[0:02]People are always very interested in watching Panda work because certainly they've never seen a horse working as a guide horse. How are you?
[0:23]I've been legally blind since I was born, have had three guide dogs, and Panda is my first guide horse. She knows her job, and just about from the very beginning, she just exuded this feeling of I can do that. Hello, you're such a helper. We just have the most wonderful communication. I can feel what she's thinking, and I know she can feel what I'm thinking. There's something about my mind or my body that she can read. She's fiercely independent, and that allows her to do many things that she would otherwise not be able to do, and that is a very positive thing for her. Horses live a lot longer than dogs. Miniature horses can live easily 30 to 40 years. Hello, pipsy. Gives you so much more time to continue to build the relationship, and she's always learning new things. Miniature horses are very well suited. They understand about how a blind person would need to be made aware of cracks in the sidewalk, or steps, or overhanging obstacles.
[2:06]At the pedestrian crossing, she'll put her head to the left side of the pole so that I will be right at the button. And she learned that by herself.
[2:22]She's definitely a no-nonsense kind of girl when she's working. She doesn't particularly like to be bothered by other people. She's happy if they stay out of her way.
[2:37]She's a wonderful companion as well as a wonderful helper. She's almost like having another daughter. I would not want to imagine life without her. Millions of landmines plague 60 countries.
[2:56]But a tiny army is being trained to fight back.
[3:11]The apopo hero rats detect landmines through their amazing sense of smell. The rats can check an area of around 200 square meters in 20 minutes. Someone with a metal detector may take up to four days. Morogoro, Tanzania. A typical day for a hero rat starts at about 6:00 in the morning. Good morning, Magawa.
[3:41]It's then loaded onto what we call the rat bus and taken to the nearby training field full of around 1500 real landmines which are deactivated.
[3:56]On the training field, the rat gets harnessed, then attached to the guidel line, then starts to search systematically towards TNT. The rat starts smelling the air, and it's actually smelling particles of TNT that are hanging in the air.
[4:20]Once it's sure that there is a landmine below it, it will make a little scratching on the surface as an indication to its handlers that there's a landmine there. It hears a click and it then receives a reward. At 1.5 kg, the rats are too light to trigger a landmine. The rats work very hard. However, they will spend the rest of the day either sleeping, or eating, or having fun with their trainers. Meanwhile, the younger rats who are not as advanced, will begin their early training. The goal is to socialize their babies with the environment and with people, with us. The rats are really intelligent. They can save people. They are heroes.
[5:16]There's one thing that people don't realize these animals have the ability to do. He's an early warning system for epilepsy. Where is everyone? Everyone disappeared today.
[5:31]The life-saving snakes. I've had snakes now for almost eight years. And I treat him like a child. So these are my babies. You love daddy? Yeah, you do, don't you? They've given me independence. The seizures were caused by an incident when I was younger. Sometimes he's really wild in the seizures. A lot of times he's just really contained. All you can try and do is keep him from hurting himself.
[6:05]I got his tail, but I don't have his head. Where are you, little man? I had just learned about service animals and said this snake can do something as a service animal. At the time I hadn't had a seizure with Marney, so I didn't know how he react. I started carrying him around the house and started taking him outside. But one day we had to go out.
[6:29]Well, as I was walking over there, he started giving me a little squeeze around my neck where the arteries are, saying, there's danger. So I stopped everything I was doing. I could predict my seizure was coming after the snake had given me the warning. Really, there's nothing you can do. You just have to ride the seizure out. The snake told me you got a problem. If it wasn't for the snake, I would have fallen down, I would have hurt myself. Now, everyone says, no, that's not possible. Why isn't it?
[6:58]The snake's got a gift, he's very sensitive to his environment.
[7:04]Hopefully, it didn't bother no customers. The new law is service animals are only quote dogs and miniature horses, unquote. Right now snakes don't stand anywhere. They're just a wild animal that sits around my neck. My idea is have a badge worn saying it's a service animal. So you just pull it out, show the badge, walk in, no problem. Hello, Sherry. Trying to get a snake considered as a service animal is going to be a little bit more difficult than your average cat, dog, but they all serve a purpose to a human. Some animals just help you feel more comfortable in public and social situations, gives you something to talk about. There are other animals out there that can be useful. And I feel if the animals help. Let them have their status. Yeah, let them have their status and help the people. We're going to get the disabled people who have other animals to stand up finally and get off their butts and say, look, these animals do the job. We can prove it. I'm not looking for the world to change, I'm just looking for a part of the law to change. You did good today.
