Chris Draper, a scientific researcher with the Born Free Foundation contacted me about a new ‘therapy’ ready to cash in on the tail of that equally hot money spinner in the ever expanding autism marketplace, dolphin therapy. Chris wrote:

Dear Donna,

I am writing to you from the Born Free Foundation, an international animal welfare and conservation charity based in the UK. We have been alerted to a new animal therapy practice that is being promoted as a having benefits for autistic or Asperger’s children and others: elephant therapy (for example, see http://www.elephanttherapy.org/ or http://www.kindplanet.org/boelie.html).

We are particularly concerned about this practice, given the high level of risk involved to the human participants and the possible impact on animal welfare in the use of captive elephants in this way. You may be aware of the often harsh methods used to train and “domesticate” elephants, particularly in Asia. It seems likely that, unlike in some other forms of animal therapy, the elephants are unwilling participants in the sessions, or suffer detriment to their welfare in order to make them participate. Sadly, the numerous incidences of human injuries and deaths from captive elephants each year stand as testament to the unpredictability and risk posed by these large and potentially aggressive animals.

I am sure you are well versed in the pros and cons of animal therapy in autism and Asperger’s, but I would be extremely grateful if you were able to provide me with a comment on the wisdom of elephant therapy in light of the significant risks to patients and the welfare impacts on the animals.

With best wishes

Chris Draper
MSc., BSc. (Hons.), CBiol MIBiol
Scientific Researcher Zoo Check

chris@bornfree.org.uk

Born Free Foundation
3 Grove House, Foundry Lane, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 5PL, UK
www.bornfree.org.uk

Now, being someone with a life long connection to nature and animals, I invited Chris to interview me on the topic.
Here’s the interview:

CHRIS
What do you think about animal therapy in general is it effective?

DONNA:
There’s always going to be anecdotal reports of any paid service resulting in small breakthroughs. The placebo effect probably accounts for much of that or simply the fact that trying any pleasant previously untried experience could have surprising results. For example, a boy with Selective Mutism and autism saw some of my paintings and began to chatter incessantly for the first time in 6 months. It happened that he was intrigued by my faceless paintings… perhaps he was also faceblind (I am). Perhaps he had Exposure Anxiety which makes it hard to cope with having an audience and my faceless characters can’t watch anyone. Perhaps he had a visual perceptual agnosia called Form Agnosia in which people see the part and lose the whole, which makes it hard to focus on a face as a whole unless one uses peripheral vision to cut down the amount of incoming information to facilitate the more cohesive processing of what’s left and here were my faceless people, perhaps his ideal world. Perhaps he was an eccentric stuffed into a one size fits all world and it made him buzz that someone dared paint faceless people. Who knows, but my view is there were a load of new experiences could have tapped into some experience this boy’s usual daily life wasn’t tapping into and that doesn’t take an elephant or a dolphin or a 2nd mortgage to go chase some latest craze.

CHRIS
Are you surprised to hear about the use of elephants as therapy animals?

DONNA:
No, sadly, I’m not. Capitalism knows few if any boundaries in what people can exploit for money and the autism market is a hot marketplace. It’s like the sideshows of the 20s and 30s, with their snake oil merchants. This is one reason why I dedicate my lectures to demystifying autism and demonstrating why it is NOT one condition, why there are autismS not autism and why that means there are no magic bullet treatments, no one size fits all therapies. I try and promote the very simple, free of charge environmental, communication and social approaches which can be adapted to different sensory-perceptual, cognitive and neurological developmental ‘normalities’ and the personality packages they come in.

I’m not surprised about Elephants, because the more people spend in travel, accomodation and the like, the bigger and more exotic the animal, the more dinner party currency these ‘treatments’ have and the greater the placebo potential… ie it’s harder for people to say they wasted their money than look for ‘breakthroughs’ they’d otherwise overlook on a daily basis. I’ve seen the same happening with dolphins and hippos and of course horses and dogs. I have less objection about the use of horses and dogs in therapy as these animals are often not wild and these ‘jobs’ can mean they are ‘homed’… although that could also be seen as a kind of enslavement, depending on one’s perspective. For the record, I love animals but can’t cope with entanglements. If something isn’t free to choose to spend time with me without training or coersion, what good will it do my soul to resonate with the realities of it’s imprisonment? But then I’ve always been one for existential angst 😉 For the record though, I’m definitely a hypocrite as I’m a carnivore. I eat the same type of animals I love.

CHRIS

What do you think about the risks posed by allowing contact between vulnerable people and potentially dangerous and aggressive animals?

DONNA:
I think it shows people have their priorities wrong. If the person with disabilities wants to take a risk with something big and potentially dangerous, take them to the local funfair and get on the wildest ride there. If people are looking to impress others with the symbols of how deeply they love the person they’re taking to elephant, dolphin or other therapies which exploit captive, ABA (Applied Behavioural Analysis) style trained wild animals, then I’m pretty concerned what that means on a social-emotional level. If someone is moved to express themselves as a result, who says it’s not because out of empathy for what it means to be captive, ruthlessly trained and then paraded which is the lot of some people with autism. And if that is so, how does that reflect on the ignorance of the carers who are paying the captors and trainers money for this as a ‘service’? Sociologically, it looks emotionally disturbed. And there are far better ways to prove to someone with autism that YOU understand and empathise with them. The money spent on trips to elephant or dolphin therapy may be good for that countries tourism, but it’s the same money that could have been spent on a trampoline, a swimming pool, a spa, vibration cushions, swings, camps, and respite care. That’s why I feel it’s really about people going for a slogan, a gimmick, a craze, and the status currency of ‘see how much I love my child?’ which isn’t always demonstration of love so much as it is about the parents’ frustrations and desperation for dramatic change.

CHRIS

Captive elephants are often subjected to harsh handling and cruel training in order to make them cooperative and tractable does their use as therapy animals justify this treatment?

DONNA:
Of course not, and I think carers who take those with autism to such ‘therapies’ must be pretty blunted on the empathy front if the only creature they have ’empathy’ for is the one they wish to change. The training of these animals is relentless and highly disempowering to the animal. But some forms of ABA are like this and are used with people with autism as standard. I’ve been into homes where the child is held down on a chair in their own bedroom, the door locked and the child filmed 24/7 so high paid psych grads can earn some of the families double mortgage at around $40,000$60,000 a year. I’ve seen kids not allowed to leave these invaded ‘prison cell/bedrooms’ until they submit and repeatedly do the required task to the therapist’s satisfaction. Later, even if all the ‘skills’ the child attained are prompt dependent, it’s considered ‘success’ and it’s not uncommon for parents to parade their expenditure as proof of how much they ‘love’ their child. Admittedly, not all ABA is this horrendous (though most is this expensive) but it may explain the sociology of why some carers find it acceptable to financially reinforce the captivity and maltreatment of wild animals in the name of ‘love’.

CHRIS

What do you think about the use of other wild animals in captivity as therapy animals (e.g. dolphins)?

DONNA:
In Singapore I found myself observing those invited into a fenced pool enclosure habited by four trained captive dolphins. The dolphins approached the people, sure, but in the context of a food stick waiting to then reward them and set against a backdrop of intense boredom of hours on end between ‘shows’ living day in, day out in these ‘pens’. The organisers played sickly ‘new age’ music, people were moved to tears (go figure) as they touched the dolphins (after having antiseptic cream put on their hands to avoid infecting the dolphins whose flesh is very sensitive). The organisers encouraged the dolphins to ‘kiss’ the participant (why train dolphins to perform sensuality with humans?). And then there’s the photo moment of course, to immortalise the important spiritual event. Oh and the money, of course, but suddenly, nobody photographs that… doesn’t it fit the mental picture too? How conveniently brushed past. Anyway, I cried, not because I was deeply moved, but because I felt deeply gutted to the core of my soul at the life sentence these dolphins (read ‘slaves’) were given, that I was part of a species that had the arrogance and greed to do this, and that capitalism granted the landowners and business owners to do this in perpetuity, even will the business on for generations, and many more dolphins to come.

CHRIS

What would be the advantages or disadvantages in using captive wild animals like elephants and dolphins versus domestic animals such as dogs for animal therapy?

DONNA:
Dogs don’t come with the status currency of exotic animals. And many people with autism already relate deeply and with attachment to objects, to reflection, to trees, to music, to colors and textures, but those are considered too ‘autistic’ so carers generally desire the person becomes attached to animals as a bridge to attachment to other humans. But if people understood things like face blindness, social-emotional agnosia (inability to read facial expression, body language, intonation), meaning deafness, inability to cognitively hold both ‘self’ and ‘other’, issues like Exposure Anxiety, and the naturally solitary nature of solitary, artistic, idiosyncratic and vigilant personalities, then they’d be able to make themselves and the environment so much more autism friendly they wouldn’t need dogs, horses or other animals to have that ‘expertise by default’…in other words carers would be empowered to make far more autism friendly approaches which more easily facilitated natural attachments.

CHRIS:
Thanks

Chris

DONNA:
No problem. And I do feel that we can support wild animals and enjoy their company through reputable ecotourism which helps communities to sustain important natural habitat for wild animals.

Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons
International author and autism consultant.
http://www.donnawilliams.net