Welcome to the Light Keepers Podcast. I'm Clayton
Vandiver, your Light Keeper, with a show dedicated
to everyone who wants to get the most quality
out of life that they can. My co -host, as always,
Charlene, our licensed clinical social worker
certified in the state of Florida, joining the
conversation this week about puppies and kittens
and pets. Oh, my part, too! Yes, we're right
back to talk about therapy pets this week. and
so much more on this edition of the Light Keepers
Podcast. And remember, you can leave your questions
or comments below. We love to hear from you.
Questions this week will be answered during our
next show. And it appears online at 7 p .m. Eastern
every Wednesday. The Light Keepers podcast is
an exclusive production of A Guiding Light. We'll
tell you more about them at the end of the podcast.
But let's get right into this week's conversation
about puppies and kittens and pets part two,
the therapy pet. Charlene, what is a therapy
pet? Well, on our previous episode, we were talking
about the benefits of pet ownership and the topic
of therapy pets came up. And a therapy pet is
quite simply a pet that's more than a pet. It's
a pet that serves a functional purpose. Aside
from the emotional and health benefits, some
therapy pets are very, very specially trained.
to be able to provide safety benefits to their
human companions. For example, there are dogs
out there that are trained to be able to predict
when their owner is going to have a seizure or
things like that. But therapy pets can also be
used for other things too. So I did some research
on this. There are therapy pets for a lot of
different things. For example, there are therapy
pets out there for dementia, to help patients
with dementia. For children and adults with ADHD,
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Also
for depression and schizophrenia. There are therapy
pets out there that can help them. And so that's
a wonderful thing because a therapy pet can help.
Improve the quality of life of someone who's
struggling, maybe medically or psychologically,
can help improve their quality of life by reducing
pain, increasing comfort, helping them work through
social and behavioral challenges, things like
that. And I know that not every pet is a therapy
pet. True. But almost every pet is capable of
providing. some comfort and some therapy to their
owners. So they're all sort of therapy pets,
but not the clinically defined proper therapy
pet. Now you have to be careful with that because
that's actually something that has created quite
a bit of a brouhaha here recently. Really? Yes,
because apparently there are individuals who
are trying to pass off their regular pets as
therapy pets because they do provide that emotional
support so hence the term emotional support pet
there's a difference though between an emotional
support pet and a therapy pet and therapy pets
are protected by law they have very specific
regulations about flying on airplanes with you
going into hotels with you and and things that
people cannot prohibit you from doing with that
therapy pet, being in a restaurant, for instance.
Right, and they're protected because therapy
pets have usually undergone extensive training
to be able to handle a multitude of situations.
And that, you know, I say that all pets can provide
some degree of therapy, but not all pets are
therapy pets. Correct. Because only those that
have received that extensive training, as I understand,
are the ones that are protected by law, are allowed
to wear the certain... Correct. Drapes or clothing
or, you know, a little coat that says, you know,
a registered therapy pet. It's sort of like you
have to be registered. It has to be trained.
It all has to be done right. You can't just say,
I found this lizard in my yard and it's my therapy
lizard. It makes me feel real good to have it
with me. Oh, my goodness. Really? Well, I couldn't
help it. I'm sorry. Okay. But, you know, lizards
can be. They can be therapy pets if you can train
them. So the most common therapy pets are dogs,
cats. Contrary to the popular belief that you
cannot train a cat, you can train a cat. Yes,
you can. Horses. Horses are really big. No pun
intended. But I never thought of a horse being
a therapy pet. Absolutely, absolutely. That's
amazing. Horses are wonderful therapy pets. They're
intelligent animals. There are some wonderful
organizations that use therapy horses to work
with autistic children to help bring them out
of their shell, so to speak, and improve their
behavior. I know that some smaller breeds of
horses have been brought into hospital settings
and into children's wards. I've heard of that
happening. There are regular -sized horses. In
fact, right here in Florida, there's a stable
where you can take children with disabilities
or challenges, and they have therapy horses that
can work with them. Oh, that's wonderful. That
is great. Well, I guess then that also leads
us to the next logical question. Where do you
find those registered, properly trained animals
when you feel or when your doctor feels that
there is a need for one? So there's a very, very
lengthy process you have to go through. And each
state is different. Each diagnosis is different.
So depending on what kind of therapy pet someone
needs. I would definitely reach out to, there's
a multitude of organizations for each diagnosis.
They go through a long checklist of matching
you up to just the right animal. Well, absolutely,
because this is a companion for life. Yeah, for
the life of that animal's lifespan. Absolutely,
absolutely. And what a shame that most animals
don't live as long as the people they're caring
for. We also talk at times about when the end
of life begins to approach. One of the most frightening
things for many people is the realization that
instead of the other way around, their pet is
likely to outlive them. Correct. And then they
go into a panic of, well, what happens to my
pet now? None of my family wants it. old and
cranky, it doesn't want to go anywhere else.
Which is why when we were working with the Jacksonville
Humane Society, we actually worked with them
to develop a program for local seniors and hospice
patients that would help place their pet after
the pet owner's demise. Well, and that's a wonderful
I guess, way to add some peace and add some comfort
to people. If that's their only family member,
if that's their only... thing in life that has
provided them that care and that they've taken
care of all this time and now they realize they're
not going to be able to take care of it anymore.
That's a horribly stressful way to spend your
last day. Absolutely. So that's a wonderful program
that was very, very helpful and I'm sure the
Humane Society still works on ideas to foster.
situations like that the humane society not so
much but there is one of our local hospices that
does partner um with the humane society and other
rescues um oh that's right truthfully i tell
you Needs to happen everywhere. Absolutely. And
one of the best resources that someone can have
if they are facing a life -limiting illness and
they're looking for what to do with their pet,
if family cannot be an option, if family is not
a resource, then... what I would recommend doing
is reaching out to your local shelters because,
yes, you have your ASPCAs, you have your humane
societies, you have your city -sanctioned shelters,
but there are a lot of small, I call them mom
-and -pop rescues, which is it's literally just
someone operating a rescue out of the goodness
of their heart. Most of the time they don't have
a physical location. They work on a fostering
system where they have foster homes. These are
the places that are really going to be able to
help you network and help you find a place for
your pet if you're not going to be able to take
care of them. Yes. Well, and on a happier note,
I want to talk more about the foster, not the
foster pets, the pets who assist you in the hospitals.
Therapy pets. Therapy pets. Thank you. Yes, I
was off in another zone there thinking about
the good old days of producing shows. And we
still do that for animal shelters across America.
Just going to take a little side note. The Animals
at Heart show is now produced for online delivery
on the websites. and through social media of
shelters anywhere in america because in the old
days it was all done through satellite broadcast
and very expensive means of production very expensive
really opened that up and the internet has opened
all of that up so any animal shelter in america
if you would like some animals at heart style
promos minute -long promotions for animals i
know that it increased foot traffic at the shelter
it definitely got every animal that was ever
on the show adopted and i know that that was
in excess of 8 000 animals over the five years
so if you want to boost adoption if you really
care about the animals that you want to find
good lifetime loving homes for contact us at
animals at heart and that's all part of a guiding
light it's a subsidiary of our non -profit charity
We would love to talk to you and we would love
to produce some shows for you or some segments.
We have them in five or 10 or 15 animal segments
and they each get a minute. So up to 15 minutes
you could do or just a five minute segment or
individual segments to place on your. on your
website or on your social media each week fresh
animals to keep a constant flow of people coming
in and you know it's a win -win because you get
you get a family that now has a pet that improves
their quality of life you get a pet that is now
being rescued from shelter life and in so doing
in taking that pet out of the shelter now you're
freeing up a shelter space for another pet in
need absolutely and the best thing is when that
pet's already adopted because once it gets put
on the internet or once it got put on television
back in the day, this was the early 2000s, and
a lot of the animals would already be adopted.
And I asked the shelter director, what do you
do when they're heartbroken? They saw this animal,
they fell in love with it on TV, and they came
in to adopt it. She said, we have lots more.
Absolutely. They would always go away with the
animal because... Sure, that one found a lifetime
home. But there are oftentimes, and I saw this
happen many times when we would tape that show,
grocery buggies filled with puppies or filled
with kittens that would come in the door in the
early morning hours about the time we'd go in
to tape the show, in the spring and in the fall,
in the breeding season. And fortunately, there's
a company now in town, a nonprofit, that spays
and neuters strays so that you can trap and then
release. and they're not going to continue. We
called it an epidemic back in the day of overpopulation.
But, you know, it's not just the animals that
are coming in off the streets. We're in Florida,
and here in Florida, in the last two weeks, there
have been two different hoarding situations where
almost 200 animals came into the local shelters.
All at one time. All at one time. Yeah. Within
a two -week span. And it's not just a constant
state of overpopulation. It's not just an epidemic
that twice a year completely overwhelms the shelters.
But then you have situations like that, right
in the middle of the epidemic, and here comes
more. I know when we were doing the show, the
average intake for the shelter, I think, was
right around 15 ,000 animals a year. Yeah. Yes.
It was in excess of 1 ,100 to 1 ,200, I know,
at least over 1 ,000 a month. Yeah. It felt like
sometimes it was 1 ,000 a day. But the point
is the show can benefit all of those shelters
and get some of those animals new lifetime loving
homes just the same way. And there are some,
I know the close to that show is still online.
On this YouTube channel, you can actually watch
it. You can see me, significantly younger, at
the very end of it, saying... Probably ought
to put some clips of the show up. Saying, well,
I would love to, with disclaimers all across
it saying, these animals are not available. Because
we always pick the cutest animals, of course.
But at the very end of every show, I made a heartfelt
call to action, which, if I can remember, I said,
if you have a place in your home... If you have
a place in your heart. I know I just got a little
choked up thinking about it. But if you have
a place in your home, if you have a place in
your heart, won't you please adopt one of the
stars of today's show? Because this may be their
last hope. And that's all I'm going to say about
that. So therapy animals. Yeah, therapy animals.
We're going to have to talk about in another
episode. We've already taken up our entire show.
And yes, I do hope that we get to produce. Some
of those Animals at Heart episodes, clips, single
animals, five animals, ten animals, however many
you'd like to promote each week. And if you're
someone looking for your next emotional support
animal, please visit your local shelters. Don't
purchase a pet. Adopt a pet. There's plenty in
the shelter without having to. I need an emotional
support animal. Every time I think about what
we used to do for that show, I get choked up.
Well, I just gave Wizzy treats, so she's not
available. Okay. this is a very highly personal
choice. No conversation that we have on the Light
Keepers podcast should ever take the place of
your own medical care team or other professional
advisor or humane shelter who should always be
consulted by you on your specific unique situational
needs. So you can learn a lot on this show each
and every week about quality of life because
every single one of us faces some of these issues
some of the time. either not prepared at all
or very well prepared indeed, from joining us
here on the Light Keepers podcast at 7 p .m.
Eastern every Wednesday night. This is an exclusive
production of Animation Studios brought to you
by A Guiding Light, a 501c3 nonprofit organization
dedicated to education and information and animals
at heart. that allows informed preparation for
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time.