The Berrien County Veteran Services Office is starting a new program to match local veterans with support animals.
Veterans Services Director Maureen Adams tells us thanks to an anonymous donor, the office was able to work with Warrior K9s LLC/Magnum K9 to get training for Ollie, an 18-month-old golden retriever. Ollie will be formally turned over to a Berrien County veteran at a board of commissioners meeting in March.
Adams says support animals can help veterans in a variety of ways.
“For example, they may help with mobility assistance if that’s needed, for balance, for retrieving items,” Adams said. “Some of them are trained for medical alert — we don’t have dogs that are going to do that just yet — they might interrupt anxiety or panic attacks.”
This is the first time the county has provided a veteran with a support animal, but Adams says they now have the budget to provide three more this year and they hope to keep doing it.
“It’s something that we’ve always kind of kicked around because we are aware that Van Buren County started a program about two years ago. St. Joseph County, Michigan has had a program for numerous years, but we’ve never really had the funding available.”
The Berrien County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved a resolution authorizing the agreement to provide Ollie to his new owner, who will be named at that March meeting. Adams says any veteran in need of a support animal should contact the county office.
