Recently, a 30- year-old woman (who cannot be named) was testifying at a sentencing hearing in a Brooklyn courtroom against her ex-boyfriend.
As the woman was testifying and sharing her painful story, she reached out and hugged Paz, her 5-year-old Australian Labradoodle therapy dog. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office said this was the first time in New York that a therapy dog was allowed in the courtroom and this would continue to happen on a case-by-case basis.
Paz was brought in when the woman was having a difficult time reviewing evidence and crime scene photos. During the trial, the woman would be physically sick while she was testifying and she would leave the courtroom stand to be with Paz. It was obvious to the court that Australian Labradoodle had the ability to calm the woman as she was testifying, so the judge made the decision to allow Paz into the courtroom.
Previously, therapy dogs were allowed to accompany children in the courtrooms with expert’s testimonial. Experts said that the therapy dogs had the ability to calm a child during a testimony that would be otherwise be difficult to obtain without. The woman trial’s in the Brooklyn is the first trial to allow the therapy dogs inside the courtroom with an adult.
Dogs are no longer simply, well, dogs. Service and therapy dogs are used for a variety of conditions, like Epilepsy, Diabetes and PTSD. For more information on Australian Labradoodles, both puppies and older dogs, please contact Copper Canyon Labradoodles today.