Mandi Steele/FULTON SUN photo: Missouri School for the Deaf students Catherine Slinkard and Michael Miller help take care of Sparky, a deaf dachshund the school recently adopted.
Deaf prisoners at Missouri facility trained a rescued puppy (also deaf) to respond to ASL commands, then turn the animal over to a local school for deaf children. The students at the school went on to teach the dog several more signs, and now the school is preparing to take on more deaf dogs.
Deaf dachshund finds home at MSD | Fulton Sun.
deafinprison.com 
I adopted a deaf Australian Shepard female several years ago. She was also blind in one eye and partially blind in the other. I could not get her house broken so she stayed outside in a large yard. She learned to navigate the yard and would run and play with the other dogs.
I lost her when she was bit by a rattlesnake.
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I’m sorry you lost her. It really is too bad their lives can be so short.
BD
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This is a charming story that should be made into a children’s picture book. Why can’t prisoners have pets? It would make the prisons more humane.
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I agree. It’s been proven to be greatly effective in both mental and physical health care industries.
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This is a charming story about a deaf dog who was trained to recognized ASL commands in prison then he was transferred to a school for the deaf for deaf children to enjoy taking care of. It would make a delightful picture book for children.
It raises some other questions like….why can’t prisoners have pets? Wouldn’t this make for a more humane environment? (It made me think of the Green Mile movie where one of the prisoners had a pet mouse).
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Yes. A program where deaf prisoners train helper animals would benefit the prisoners and the people on the outside, who need those animals.
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