and local and state law enforcement agencies nationwide now recognize that violence toward animals is one of five key indicators that the perpetrator will most likely commit a violent act against another person. This conclusion was reached when study after study revealed the unmistakable link.

It is now known that a long list of serial killers—Albert DeSalvo, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, David Berkowitz, and others—as children, tormented, tortured, and executed animals. It was in this way that they desensitized themselves to the inherent value of life. It thus became less of a quantum leap for them to torment, torture, and execute human beings. Similarly, most of the teenagers who turned school shooters—among them, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in Littleton, Colorado; Kip Kinkel in Springfield, Oregon; Michael Carneal in West Paducah, Kentucky—are known to have mutilated pet animals and wildlife as a precursor to their killing rampages.

The many aspects of pet therapy

What Freckles does is not complicated. But then sometimes the most complex and frustrating problems can be solved by the simplest of acts. The unconditional love of animals is about as simple as it gets. And it is so restorative.

To see the magic, watch a hospital patient or nursing home resident smile when a pet therapy animal comes to visit. Petting a dog, a cat, a rabbit, or even a llama is known to lower blood pressure. Calming. Soothing.

Or watch Freckles in one of her new jobs since we moved to the Asheville area a few months ago. Through an organization called Paws With a Purpose, she and Trish now go to visit with first graders who are having difficulty learning to read. One at a time, these kids come into the room and plop down on a bean bag chair and begin reading to Freckles. Freckles listens to them without judgment or criticism and looks as they show her the pictures in their books. This program is rewardingly successful in helping these kids have confidence in their own abilities.

Freckles accompanies me on my school talks, too. Together we tell elementary school students the story of her survival in the desert and how she helps other kids. We share with them the beauty of animals and how much they have to teach us. She’s been doing that ever since her stint in the Maricopa County jail. The prisoner program with animals there has significantly reduced the rate of recidivism. There are several photographs of Freckles hanging on the walls of the jail as a reminder to the inmates of the good that can come of their work.

As simple as pet therapy is, so is our request. Please take animal abuse very seriously. Freckles and the children would appreciate that.