These are some of the service pets and special therapeutic items that have recently been harmed or stolen, leaving their child owners grieving and suffering physical and emotional setbacks.
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For children who suffer from disabilities or life-threatening illnesses, the joy that service or therapy animals can bring to their lives is immeasurable, and some are able to find brief moments of joy from equipment designed especially for them.
The death of comforting pets is sometimes so overwhelming to the children that their own healing stalls. And the destruction or loss of therapy equipment can rob special needs kids of one of their few outlets of pure, childlike happiness.
When pets' deaths are caused by violent attacks by people or other animals, the loss is that much more complicated and painful.
"Any pet loss has a major impact on a child, as well as on a family," Irene Deitch, professor emeritus of psychology at City University of New York, told ABCNEWS.com. "We might find the bonding is so intense that the child will show a decrement— a decrease in cognitive functioning — without [a pet] to talk to, to touch or be a source of affection."
A therapy animal "is a love object," said Deitch, who counsels patients about pet loss. "It's total care and love and acceptance and affection. And when we lose a love object, we have great grief and we mourn."
The following stories chronicle several children who have had to deal with the loss of therapeutic toys or equipment, or the disappearance or injury of their very best friends — their service pets.
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