Again, Helping Hands monkeys are in short supply. Some persons with disabilities have purchased a monkey from an exotic pet store and are training the animals themselves. I have been told that some organization tried to train cats as assistance animals. The experiment apparently failed. Assistance animals have the right to accompany its owner into places of public accommodation, public transportation and other public areas.
Trouble arises in the definition when one considers therapy animals.
These are animals that are kept to aid a person with a psychiatric disability to remain stable. Recently, I spoke with a manager of a shopping mall here in Oregon. He recounted an instance where a man entered the mall with a large boa constrictor wrapped around his shoulders. When mall officials attempted to remove him, he argued that the animal was his assistance snake. I do not know.