Monkeys Lend Disabled A Hand

Dogs are said to be man's best friends but The Early Show resident veterinarian Debbye Turner has a story that suggests that a monkey can be a great companion, too.

In the 1970s, a Tufts University psychologist had the idea that it might be possible to teach monkeys to help care for quadriplegics. Since then, an organization called Helping Hands has placed more than 100 monkeys with disabled individuals, and many say these primates have changed their lives.

"Depression set in and I would break down and realize that I'm in a wheelchair, and I can't be doing the things I used to do," said Craig Cook, who has been paralyzed from the neck down except for limited movement in his arms since a car accident ten years ago.

Then a friend found a Web site that she thought might help him.

"She sent me over the link to Helping Hands. And when I pulled it up and opened the Web site, I just died laughing. I couldn't believe that there were animals, monkeys out there that helped people in wheelchairs," said Cook.

He applied to the organization, and two years ago received a highly-trained Capuchin monkey named Mini who has become much more than a pet.

Mini has helped Cook do thing he couldn't do before. "If I drop something off my lap, like a cell phone or my house phone, those are lifelines to 911 and emergencies," he told Turner. "Now that I have Mini I can just say, 'Mini fetch!' And she'll just jump down and get the cell phone and put it back on my lap, and there's my lifeline."

Cook and his monkey work together as a team to perform all sorts of simple chores. "She'll take out an individual bag of popcorn for me. Then I can open that bag with my mouth to take off the plastic wrapper," he said. "She can open the door to the microwave, put it in there, close the door to the microwave. And I can hit quick set with just one knuckle and that'll cook the microwave popcorn."

Mini learned her amazing abilities in Boston where the Helping Hands organization (a.k.a. Monkey College) is based. More than 40 monkeys attend college there five days a week. Each monkey will be trained for at least two years before being placed.

"Monkeys have these incredible little hands that they really enjoy manipulating objects with," said Judy Zazula, executive director of Helping Hands. "We start out training them with toys. And we teach them that there is a relationship between their behavior and something wonderful happening."

The monkeys learn how to scratch an inch, turn on and off lights, and to reposition a foot or arm for someone who may have just had a muscle spasm.

"Their natural curiosity keeps them interested in the kinds of tasks that people need help with and that are very easy for them to do," Zazula said. "Then we build on that, what we ask of them is a little bit more complicated each time. That helps us to get them to do more and more complex things that we can chain together and create complex tasks."

To Cook, Mini has become part of the family. "She really looks out for me, she takes care of me," he says. "It's more human than you think. And now it's like a daughter of mine, I mean she really is that close."

So close that Cook says Mini has changed his life. "She got me out of the funk that I was in," he said. "I don't necessarily concentrate on the fact that I'm in a wheelchair anymore. She alleviates the pain of being in a wheelchair. And I just concentrate on her most of the time."

Helping Hands is supported by donations. Officials there estimate that it costs about $35,000 to train, place, and provide lifetime support to each monkey. Qualifying recipients receive the animals free of charge.

For more information on Helping Hands visit the Helping Hands site.