Court Dogs

These are literally dogs brought into a courtroom to calm a witness or plaintiff when giving testimony.

In a particular instance, a defense lawyer claimed the dog prejudiced a jury, unduly causing his client's prosecution. The lengths child rapists and their cohorts go to in order to shift blame is untenable. The simple fact is that courtroom dogs work.

In another instance, a child was frozen in fear by the presence of his rapist's family. The boy played with the dog and had the courage to tell the judge that he was afraid of them. They were removed.

Dogs have been used for a while to deal with folks who have particular stress such as post operation or Alzheimer's as well as rape.

They are trained similarly to guide dogs for specific behavior and respond to a patient/plaintiff.

Of course, we are all entitled to proper defense, no matter how egregious the crime nor how obviously guilty someone is. Otherwise, abuse of the court/justice system takes place.

That seems almost a joke considering how raped the system has become.

Justice for all protects fairness. It is a matter of fully informing juries and judges being held accountable to the people that will start to tip the scales back where they belong.

But court dogs are better than teddy bears. They are flesh and blood examples of compassion and I hope will be used even more.