Remembering working animals

 

There are about 200 million working animals around the world. Here in Pennsylvania, we’re most familiar with farm horses, search and rescue dogs, dogs used by law enforcement and therapy animals.

The Pennsylvania State Working Animal Foundation has plans to honor these animals with a granite memorial wall in Mechanicsburg on June 1.

On The Spark Wednesday was Terri Heck, President of the Pennsylvania State Working Animal Foundation, who talked about why working animals are being memorialized,"People don't realize all that they do, or they don't realize the hours of training that goes into these animals. They don't realize the cost of being able to offer these services to the people. So, to me is it's more of not taking it for granted, but the realization is not there. People don't know. So we want people to know, and we want the handlers of these animals and the entities that support them, whether there are nonprofit like my search-and-rescue dogs and all the people and businesses that are willing to donate to us, or it's the sheriff's department in York County that I know spend hours doing fundraising, so it doesn't cost the citizens anything, to have the canines. I just want to make people more aware of all that goes into having these animals there to find the lost child, to get the criminal off the streets, to give that person in the wheelchair the freedom they need to be able to make that person that's in the hospital feel better, more relaxed. Just all of this, to me, it's a knowledge based thing. So the more that we share that, I think the more that these animals will be appreciated along with their handlers and supporting agencies and should be."

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