Share Our Standards with Lawmakers

From children learning to read to seniors in residential care to individuals receiving medical treatments in clinical settings, therapy animals can benefit individuals physically, emotionally and socially. However, therapy animals and their handlers who do not have sufficient training or screening can pose a risk – from unpredictable behavior to the spread of germs.

As a volunteer, you know that Pet Partners is a leader among therapy animal organizations, initially authoring the Standards of Practice in Animal-Assisted Interventions in 1996. Help us ensure that lawmakers know the importance of therapy animal standards and share ours with them to help protect our work.

By completing the information below, a pre-written message will be sent to your legislators. By clicking View Message Details, you can review and personalize the content.

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{contact_data~title} {contact_data~firstName} {contact_data~lastName},

As a constituent, I wanted to bring to your attention the importance of standards for therapy animals in our state. I believe, and the research supports, the positive impact therapy animals can have with many populations. From children learning to read to seniors in residential care to individuals receiving medical treatments in clinical settings, therapy animals can benefit individuals physically, emotionally and socially.

However, therapy animals and their handlers who do not have sufficient training or screening can pose a risk – from unpredictable behavior to the spread of germs.

Pet Partners is a leader among therapy animal organizations and chooses to align with the Standards of Practice in Animal-Assisted Interventions. This publication which is based on recommendations from the medical, veterinary and animal welfare community articulates a rigorous set of criteria that are designed to ensure the safety of therapy animals, handlers, and the clients they interact with. It represents the best practices for therapy animals and their handlers, like me.

Examples of some of these standards include:

-Training for the handler should include topics ranging from infection prevention and HIPAA regulations to working with the needs of specific populations.

-Recurring, individual, in-person evaluations to ensure that therapy animals remain suitable as they age.

-Animal welfare guidelines including force free training techniques, maximum visit lengths and minimum animal age

-Infection prevention protocols including mandatory hand hygiene, animal grooming standards, rabies vaccinations and other health requirements.

I know you care about the safety of people receiving visits in your district. Please help promote positive therapy animal interactions by supporting appropriate standards. You can learn more at http://www.therapyanimalstandards.org/ or please feel free to contact me if you have any additional questions.

{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}
{user_data~City}, {user_data~State}

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