Letters 08-04

April 15, 2009

To the Editor:
I wanted to respond to an omission in the otherwise excellent article on pets as therapy ["Pet Power," 6/04]. As Lorrie Klosterman pointed out, pets provide very important emotional support, and the growing acceptance of this support among established medical practitioners has led to a number of pet therapy advocacy groups, the Delta Society among the most important of these groups.

However, there are more local groups working with AAA (animal-assisted activity) and AAT (animal-assisted therapy) than the article mentions. My wife and I have been a part of the Positive Paws Visiting Pet Program (VPP) for over a year now, and our Labrador mix, Seamus, just passed his test to become a certified therapy animal. Without the support and training provided by a local group, Seamus would have had a much harder time perfecting the skills required to be a visiting pet. When the Delta Society evaluators tested the VPP animals this past May, they commented several times that our group always appears to be more than ready for the test.

Candice Cunningham, the hardworking director of the VPP, has established regular visits to a number of facilities in the Hudson Valley, and the group is seeking more.

In this program, children who are reluctant readers have the chance to read to the visiting pets (usually a dog, but other pets are welcome to participate: the VPP currently has a hen in training!). Teachers who work with these children note impressive gains in the children's confidence in their reading abilities.

The Visiting Pet Program always welcomes new members, and Candice runs pre-therapy screening classes to acquaint pets and their handlers with the required skills, followed by the therapy class, which are designed to train the visiting pets to the Delta Society's stringent standards.

If you would like more information about this local pet therapy group, the Web site for the Positive Paws Visiting Pet Program is www.ppvpp.freeservers.com. The Positive Paws Web site is www.positivepaws.com and Candice Cunningham can be reached at friday76@aol.com.

-Rick Magee, Dover Plains

To the Editor:

The article about the privatization of war and profiteering ["Mercenary Behavior: The Private Contractor Gravy Train," 6/04] had a quote from Peter Singer of the Brookings Institute, who said that the private contractor industry didn't exist 10 years ago. He's wrong. Brown & Root, now called Kellogg Brown & Root, a Halliburton subsidiary, were the Johnson administration's favorite private contractor used in Vietnam. They were so well thought of that Nixon kept them on with whatever arrangements that Johnson had extended. I'm a Vietnam veteran.

Every American base camp regardless of size had lumber and corrugated sheet metal as well as conexes [storage containers] for perimeter bunkers, personnel hootches [sleeping quarters], command and communication posts. The one thing they all had in common was the Brown & Root name stenciled on it somewhere. They would not want the public to know just how many of the wars since Vietnam they've been involved in as many were illegal and undeclared, like Nicaragua, El Salvador to name two. Do you think there might be a connection between the wars we engaged in, and who was able to profit from them? Iran Contra? Drugs for Guns? Crack in LA? The people who have participated in the rush to deregulate have opened up a whole new field of sweetheart arrangements and revolving doors between the military and defense contractors.

It's so blatant that Vice President Cheney believes he will get away with the lies he has told about his role in getting Halliburton the no-bid contracts in Iraq. The ex-military in these private companies believe it's their due for the years of sacrifice and underpayment. Vietnam was turned into an illegal jackpot after 1968 and it's the same usual suspects.

-Anthony D'Ambrosi, via e-mail