Urban, K9 Units Celebrate Passage of Animal Therapy Bill

Information provided by the Connecticut General Assembly

State Representative Diana Urban, D-Stonington, and State Senator Dante Bartolomeo, D-Meriden, will attend a “Thank You” event Saturday, June 22 at the Fairfield Hills Campus to honor the first responder and k-9 teams that responded to Newtown on December 14. Rep. Urban was the author and chief proponent of legislation this year on animal therapy. 

“There is a natural affinity between animals and children that psychologists recognize, and we have come to realize its value when children are dealing with tragedy,” Rep. Urban said. “We had some amazing animal therapy teams come from out of state to help with the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook. We will now have our own teams that will be deployed with a social worker from our Department of Children and Families. We are proud that Connecticut leads the country in coordinating counselors with volunteer animal therapy teams in times of trauma for children.” 

When Sandy Hook happened, out of state animal therapy teams came into our state, because Connecticut did not have a mechanism to deploy and organize our own animal crisis responders. Rep. Urban brought the different groups together -they then formed their own organization. House Bill 6465, An Act Concerning Animal Therapy, would allow these teams to be deployed during Connecticut tragedies. 

The governor signed the bill into public act on June 6.

The legislation calls on the Department of Children and Families to work with the Connecticut animal therapy teams so they can coordinate their response to a tragedy. 20 animal therapy teams are still working with students in Newtown, six months after the event. 

"Recent events in Newtown certainly proved the value of therapy dogs, which can have a truly healing effect on people who have been traumatized," said Sen. Bartolomeo. "I am proud to have voted for a bill which will train certain state employees on the healing value of the human-animal bond and identify volunteer canine crisis response teams to provide therapy anywhere in Connecticut on 24 hours' notice." 

Urban is a member of the bi-partisan Legislators for Animal Advocacy and is the House Chair of the Children Committee.