Help for Low-Income Families For Neutering Pets

Controlling the pet population is very difficult. The costs of neutering can be a deterrent for some families. There is help in Central New York. A free to low cost program can be found at: http://cnysnap.net/


This is such an important issue as many pets get left and abandoned due to unforeseen litters. If you know of anyone that is experience financial hardship, please let them about this valuable resource.

Equine Assisted Therapy - By Robomojo

We discussed how horse can help with physical disablities, however did you know they help with emotional support and counseling. We learned this from our visit to the Root Farm and researched about it after our visit. Horses help with:

• Anxiety disorders
• Psychiatric disorders
• Mood disorders
• Behavioral difficulties
• Other psychological illnesses – such as schizophrenia, ADHD, autism, personality disorders, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), receptive or expressive language disorders
• Major life changes such as trauma, grief, divorce and loss
• At-risk youth
• Victims of violence

For more information about equine assisted therapy: https://www.elementsbehavioralhealth.com/addiction-recovery/what-is-equine-assisted-therapy/

Parrots for Veterans (PTSD)

A local citizen posted a great video about the benefits of parrots and veterans suffering from PTSD. This is an example of Animal Therapy. Veterans are given a parrot when tradition methods of human intervention were ineffective. (Shared by George DeFazio)

The common bond can be the ability for parrots to recognize trauma.

Here is the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-parrots-help-veterans-with-ptsd/

You can also find the link on our resources section to the right.

Sensory Sunday At The Utica Zoo

Here is some great information for families in the Utica Rome area:

Sensory Sundays - Utica Zoo invites families with special needs children to join us for special sensory education programs. The programs will be interactive and hands on. The program is free for members and $5.00 / child for non-members. January 22, 2017: 9:30 to 10:30 AM - Snakes. Pre-registration is required by emailing mary.hall@uticazoo.or g mary.hall@uticazoo.org or by calling Mary at (315) 738-0472 ext 26.

http://www.localsyr.com/your-events#/details/Sensory-Sunday/3054759/2017-01-22T09

The Difference Between ESA Animals and ADA Animals?

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ESA AND ADA ANIMALS? 
By Team Robomojo

Did you know that Animal Therapy has many acronyms? One of the most common acronyms are for service providers. One common use for animals is that people will seek out an animal for Emotional support ESA. Or if a person is in need of a assistance for a disability, they assign the acronym ADA.
Here are the official definitions.

An ESA animal is an emotional support animal (Thats what ESA stands for) is a companion that a medical professional has determined provides benefit for an individual with a disability.

 An ADA animal also know as a service animal is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability.

Learning About Assisted Hearing For The Deaf By Liam Powers-Ginter

Dogs help humans overcome hearing obstacles. For example, hearing dogs help people that are deaf. Many  people wonder what hearing dogs do for people that are deaf. The hearing dogs help around the house with every day tasks. For some children, sounds like fire alarms, door bells, someone knocking, and daily skills. In public, dogs wear a vest to let people know that the person walking the dog is deaf. The most important thing a hearing dog provides in public is an  increased awareness of his or her environment.

Training hearing dog normally takes 4 to 6 months. Humans will train the dog to alert the person about different kinds of sounds. When the dogs get placed with there they learn to hear for the human, and respond to sounds like the  microwave or the dishwasher.  Hearing dogs can be taught to alert people to any repetitive sound that can be set up and practiced regularly.

Service Animals: Freqently Asked Questions

What is a Service Animal?
By Caden Giardino, Caleb Giardino and Vinny Glasso

Picture by Zipster969

A service animal is a certain trained animal for a certain type of need. These animals are trained in order to fulfill the task(s) that the owner can not or no longer preform.  

Do Service Animals Have to be Leashed?

   A service animal must have a harness, leash or other tether, unless the handler is unable to use a tether or harness because of a disability or the use of a tether would interfere with the service animal's ability to safely perform its work or tasks.

What Tasks Can Service Animals Do?

Service animals can perform multiple tasks. Here are some examples:

 Visual impairment, hearing impairments, mental illnesses (such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)), seizure disorder, mobility impairment, and diabetes.

Source: By Zipster969, pawsitivityservicedogs.com - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28331491