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CANINE ADVOCATES

Canine Advocates was developed to provide advocacy services to child victims utilizing a highly trained dog to help alleviate the anxiety associated with being involved in the criminal justice system.

Canine Advocates accepts referrals from all courts in Michigan as well as law enforcement agencies and those involved in providing services to children who have been victimized.

History

Canine Advocates was developed by its director, Daniel Cojanu as result of an idea by a co-worker, Cindy Stanton, while employed at the Oakland County Prosecutors Office as the Supervisor of Victim Services. After researching various programs around the country, it was felt that we desperately needed such a program to assist child victims who were going to be required to testify.

We were very fortunate that Leader Dogs for the Blind in Rochester, MI donated such a fine dog as Amos to the program. Amos came to us extremely well trained and with the assistance of Leader Dogs, helped us with the training of Amos to work in the court system. We now have 35 dogs working across Michigan and 1 in Ohio.