Rosie, who comforts traumatized children and aided a teenager on the stand in a rape trial, outside the Dutchess County Courthouse in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., with Dale Picard, Rosie’s trainer. [Photograph by Kelly Shimoda for the New York Times]
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
Published: August 8, 2011POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Rosie, the first judicially approved courtroom dog in New York, was in the witness box here nuzzling a 15-year-old girl who was testifying that her father had raped and impregnated her. Rosie sat by the teenager’s feet. At particularly bad moments, she leaned in. MORE
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The article goes on to say that Rosie is central to the defense’s planned appeal. According to Marianne Dellinger writing for the Animal Legal and Historical Center, “Proponents claim that this new type of therapeutic jurisprudence helps bring criminal defendants to justice in cases where the testimony of the complaining witness is crucial to the prosecution’s case. Opponents fear the infringement of the defendants’ rights to a fair trial because of the dogs’ potential to prejudice a jury to come out in favor of the witnesses.”
Rosie photo courtesy of her trainer, Dale Picard.
According to Charity Valut, Dale and his wife Lu founded East Coast Assistance Dogs. “Prior to founding ECAD, Lu helped several business organizations in their startup efforts and gained experience in business and administration. When her father suffered a stroke, she saw how much he hated being dependent on her. She taught their family pet to help him rise from a chair and retrieve some items, and noticed that her dad actually became more active and less depressed than when all his help came from a human. Lu saw first hand how Service Dogs could change people’s lives, and in 1995 quit her full-time job to start ECAD. One year later, her husband Dale also gave up his own business to work full-time for ECAD. Dale was self-employed for many years and developed skills and talents that he put to good use in helping Lu established ECAD. He purchased land in Connecticut, constructed kennels and offices, and redesigned the house in which Lu, Dale, and their two daughters lived. Since then ECAD has received a nonprofit status and has grown to have training facilities in Connecticut and New York, and have placed Assistance Dogs in over a dozen states.”
A wonderful idea–especially like the support these dogs give to children in the courtroom.