Dedicated Animals By: Ms. Lorenz

Introductory Paragraph Hook: Can you imagine being a quadriplegic, dropping your cell phone or food, and having to wait hours for someone to come in and help you? Link: In today’s world, a specially trained animal could be there to help a disabled person any time they need it. Thesis: Aside from being companions, animals serve humans in many ways. They perform daily necessary tasks for disabled people, and they improve their lives by helping them learn balance, coordination and self confidence. They can also help prevent disasters from happening by finding bombs and other illegal weapons and drugs before they hurt people.

Category #1 Topic Sentence: Mentally and physically disabled people ride horses for therapy. The horses help people learn balance, coordination and build self confidence. Text Evidence: There are many agencies such as the Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association that train horses to work with disabled people. Volunteers serve as stable hands, leaders, and sidewalkers. In the article “Horses for the Hndicapped,” we learn that the handicapped person “feels like a winner” when they learn to ride a horse. For some autistic children, riding a horse “becomes their contact with the outside world.”

Category #2 Topic Sentence: Monkeys are also very useful animals to help people. The Capuchin monkey is the most intelligent and is the breed of choice for this work. They have extremely dexterous, humanlike hands to manipulate objects as well as very strong arms. Text Evidence: Monkeys are able to perform many everyday tasks for disabled people. They open bottles, serve food, turn the television on and off, play CDs, turn pages of books, brush hair, and turn faucets on or off. They can even stroke the eyebrows, face and heads of people who are depressed. Helping Hands, an organization which trains monkeys in Boston, Mass., is located at Tufts University. It also has its own breeding colony at Southwick Zoo in Massachusetts.

Category #3 Topic Sentence: Finally, dogs are perhaps the most common animal to help people. Dogs can be trained to find bombs, weapons and drugs before they can hurt people. Text Evidence: The labrador retriever is the best breed for this type of work. They are trained for 10 weeks in Front Royal, Virginia, to work for the FBI to identify chemical explosives. They are trained to sniff out 19,000 different combinations of explosives. The “scents” become a part of their memory, and they are given treats when they detect explosives. These dogs are also used at plane crash sites such as the TWA flight 800 over Long Island Sound in New York. They are also used for security at events such as the Super Bowl. When they have searched and located an explosive, the dogs sit down nearby, and the trainers are able to find the bombs.

Conclusion Paragraph Our world is so much better with animals in it. Not only do they enrich us with companionship and entertainment, but they also protect us and help us perform tasks. Lives are saved daily by animals, and the lives of disabled people are drastically improved.