Therapy Dogs Support Victims of Crime and Prosecutors

This summer, the Office instituted a program to utilize therapy dogs to provide support and comfort to child and adult crime victims using the services of the non-profit Pet Prescription Team. 

The mission and philosophy of the Pet Prescription Team is, “Healing Hearts Through Pets.” The therapeutic use of pets has gained increasing attention in recent years for a wide variety of situations – victims of crime, people with AIDS or cancer, the elderly, and the mentally ill.

The Office recognizes that, unlike people, with whom our interactions may be quite complex and unpredictable, animals provide a constant source of comfort and focus for attention. Animals bring out our nurturing instinct. They also make us feel safe and unconditionally accepted. Thus, our crime victims feel supported, they feel safe and our cases get better! Use of therapy dogs in prosecutorial agencies has shown that the successful prosecution of a victim case often depends on the ability of a victim to accurately report and then testify regarding the details of the victimization. With children—especially traumatized children—this can be extremely difficult. Trained therapy dogs help.