Are you being served?

The NYT has a good story about service animals in this week's Sunday magazine. It's partially about the difficulty presented by non-dog service animals and the use of service animals for non-task oriented duties (like for those with mental rather than physical illness). We heard the journalist who wrote the story on the NPR this weekend (we sound like latte-sipping liberals, eh? SOY latte) and she was talking about Panda, the service horse shown above. He's awesome and does some really amazing things, like his owner can hear changes in terrain from the hooves. And he's housebroken! I would like to trade Oscar for him but the ma ape says that if there is controversy over what naked apes can use service animals it is unlikely that I can have a service pet, especially since I just want to ride him around and be taller than the other dogs and my ma ape says that being vertically challenged does not qualify one for a service animal or else she could have one.

It's a really interesting story and it is pretty remarkable what the animals do for you apes, especially the story of the man with bipolar disorder who has a parrot who helps him regulate his mood.