Service Cats: The Unsung Heroes

By Chiara Santopietro

WHEN you think of a service animal, the image of a happy-go-lucky Golden Retriever wearing a red service vest most likely comes to mind. If that applies to you, you’re definitely not the only one.

There are over 500,000 working service dogs in the United States alone, and they can be found just about anywhere. Most service dogs provide mobility support services, with a handful of them being used for more psychiatric-based support. However, dogs aren’t the only animals that can provide life-saving service. If you’re more of a cat person and looking to train a service animal, you may be in luck.

Popcorn the cat, hard at work. Photo credit: Reddit

Although cats are not recognized under federal law as service animals (with the exception of emotional support animals), that doesn’t mean they can’t be trained as such. In recent years, there have been more pushes to recognize cats as service animals, with many arguing that they are just as intelligent and helpful as dogs.

Cats pick up behaviors and routines at a pace similar to (if not faster than) dogs. Cat

owners with disabilities have trained them to alert them to certain conditions such as epilepsy, diabetes, or celiac for years. These conditions have consistent symptoms, which makes it easy for cats to recognize when something’s wrong.

One anonymous second-year Mount student with a cat stated, “Squid is supposed to be an emotional support cat. However, when she noticed that I was having seizures, her behavior changed.

"She knows when I’m about to start seizing, and lays on top of me so I don’t move too much. She’s really smart!”.

In addition to picking up on behaviors, cats have an excellent sense of smell. Certain

conditions such as diabetes cause a person’s hormones to shift, which creates a smell that is

sometimes undetectable to humans. However, cats can pick up on these scents and alert their owners that their blood sugar is running in the wrong direction.

This can also be helpful for detecting allergens in food. A cat can sniff out ingredients, similar to how dogs can, and alert their owner that the food might not be safe to eat.

Many people hope that cats will be federally recognized as service animals in the coming

years. Until then, cat lovers remain training their cats in their own homes. While it may seem

surprising that cats can perform these life-saving tasks, they are truly the unsung heroes of the service animal world.