S is for Service Animals

Service animals, called assistance animals in Australia, are specially bred and trained animals which help people with both menial and complex daily and specialty tasks.

Dogs have been trained to assist visually impaired people since the 1750s. In Australia, the first guide dog to be matched with a person was ‘Beau’ in 1952. Many dogs are specially bred, to become guide dogs for the visually impaired or in other assistance services, and selectively bred to enhance genetic traits which are appropriate for the assistance services. Between 50-70% of dogs do not complete their training but of those who do over 90% are placed into service, roughly 16,000 dogs per year in Australia. It costs around $AUD60,000 to breed and train a service dog. Dogs who fail their training are first offered to be retrained in other appropriate service industries, before being offered for adoption. While it is not clear what happens to dogs who are not able to be adopted, every attempt is made to find them a home: “Every dog is valued and ultimately, finds its place in the world.”

However, there are growing technological advances and a growing market for alternatives to animal use as service or assistance animals.

Guidance robots for visually impaired people are becoming more advanced and more widely adopted. These robots can detect paths and obstacles blocking them, are lightweight and easily serviceable, and do not require significant maintenance or care. The technology is progressing in development and application as similar technology such as that for autonomous vehicles, improves and becomes more widely accepted.

Initiatives such as guidance robots can have a positive impact on those requiring assistance as guide dog owners have reported a number of issues in the management of their animals. Almost three-quarters of owners have reported regular distraction of their animals, with 40% reporting an increase in distraction, leading to them feeling unsafe or requiring them to change their daily habits, such as avoiding certain locations. Additionally, 17% of dogs are removed from service following ‘behavioral issues’, such as environmental anxiety and aggression.

People living with insulin-dependent diabetes are able to access assistance dogs for “support and training of hypoglycaemic and hyperglycaemic alert”, offering “the latest tool in Diabetes management” although also acknowledging “it is still an animal and not a machine” and that the “dog becomes part of your diabetes management and needs to be considered as part of your medical equipment”. This is despite the existing and common use of closed-loop insulin pumps to manage blood glucose levels monitoring and insulin application. When paired with artificial intelligence, predictive algorithms can help protect from hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia wtihout the additional responsibility of needing to care for an animal.

Even as therapy aids, robots are coming to replace dogs. “[B]iomimetic robots - robots that mimic animal behaviours - may be a suitable replacement in certain situations and there are some benefits to using them over a real dog." In a study of children who were given a robot therapy dog, the children spent a similar amount of time with the robot as they did with the real dog, however they spent more time interacting with the robot, their overall enjoyment was higher, and they expressed more positive emotions following their time with the robot dog. The study shows that children interacting with robotic animals find similar, or more, benefit than in interacting with a real dog.

Realistic robot animals have existed for a while as popular toys, however they may come to play a big part in the replacement of real animals as assistance animals. As assistance animals are expensive to breed, raise, and train, and then to maintain by their owners, and carry ethical concerns, robots coupled with artificial intelligence will become more widely used. They will come to “be able to support the independence and mobility needs of humans without exploiting non-human animals.”

What can be done?

There is a growing range of therapy robots and a growing market to accommodate them. Each person needs to decide what assistance they require and can afford in their situation. However, charities and organisations allowing people to access service animals might consider a greater emphasis on trialing modern technologies as a replacement for animal use in service.

If you are a donor to a service animal charity, you might like to ask them if they offer their clients alternatives to using animals.

October 2023: Guide Dogs Australia have been contacted for comment. We are yet to receive a response.

November 2023: Read Paws For Diabetics reply which includes Easy For Animals’ notes on their response.