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Animal love, human healingBy ERIC DEGGANS © St. Petersburg Times, published June 28, 1998 As a longtime vegetarian and animal rights activist ('"I won't eat anything with a face," she says, proudly), it made perfect sense that the former star of The Dick Van Dyke Show and her own classic, self-titled sitcom would serve as mistress of ceremonies for this event, presented by the Seattle-based Delta Society. But a medical problem added a poignant twist. Moore, a diabetic, was still recovering from a bout with diabetic retinopathy, a condition in which blood vessels inside the retina deteriorate, sometimes leaking blood and threatening sight. "I had a lot of fallout from a bleed I'd had two months before," the 61-year-old star says of the show's October taping in Atlanta. "I could barely read the cue cards. And I kept thinking about what we were celebrating . . . I derived a good deal of strength from each of the stories we were telling." In fact, HBO's Mary Tyler Moore In Three Cats From Miami . . . and Other Pet Practitioners, is a broadcast less about the awards given than the anecdotes delivered -- stirring stories of the healing power animals can unlock in humans. Sponsored by the Delta Society -- a 21-year-old organization that advocates using animals in therapy activities and as helpers -- the annual Service and Therapy Animal Awards help publicize particularly impressive success stories from the group's programs. The affection and connection these animals can inspire come as no surprise to Moore, who notes news stories on needy dogs and cats can sometimes bring a bigger response from the public than similar tales about people. "Possibly, it's their (the animals') innocence," offers the actor, who says she got involved with the Delta Society after a newspaper article on its programs prompted her to send "a rather large check" in donation. "What these animals will do and how they react is no surprise," she adds. "Unlike the human creatures in our species . . . who tend to surprise us so much, and so often not for the better." But Betty Luttier, president of the Project Pup Foundation in Pinellas County, says there's more to patients' attraction to the animals. "The cliche is that they give unconditional love . . . but almost everyone has also had an pet at some point in their life," says Luttier, who coordinates efforts by 225 volunteers to bring pets into nursing homes and hospitals across the county. "It takes them back to a happier time in life. And they can share that with other people who love animals." Moore traces her animal activism back 50 years or so, when she stumbled on an ugly sight as a 9-year-old schoolgirl. Walking in her Brooklyn neighborhood, she came across a man beating a dog with a stick -- and took action. "I dropped my (school) books, ran into that alley and started beating (the man) myself," she says. "Of course, he ran off. I don't think that man will ever be the same." Nowadays, the star makes a difference by drawing attention to causes she supports, hosting the Delta Society's 45-minute lovefest with a game enthusiasm that's almost contagious. During the show, Moore presents two awards to animals at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium -- singling out Mo, a decades-old turtle who is seen inspiring Robert Smith, a 7-year-old from Largo who is a double amputee, and a stingray named Splash, whose enthusiasm helps inspire Noah Howard, a Largo boy with cerebral palsy, to walk. Marianne Klingel -- a recreational therapist and director of the aquarium's animal-assisted therapy program, called Full Circle -- says sessions with the animals can provide a much-needed break for children who might endure a grueling schedule of five to six more conventional physical therapy sessions each week. In the HBO show, cameras follow 12-year-old Noah Howard as he helps Klingel prepare food for Splash -- leaving his wheelchair to climb stairs, weigh the stingray's food and finally deliver it to him poolside -- all tough tasks for a boy with cerebral palsy. "A lot of kids with (cerebral palsy) don't want to get out of the wheelchair, because it's a slow and depressing process," says Maureen Fredrickson, vice president of programs for the Delta Society. "But if they don't get up, they lose what little mobility they do have." Captured on camera, Howard beams as Splash hangs over the edge of his tank, almost impatiently waiting for the boy to come by with a small fish. When he pushes the food into the stingray's mouth, Splash responds by living up to her name, flapping fins to drench her young friend in a playful display. "With Splash, you can't just attribute her friendliness to being fed by people all the time," says Klingel, who says the stingray seems unusually attracted to people. "She has always responded well to being petted . . . keeping the kids' attention and keeping them laughing." Each child who visits Klingel's Full Circle program -- it helps about four to six children each week -- works on activities tailored to help develop particular skills. Children with speech impediments build skills by naming kinds of fish, while other children build confidence by helping clean Mo's shell -- itself deformed by a birth defect that keeps the turtle from diving deep for food. "It's not just that they're animals and stimulating . . . the kids know they're not perfect, just like them," explains Klingel, noting that many of the aquarium's residents are injured animals rescued from life-threatening situations and nursed back to health. "They're bonding with something that's just like them." At the Delta Society, officials hope HBO's show exposes the benefits of animal-assisted therapy to a wider audience. "We do so many things with animals on TV that are silly," adds vice president Fredrickson. "The challenge that HBO met was bringing to television animals that are really changing people's lives." For Moore, who has faced her own health crises from juvenile diabetes and alcoholism, it's a chance to repay the devotion she has found in her own two dogs, including a prized, 13-year-old golden retriever she was forced to put to sleep about a week ago. "In those rare occasions when I was bed-ridden, they were there . . . their comfort and ability to give some rhyme and reason to my life has been invaluable," says the actor, now preparing to reunite with former Mary Tyler Moore Show co-star Valerie Harper in a sitcom scheduled to air on ABC-TV in 1999. "Every time I do something like this (HBO special), I'm part of an educational experience," Moore adds. "I'm helping to educate people to be attuned to their reflexes with animals."
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here she was, TV veteran Mary Tyler Moore, hosting one of the most unusual gigs in her nearly 40-year career: an awards show for animals that help therapists inspire sick, infirm and elderly patients.
