Humans and animals have a particular partnership that goes back a long way. These days’ animals have provided certain response to help humans in terms trained services and assistance to people with disabilities. They help people in accomplishing their tasks in ways that were regarded difficult in the past. People have changed the tendency where they consider animals as pets but as animals doing a job. Working animals are those animals that are domesticated and kept by humans (Devantier, 41). They are usually trained to carry out various tasks that range from carrying goods from one place to another, assisting blind people and guarding homesteads. Historically, animals have been seen at work through the way they assist humans in areas of agriculture where dogs were used by hunters and gatherers. Humans have strategized in ways of domesticating animals and breeding them to be suitable for different uses and conditions. This has been evidenced through animals such as horses, dogs, and donkeys just to mention but a few. People have also developed ways in which the wide varieties of abilities found in animals and the industrialized society where many animals are used for work (Devantier, 91).
This paper will discuss the issue whether animals should be trained to help animals. It will be accompanied by instances where animals have been found useful in assisting humans as they carry out their activities. Similarly, it will bring out the important roles played by animals in helping humans in their day to day activities. It will focus on the positive side that supports the issue that animals should be trained to help humans.
Animals have a right to life and freedom from suffering in that they enjoy equal privileges to humans though not in every aspect. It has been witnessed that dogs assist and guide sight impaired people though their daily routine. Training facilities have emerged that dedicate their services to train animals to meet the needs of people with disabilities. The best thing is that they not only training dogs that may help sight impaired people but even those who suffer from other disorders. Some states have dedicated their activities to service animals by initiating legislations that protect animals. For instance, the Americans with Disabilities Act in the U.S and the Discrimination Act in the United Kingdom ensure that service animals are excluded from rules that hinder animals from public places and businesses (Jennbert, 84).
Animals should be treated like humans due to the fact that they assist us in various ways. To start with, they are a source of food that helps keep the ecosystem in balance; they also serve as companions by helping reduce depression and loneliness; in some cases they are used as therapeutic animals in hospitals and nursing homes. Similarly, they offer materials such as ivory, bones, fur, hides and leather which are essential in making clothes and other necessary commodities for humans (Devantier, 101). Animals are also beneficial in controlling harmful animals and plants where goats and cows eat weed while snakes reduce rodents and insect populations that carry diseases harmful to animals. They also transport messages and warn humans in case of any danger and are widely used in medical research and testing. Most of the helpful medical discoveries have come about due to the research carried out in animals. Other animals have been used to create medicine where horses are used in creating anti-venoms for snakes.
In other instances, animals have been seen to serve as indicator species where they inform or alert humans about the health of an ecosystem or the environment. For instance, frogs are the first animals that are affected in unbalanced or unhealthy ecosystem (DeMello, 8).
These factors bring about the aspect that animals are very vital in the lives of humans. Domestication alone is not enough to make animals as human assistances. They need to be trained in order to facilitate human’s lives. Over the years, animals have evolved from working animals to pets and nowadays they are being used as service dogs. This has been evidenced through the guide dogs used across the world to help visually impaired people move about safely (Heidenreich, 29-31). This trend has been upheld for many years where training of dogs emanated from Germany during World War I to assist blinded veterans. This system has been utilized widely across the world where people are training animals to serve them during their daily activities. Animals have been trained to do various activities where hearing dogs have been used increasingly common. Hearing dogs are trained to alert and notify their human partners to ordinary sounds such as door bells, alarm clocks telephones or even the baby cry. The touch the partners using their paws and lead them to the source of the sound. This training helps animals recognize danger signals such as fire alarms or intruders. The common reaction from animals like dogs is that bark or touch the human partners or even lie down in special alert posture that allows humans to take appropriate action (Heidenreich, 33).
Animals are capable of performing amazing things where dolphins and sea lions work with anti-terror officers for the United States Navy. Similarly, in Germany Sherlock the vulture was used in identifying corpses while bees were used to test the quality of air near airports. Dogs are also used to detect drug smuggling in China. This should be accompanied by animals in captivity being trained to entertain humans. They should be treated similar to humans in that they also have feelings and they feel pain (DeMello, 11). Many people may argue that animals should not be trained to assist humans due to the fact that they will attack humans at one point or another. Well, this line of thinking is wrong in that animals will not attack humans for no reason. As much as animals are not wise like humans they also have their way of doing things. They cannot just wake up one day and attack everyone.
Another point that supports the issue that animals should be trained to assist humans is that the United States Navy recruited several dolphins and California Sea lions to guard the shore line surrounding the submarine base in Washington’s Puget Sound. These animals were trained to assist anti-terror guards and at one pointed the purpose of being guards themselves. For instance, one of the directors in the Navy’s marine mammal program claimed that these animals were way much better than anything else they have ever trained. To that effect, more animals were trained to serve the same purpose and 75 dolphins and 25 sea lions were stationed at San Diego’s Naval Base Point Loma (DeMello, 19).
Incidentally, it goes without saying that being imprisoned or held in captivity for very long could drive anyone crazy. When animals are exposed to torturous circumstances where they are looked up and beaten, they will definitely attack and become wild. Animals should be nurtured to harbor their emotions in order to coincide with those of humans (DeMello, 14). For instance, it is advisable to train a horse that would assist humans in that they are not allergenic less aggressive than dogs and less prone to panic, in crowded situations. However, training horses is quite expensive and similarly expensive for visually impaired people to replace and maintain a horse. Service monkeys are another species that can and should be trained to assist humans especially those with special disabilities (Devantier, 78). The Capuchin monkeys are a good example of monkeys that should be trained as they have a good propensity and capability of handling tools. They have found in many places to assist humans in areas such as fetching water, phones and other small errands inside the house as they have hands.
In addition to this, research has shown that goats, ducks and ferrets have been used as assistance animal’s psychiatric disorders. On one case that involved Jim Eggers who suffered from psychotic episodes with a possible instances of violence acquired a parrot as an assistant. It helps him calm down when he is having a relapse moment and at times able to defuse episodes before they start (DeMello, 34).
Therefore it goes without saying that animals should be trained to assist humans as they may help them even save lives and predict any attacks. They are also helpful to those people with disabilities and who suffer various disorders as they keep the company and they feel warm at heart when they have animals there as much as they cannot talk to them.
Works Cited
DeMello, Margo. Animals and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animal Studies. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. Print.
Devantier, Alecia T, and Carol Turkington. Extraordinary Jobs with Animals. New York, NY: Ferguson, 2007. Print.
Heidenreich, Barbara. Exotic Animal Training and Learning, an Issue of Veterinary Clinics. London: Elsevier Health Sciences, 2012. Print.
Jennbert, Kristina. Animals and Humans: Recurrent Symbiosis in Archaeology and Old Norse Religion. Lund, Sweden: Nordic Academic Press, 2011. Print.
