Cat-Scratch Disease: A Bacterial Infection Spread by Cats

Cat-scratch disease (CSD) is a bacterial infection spread by cats. The disease spreads when an infected cat licks a person's open wound, or bites or scratches a person hard enough to break the surface of the skin. 

About three to 14 days after the skin is broken, a mild infection can occur at the site of the scratch or bite. The infected area may appear swollen and red with round, raised lesions and can have pus. The infection can feel warm or painful. 

A person with CSD may also have a fever, headache, poor appetite, and exhaustion. Later, the person's lymph nodes closest to the original scratch or bite can become swollen, tender, or painful.

A person with Cat Scratch Disease. The lymph node nearest to the location of the scratch is swollen.

Wash cat bites and scratches well with soap and running water. Do not allow cats to lick your wounds. Contact your doctor if you develop any symptoms of cat-scratch disease or infection.

CSD is caused by a bacterium called Bartonella henselae. About 40% of cats carry B. henselae at some time in their lives, although most cats with this infection show NO signs of illness. Kittens younger than 1 year are more likely to have B. henselae infection and to spread the germ to people. Kittens are also more likely to scratch and bite while they play and learn how to attack prey.

How cats and people become infected

Cats can get infected with B. henselae from flea bites and flea dirt (droppings) getting into their wounds. By scratching and biting at the fleas, cats pick up the infected flea dirt under their nails and between their teeth. Cats can also become infected by fighting with other cats that are infected. The germ spreads to people when infected cats bite or scratch a person hard enough to break their skin. The germ can also spread when infected cats lick at wounds or scabs that you may have.

Serious but rare complications:

People

Although rare, CSD can cause people to have serious complications. CSD can affect the brain, eyes, heart, or other internal organs. These rare complications, which may require intensive treatment, are more likely to occur in children younger than 5 years and people with weakened immune systems.

Cats

Most cats with B. henselae infection show NO signs of illness, but on rare occasions this disease can cause inflammation of the heart—making cats very sick with labored breathing. B. henselae infection may also develop in the mouth, urinary system, or eyes. Your veterinarian may find that some of your cat's other organs may be inflamed.

Prevention:

People

Do:

• Wash cat bites and scratches right away with soap and running water.

• Wash your hands with soap and running water after playing with your cat, especially if you live with young children or people with weakened immune systems.

• Since cats less than one year of age are more likely to have CSD and spread it to people, persons with a weakened immune system should adopt cats older than one year of age.

Do not:

• Play rough with your pets because they may scratch and bite.

• Allow cats to lick your open wounds.

• Pet or touch stray or feral cats.

Cats

Control fleas:

• Keep your cat's nails trimmed.

• Apply a flea product (topical or oral medication) approved by your veterinarian once a month.

• BEWARE: Over-the-counter flea products may not be safe for cats. Check with your veterinarian before applying ANY flea product to make sure it is safe for your cat and your family.

• Check for fleas by using a flea comb on your cat to inspect for flea dirt.

• Control fleas in your home by

• Vacuuming frequently

• Contacting a pest-control agent if necessary

• Protect your cat's health

Schedule routine veterinary health check-ups.

Keep cats indoors to:

• Decrease their contact with fleas
• Prevent them from fighting with stray or potentially infected animals

Available Tests and Treatments:

People

Talk to your doctor about testing and treatments for CSD. People are only tested for CSD when the disease is severe and the doctor suspects CSD based on the patient's symptoms. CSD is typically not treated in otherwise healthy people.

Cats

Talk to your veterinarian about testing and treatments for your cat. Your veterinarian can tell you whether your cat requires testing or treatment.

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A Woman Says She Went Blind in One Eye After Her Cat Licked Her

A doctor says Janese Walters lost her sight due to "cat scratch disease", caused by the Bartonella henselae bacteria.

A woman has told how she went blind in one eye after her cat licked her.

Janese Toledo says she woke up one morning and couldn't see out of her left eye.

Now, after a month of visiting the doctor, she has finally been given an explanation for her loss of sight - her cat.

A doctor says Ms. Walters' blindness was caused by a condition called "cat scratch disease", which occurs when a feline passes on a bacteria, either through its saliva or fur.

Reliving her nightmare, Ms. Walters, from Toledo, Ohio, told local news channel WTOL: “I woke up one day and I couldn’t see out of my left eye.

“I looked in the mirror and I thought I had pink eye or something.”

Cat scratch disease is caused by the Bartonella henselae bacteria, which is carried by roughly 40% of felines.

The majority of infected animals do not show symptoms, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Dr. Kris Brickman, of the University of Toledo's College of Medicine and Life Sciences, told the media outlet cat scratch disease can affect a person's eyesight.

In addition, it can “cause some liver problems and can get into the spinal fluids and create meningitis.”

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Atlanta Falcons, Prince Shembo Was Charged with Aggravated Cruelty to Animals in Connection with the Death of His Girlfriend’s Yorkie

Flowery Branch, GA - The Atlanta Falcons have waived linebacker Prince Shembo in light of the charges filed against him by authorities in Gwinnett County, GA, this afternoon.

"We are aware of the charges that have been filed against Prince Shembo. We are extremely disappointed that one of our players is involved in something like this. Accordingly, we have decided to waive Prince Shembo," the team said in a statement released late Friday afternoon.

Gwinnett County Police said they received a call on Sunday, April 19 from 20-year-old Denicia Williams, who said her ex-boyfriend, the 23-year-old Shembo, had killed her dog. The initial police report said Williams and the dog, named Dior, went to Shembo's Buford apartment home on April 15. At some point during their stay, she says she left Shembo and the dog unattended. When she later found the dog, he was unresponsive. Shortly after taking the dog to Duluth Animal Hospital for treatment, the report said, the dog died.

A day later, according to the report, Williams and Shembo were talking about the incident on the phone discussing the incident. During the call, she says, Shembo made comments to her about kicking the dog. At that point, she says, she ended the relationship.

The body of the dog was taken to the Gwinnett County Animal Shelter for a necropsy, which occurred on April 21. Following the necropsy, tissue samples were sent to the University of Georgia for further testing. "Based on the necropsy and tissue samples there was a lot of extensive injuries on the inside of the dog," Cpl. Michele Pihera said.

The lead investigator conducted telephone interviews with Shembo while awaiting the test results. Those results were completed Thursday, May 28. The dog had significant internal injuries, and the cause of death was ruled as "blunt force trauma." Because of the inconsistencies of Shembo's account of what happened and the results of the necropsy, a warrant was obtained for Shembo on Friday, May 29.

Shembo was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals in connection with Dior's death.

Details of the warrant say the dog had a fractured rib, fractured liver, abdominal hemorrhage, thoracic hemorrhage, extensive bruising/hemorrhage in muscles in front leg and shoulders, head trauma, hemorrhage and edema in lungs, hemorrhage between the esophagus and trachea and hemorrhage in the left eye with internal injuries.

On Friday, the lead investigator contacted the Falcons to inform them of the warrant, leading to their action later in the day.

Denicia Williams and Dior went everywhere together, according to her father. She even took the dog to work on modeling jobs. Her father said as soon as she learned Shembo was charged with killing her dog, she broke up with him.

"I got attached to him (Dior)," Gary Williams said. "And to be honest with you, I cried when he passed."

Williams said he never liked his daughter's boyfriend because he seemed jealous of her dog. Williams said Shembo felt second to her dog. "He showed this jealousy of a little five-pound puppy," he said. "A 260-pound man. What kind of man would be jealous of a puppy?"

Shembo turned himself in to the Gwinnett County Jail Friday night with his mother and attorney by his side. Attorney Jerry Froelich said what happened to the dog was an accident. "He was putting the dog in a cage and the dog bit him on his hand," Froelich said. "He reflexed and kicked the dog."

Froelich said Shembo agreed to pay a $15,000 bond and he was released from jail Friday night. He said he wasn't surprised the Falcon cut his client given their history with Michael Vick and his dog-fighting scandal.

At the NFL Scouting Combine in February 2014, Shembo said he was the Notre Dame football player at the center of an investigation into sexual assault allegations made by a former student at Saint Mary's College, Lizzy Seeberg.

In September 2010, Seeberg said that a Notre Dame football player had attacked her in a dorm room. Nineteen-year-old Seeberg committed suicide 10 days later. The name of the player who allegedly had been the attacker had never been made public until Shembo came forward both to NFL team executives and to the media at the 2014 Combine.

"I have nothing to hide," Shembo said at the time. "I'm still here, so I know I didn't do anything. I tell them exactly what happened."

Gwinnett County is about 15 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. 

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Prospects Improve For Pit Bull Whose Mouth Was Taped Shut

Caitlin is a 15-month-old pit bull found in North Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday morning with her mouth taped shut.

The tape, which may have been there for as long as two days before Caitlin was discovered, was so tight that it cut off circulation to the dog's tongue. It wasn't clear at first whether she would live.

Dr. Lucy Fuller, veterinarian for the Charleston Animal Society, which assumed Caitlin's care, said in a statement on Thursday that the dog's condition was "critical, and her prognosis is guarded."

On Friday, Caitlin's prospects seemed better, Charleston Animal Society spokeswoman Kay Hyman told The Huffington Post.

"She is still really swollen, but she's walking. ... She was eating small portions of food," Hyman said. "Today, I feel much more at ease."

To read more on this story, click here: Prospects Improve For Pit Bull Whose Mouth Was Taped Shut

You can read the initial story here: $1,000 Reward for Information Leading to the Arrest/Convictionof the Person(s) Responsible for Taping a Dog's Muzzle Together with ElectricalTape

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Amazing Photographs of a Male Giraffe Who Has Survived in the Wild for the Past Five Years Despite Suffering a Broken Neck

These are the amazing photographs of a male giraffe who has survived in the wild for the past five years despite suffering a broken neck in a fight with a rival over a female mate.

The animal was spotted in the Serengeti national park by wildlife photographer Mark Drysdale who was on safari.

The guide told stunned visitors that the animal suffered the horrific injuries while fighting with another male to impress nearby female giraffes.

Normally, animals with such extensive injuries in the wild die due to the absence of medical treatment, or are eaten by predators.

But, this giraffe has thrived despite its wonky, zig-zag neck. 

The Masai giraffe is the tallest animal in the world and can grow to some 19 feet.

Mr. Drysdale, who has been photographing animals professionally for the past eight years said: 'I have never seen anything like it!

"But the other animals treated it as if it were completely normal and the giraffe seemed to be quite happy."

In giraffe fights, the animals stand side-by-side and push each other to prove who is the strongest and invariably wins the affection of the female. 

Mr Drysdale continued: "While I was guiding clients in the Serengeti we were introduced to this giraffe by one of the local guides, who has known the animal for five years.

The animal had broken its neck while fighting five to six years earlier and had remained in the area - where there are no conservation centers or vets. -

I found it strange, and it was the first time I had seen such a deformity but he seemed to be in good health.

.Although males generally take food from higher up trees than females by stretching to their full length, this guy was unable to do that.

He just ate at the lower levels where there was more than enough food available!"

The Masai giraffe, pictured, broke his neck about five years ago in a fight with a fellow male giraffe.

Male giraffes often fight with each other in order to win the affections of nearby females.

The giraffe, was no longer able to get food from the highest tree branches due to his deformity.

He has thrived over the past five years despite suffering its life-changing injury in Tanzania.

.

Normally giraffes suffering similar injuries in the wild die soon afterwards, or are eaten by lions.

But the wonky giraffe, pictured rear, seems to live quite happily in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania.

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After Spending Months Indoors to Keep Warm, 100-Year-Old Tortoise is Finally Able to Have His Day in the Sun

The 100-year-old, 450-pound Galapagos tortoise at the Toledo Zoo was moved from the Ziems Conservatory to his new home with an enviable view at the rear of the formal gardens.

But his neighbors, the gorillas, might be a tad on the noisy side at times.

No matter: Emerson has a “mud wallow” area where he can go when he needs to relax or cool down, said R. Andrew Odum, the Assistant Director of Animal Programs and Curator of Herpetology at the zoo.

The big move started early on Tuesday, when Emerson was lured from his winter home in the conservatory with a carrot by Hannah Gerritsen, a herpetology keeper — who let him have an occasional nibble so he’d move forward a few inches at a time.

Once he was coaxed outdoors into the warm sun, Emerson was lifted onto a makeshift dolly by four men.

“He is not light,” one of the men said.

As they wheeled Emerson, he used his front left foot like a paddle, as if helping to propel himself. Before reaching his destination, he had to be adjusted several times.

It seemed as if he might have preferred to walk. But zoo officials might still be out there if they had let him do that. He doesn’t move swiftly, to say the least.

His new enclosure is blocked off from the public by a low fence of wooden posts and rope, over which visitors can easily see him.

A zoo employee will be at the Galapagos Garden to make sure that no visitors climb the rope and slip through the fence. The bodyguard can explain what Emerson is up to, Odum said.

After being in his new space for just moments, Emerson had drawn a crowd.

Willah Hoeleze watched with 9-year-old friends, Elin Fields, Anna Ellingson and Maddie Heben.

Willah guessed that Emerson weighs “900 trillion pounds,” then settled on a more reasonable 1 million pounds.

“I think he’s really cool and slow,” she said.

The girls agreed that their favorite thing about Emerson is his neck.

“I like how it stretches out,” Elin said.

They were most impressed with his age, though.

“He’s older than Nana,” Elin noted.

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U.S. Court Grants 'Human Rights' to Chimpanzees: Top Naturalist Reveals Why the Animals Are Like Us Than We Think

How would you feel about marrying a chimpanzee? Horror, disgust, revulsion: I mean, they are not human, are they?

So, how would you feel about serving up a chimp for your Sunday dinner? Horror, disgust, revulsion: it would look and feel like cannibalism.

This is not a make-your-mind-up contradiction. The confusion is an unavoidable aspect of the relationship between humans and chimp.

They’re different from us, all right — we know that in our guts. But they’re also the same. They are closer to us than any other non-human life-form on the planet.

Last week, a revolutionary decision was made in a U.S. court: chimpanzees were acknowledged to have rights of their own.

It is the first time legal rights of any kind have ever been accorded to anything other than a human.

The story started in 2013, when an organization called the Nonhuman Rights Project filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court on behalf of four chimps kept for research by Stony Brook University. The eventual conclusion of Justice Barbara Jaffe was that they were not to be treated as property, but as legal persons.

Not as persons with full human rights, but as persons with a right not to be held in captivity and a right not to be owned.

The fact is that chimpanzees really are almost human. It’s a truth that humankind has tried to ignore ever since Charles Darwin declared in 1871 that humans were related to the apes of Africa.

Modern genetic studies have shown that this relationship is much closer than people thought. We have nearly 99 per cent of our genetic material in common.

And if that one-and-a-bit per cent is unquestionably significant, the rest of it takes a fair amount of thinking about. Chimpanzees are more closely related to us than to their — or should it be our — fellow apes, the gorillas and orangutans.

It has been suggested that humans and chimpanzees belong not just in the same family, but in the same genus: in other words, the only correct way to understand the human connection to other species is to accept that humans are a species of chimpanzee . . . or chimpanzees are a species of human.

And if that sounds fantastic, cast your mind back. Some statements made about race — statements that are shocking now — were once accepted as good sense: ‘There is a physical difference between the White and the Black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality.’ That was Abraham Lincoln in 1858.

One more: ‘The mental constitution of the negro is . . . normally good-natured and cheerful, but subject to sudden fits of emotion and passion during which he is capable of performing acts of singular atrocity, impressionable, vain, but often exhibiting in the capacity of a servant a dog- like fidelity . . .’ That’s from Encyclopedia Britannica 1911.

The great primatologist Frans de Waal said of us humans: “We are apes in every way, from our long arms and tail-less bodies to our habits and temperament.”

A study published this week in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology said that the many humans who suffer from lower back pain do so because their spines are more like those of chimpanzees than the spines of those people who don’t suffer from back pain.

In other words, some humans are less well adapted to walking upright than others because their spines are ‘statistically indistinguishable’ from those of chimps.

And we find many traits in chimps that are equally uncomfortable.

One chimp learned to use sign language.

Take language. Washoe was a chimpanzee born in West Africa in 1965 and captured for use in the American space program. She was brought up in an American family and taught sign language.

Experiments to teach chimps spoken language had all failed: they don’t have the physical equipment to make sufficiently varied sounds, but they communicate with body language in their wild daily lives.

Washoe acquired a vocabulary of 350 signs, and taught some of them to her adopted chimpanzee son Louis. On seeing a swan, she signed ‘water’ and then ‘bird’.

Washoe put together a near sentence when a doll was put in her drinking mug: “Baby in my cup.” Another time she signed to her teacher: “You me out go.” She received the answer: “OK, but put clothes on.” Washoe immediately put on her jacket.

And, touchingly, one of her regular teachers suffered a miscarriage and was absent for some time. On her return, she signed to Washoe: “My baby died.” Washoe signed back: “Cry.” She then traced the track of a tear on her face. This is an astonishing bit of empathy: chimpanzees don’t weep.

A similar project involving a chimpanzee called Nim Chimpsky failed to get the same results. It was conducted with clinical rigor, without messy stuff like affection and with many changes of assistants.

A human child needs love to learn, as every parent knows. This failed experiment seems to prove that chimpanzees are no different.

They outperform humans in some computer games, in which snap decision making is required. In problem-solving tests, chimpanzees have invented all kinds of complex ways to find and reach hidden fruit, building towers and creating tools to stretch beyond a barrier. Chimpanzees experience insight: they know what it is to have a ‘eureka moment’.

Desmond Morris, author of the best-selling The Naked Ape, taught a chimp, Congo, to paint. Congo never tried representational art; his style was described as abstract impressionism. But he would carefully balance his paintings, putting, for example, blue on both sides.

He would throw an artistic tantrum if he was told to stop painting before he considered the work finished, and he would refuse to add to a painting he saw as complete. Picasso owned a Congo.

Observations of chimpanzees in the wild, most of them inaugurated by the great anthropologist Jane Goodall, show all kinds of things that humans and chimpanzees have in common.

Chimpanzees make and use tools, they co-operate. They communicate with kisses, embraces, tickling, swaggering and threatening.

She also discovered the most significant thing we have in common: childhood. Chimps and humans spend a long time before taking on the responsibilities (such as breeding) of adult life.

A chimpanzee will spend five years with its mother, suckling and sharing a leafy bed. Orphaned chimps show evidence of clinical depression, and will sometimes be adopted by an older sibling.

Play is essential to humans and chimpanzees: it’s the way we learn skills and behavior that we in turn pass on. In other words, this is culture. Humans and chimpanzees don’t just pass on things through our genes: we also pass things on by showing and learning and showing again in our turn.

Chimpanzees have emotions and express them. They have a sense of self: unlike your dog, they recognize their reflection in a mirror. Its clear chimpanzees know mental as well as physical pain. On what grounds, then, would you deny them the right not to be enslaved or imprisoned?

The moral philosopher Peter Singer suggested human history shows an ever-expanding circle of moral concern. At one stage, people from another tribe were outside that circle.

In recent times, women, as well as people of other races and religions, were excluded from the circle, but now they are all accepted inside most societies in the developed world. The next stage is the beginnings of acceptance of non-human animals into the circle.

Singer uses the term ‘speciesism’. It is the same idea as racism and sexism: the denial of rights and moral concern to a group for no reason beyond the personal convenience of others.

This judgment in New York is a small but meaningful strike against speciesism. Perhaps in time it will acquire the significance of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 or the Equal Pay Act of 1970.

No one will expect change to come with any itching hurry, but it seems that the beginning of change is out there blowing in the wind.

Last week, a revolutionary decision was made in a U.S. court: chimpanzees were acknowledged to have rights of their own. Above Kenuzy, a chimpanzee from Los Angeles, appears to laugh.

A similar project involving a chimpanzee called Nim Chimpsky failed to teach the animal how to sign language.

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$1,000 Reward for Information Leading to the Arrest/Conviction of the Person(s) Responsible for Taping a Dog's Muzzle Together with Electrical Tape

Charleston, South Carolina - The Charleston Animal Society needs help finding the person who taped a dog's muzzle taped shut. The dog, Caitlyn, is now in critical condition after it was found on a Good Samaritan's doorstep with electrical tape tightly wound around her muzzle.

The tape was so tight around Caitlyn's muzzle that her tongue was caught between her teeth, stopping blood flow to her tongue. Officials think that the tape was on Caitlyn for up to 36-48 hours.

The Charleston Animal Society Senior Director of Veterinary Care, Dr. Lucy Fuller, DVM, said "Caitlyn is in a lot of pain, her condition is critical, and her prognosis is guarded." She also said that "A large part of her tongue may need to be removed surgically if the tissue dies from the lack of blood flow. She may be severely disfigured, or the large amount of dead tissue may cause life-threatening complications."

Treatment for Caitlyn will be paid for by Toby's Fund, Charleston Animal Society's medical fund that is only made possible by donations from the community.

"This is the most malicious case of animal abuse I have ever seen in my entire career," said Charleston Animal Society Director of Anti-Cruelty & Outreach Aldwin Roman. He continued, "to leave this dog in pain, unable to eat or drink and to now leave her in the position where her life is at stake because she may lose her tongue is heartbreaking."

North Charleston Animal Control is investigating the case and looking for whoever is responsible. Charleston Animal Society is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. If convicted of ill treatment of an animal, the guilty could face up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

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The Question of Whether Only Human Beings Deserve Human Rights: Chimpanzees Get a Day in Court

A year after the starting fight for legal personhood for the research chimpanzees Hercules and Leo, the apes and their lawyers got their day in court. At a hearing in Manhattan on Wednesday, a judge heard arguments in the landmark lawsuit against Stony Brook University, with a decision expected later this summer. At stake: the question of whether only human beings deserve human rights.

A decision could set a precedent for challenging, under human law, the captivity of other chimpanzees—and perhaps other species. It’s a radical notion, and many legal experts doubted whether the lawsuit, one of several filed late in 2013 by the Nonhuman Rights Project, would ever reach court.

But Justice Barbara Jaffe decided to consider the arguments. “The law evolves according to new discoveries and social mores,” she said while presiding over the hearing. “Isn’t it incumbent on judiciaries to at least consider whether a class of beings may be granted a right?”

Jaffe posed that question to New York assistant attorney general Christopher Coulston, who represented the university, where the two chimps are housed. Coulston had argued that Jaffe was bound by the previous decisions of two appellate courts, which had ruled that other Nonhuman Rights Project chimps didn’t qualify for habeas corpus, the legal principle that protects people from illegal imprisonment.

Both those decisions are controversial. In one, judges decided that habeas corpus didn’t apply because the chimp would be transferred from one form of captivity to another—in this case, a sanctuary. But illegally-held human prisoners have been released to mental hospitals, and juveniles into the care of guardians.

In the other appeals court decision, judges declared that chimps are not legal persons because they can’t fulfill duties to human society. But that rationale arguably denies personhood to young children and mentally incapacitated individuals, as several high-profile legal scholars, including Constitutional law expert Laurence Tribe, pointed out. He filed a brief on behalf of the Nonhuman Rights Project, saying the court “reached its conclusion on the basis of a fundamentally flawed definition of legal personhood.”

In fact, Nonhuman Rights Project attorney Steven Wise argued, New York law only requires judges to follow appeals court decisions involving settled legal principles—which animal personhood is not. That set the stage for the pivotal question: What is the basis of legal personhood? Wise said it’s rooted in the tremendous value placed by American society and New York law on liberty, which is synonymous with autonomy. “The purpose of the writ of habeas corpus isn’t to protect a human being,” he said. “It’s to protect autonomy.”

By that standard, Wise said, chimpanzees qualify. “Chimps are autonomous and self-determined beings. They are not governed by instinct,” he said. “They are self-conscious. They have language, they have mathematics, they have material and social culture. They are the kinds of beings who can remember the past and plan for the future.” In a human, argued Wise, those capacities are grounds for the right to be free.

Coulston marshalled an argument elsewhere made by Richard Posner, a legal theorist and federal appeals court judge who has written that legal rights and personhood were designed with only humans in mind. “Those rights evolved in relation to human interests,” Coulston said. “I worry about the diminishment of those rights in some way if we expand them beyond human beings.”

The cognitive capacities of chimpanzees have been compared to 5-year-old humans, said Coulston; how would the legal system handle animals with minds comparable to a 3-year-old, or a 1-year-old? “This becomes a question of where we’re going,” he said, with chimp personhood opening the floodgates to lawsuits on behalf of animals in zoos or on farms, or even pets. “The great writ is for human beings,” he said, “and I think it should stay there.”

Wise countered by saying that denying freedom to an autonomous being is itself a diminishment; it could even come back to bite us, serving as rationale for limiting human freedom. He described the slippery slope as a separate issue. Freedom—or at least sanctuary—for Hercules and Leo is something to debate on its own merits, just as rights for any potentially deserving human should be considered without regard for social inconvenience.

It is true, though, that success could lead to personhood claims on behalf of other chimps, as well as other great apes, orcas and also elephants, for whom the Nonhuman Rights Project is now preparing a case. More than a third of Americans now support rights for animals.

Win or lose, Wise said at a press conference following the trial, the hearing itself was a victory. “Many human beings have these kinds of hearings,” he said. Chimpanzees “are now being treated like all the other autonomous beings of this world.” Whether they’ll continue to get that treatment will be up to Justice Jaffe. Or, more likely, whoever hears the almost inevitable appeal of her decision.

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Service Dogs Help Children with Epilepsy, Autism and Other Disabilities

When Alyssa Howes was 4-years-old, she lost her sight and started having seizures. Her grandmother stayed in the girl's room at night, monitoring her for attacks. That ended three years ago when Alyssa got a service dog named Flint.

When the golden retriever moved in, life changed for Alyssa's Los Angeles-area family. He gives the 11-year-old a more normal life by alerting her family to seizures, guiding her so she doesn't fall and allowing her to have a bit more freedom.

"It gives her a companion to enjoy the moments when she is doing things she likes to do," said her mother, Juliette Palomaki. "And if she is having a bad day, she will call him and they will just be together."

But not enough dogs are being trained for children with epilepsy, autism and other disabilities, said Karen Shirk, founder of 4 Paws for Ability, a nonprofit that breeds and trains service dogs. Other agencies train dogs specifically to help people with seizures, but Ohio-based 4 Paws is one of just a few that does not exclude young children.

Most require a minor to be 16 so they can handle the dog alone in public. Because a younger child cannot do that, 4 Paws trains at least two adult caregivers, such as parents, teachers and baby-sitters.

Service dogs allow children to feel comfortable at the park, school and restaurants. In Alyssa's case, it means no one has to stand guard at night in case of seizures.

"Once we got Flint, she said she wanted to start sleeping on her own with him," Palomaki said.

Animal behaviorist Brandon McMillan, the star of "Lucky Dog" on CBS, says it's very easy for a child with disabilities to become a recluse.

"Life shouldn't be so complicated at 5," said McMillan, a spokesman for Magnolia Paws for Compassion, which raises awareness that kids can get service dogs. 

"Take a child who has a condition. Give them a dog. The dog opens up a world for this child. It's important for a child's life."

Seizure dogs are costly — taking 4 Paws $22,000 to breed and train, with each family asked to raise $15,000 — but they can alert their companions to seizures before they strike.

Scientists say pooches smell a chemical change when a person is about to seize — they just don't agree how dogs do it, Shirk said. At her training center, dogs learn to bark to signal a seizure so an adult can give the child medicine.

For Shirk, who has a service dog, Piper, to help her with her muscular dystrophy, getting that warning allows her to take medicine that keeps her breathing.

"Messages don't get through from the brain to the muscles," Shirk said of a seizure. "Without Piper, I barely have time to call 911 before everything shuts down."

In Alyssa's case, if Flint detects a seizure, he will lick her, become very attentive, lie on her and bark, the girl's mother said.

"When we hear him bark, we know something is up because he doesn't bark for any other reason," Palomaki said.

Alyssa also has leukemia that's in remission and lacks full use of her right hand. Doctors won't give a prognosis because they "don't want to put expectations or limitations on her," Palomaki said.

"She walks, talks and can read the whole Braille alphabet with one good hand. She's a true joy, and they are a dynamic duo," Palomaki said.

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