THE HEALING TOUCH
CREATURE COMFORT
MADISON, NEW JERSEY
“Our animals love helping people,” says Mary Beth Cooney, the executive director of Creature Comfort, a nonprofit pet-therapy group that works with children, hospital patients, older adults, and those battling mental health issues to boost their mood, reduce anxiety, promote confidence, and heal. The organization, which started nine years ago, has 275 teams of volunteers and certified therapy animals—including dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and ferrets—that, last year alone, dedicated 5,000 hours, made 3,000 visits, and reached more than 70,000 people. “The animals are very intuitive,” Cooney says. “When they walk into a school classroom, they often go straight to the child who’s having the hardest time. They just know.”
The group’s programs include reading to the dogs for kids who…