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Programs
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By training, registering and managing teams of handlers and their therapy animals, American Humane provides direct services to children and adults in hospitals, schools, mental health centers and other facilities. Animals can motivate rehabilitation patients to walk again, teach children in special-education classrooms important life skills, facilitate counseling sessions in mental health centers, help children learn to read, and provide residents of long-term care facilities with mental stimulation, physiological benefits and unconditional acceptance. American Humane applies the power of the human-animal bond to provide motivational, educational and recreational interactions that enhance the lives of people of all types and all ages.
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Children who have suffered physical or emotional trauma can benefit from the use of therapy animals in the recovery process. The TASK Program encourages child welfare professionals, attorneys, prosecutors and others who work with abused and neglected children to incorporate therapy animals into sessions with those children. Therapy animals can be a calming influence to help draw withdrawn children out of their shell, and the nonjudgmental comfort an animal provides can help traumatized children heal.
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Humane education spreads the seeds of empathy and kindness to people of all ages, providing valuable lessons that last a lifetime and spurring actions that create a more humane world for people and animals alike. Our humane education efforts include developing classroom curricula that emphasize character development and community involvement, conducting workshops on proper animal handling and care, and providing training that helps educators weave humane lessons into their courses to nurture attitudes of compassion and respect for other beings.
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Child and animal protection professionals recognize The Link between violence to people and violence to animals, noting that abuse of both children and animals is connected in a self-perpetuating cycle. When animals in a home are abused or neglected, it is a warning sign that others in the household may not be safe. In addition, children who witness animal abuse are at a greater risk of becoming abusers themselves. By studying The Link, and informing others about it, American Humane is helping to break the cycle of animal abuse, domestic violence, elder abuse and child abuse.
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When domestic violence victims with pets consider fleeing abusive homes and there is no safe place to house their pets, they have little choice but to remain in their homes and subject themselves, their children and their pets to continued violence -- or to flee and leave their pets behind. Because of the urgent need to protect domestic violence victims from further abuse, and recognizing the comfort that pets provide people, especially in times of stress and trauma, American Humane is leading this national program to guide domestic and family violence emergency housing shelters toward permitting residents to bring their pets with them.
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