{"id":18444,"date":"2013-11-22T11:00:47","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T16:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=16781"},"modified":"2014-01-10T15:03:32","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T20:03:32","slug":"comfort-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2013\/11\/22\/comfort-dogs\/18444\/","title":{"rendered":" Comfort Dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Headquartered in Addison, Illinois, Lutheran Church Charities<\/a> (LCC) has a program called the K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry, which seeks to provide comfort and compassion to hurting people. The specially-trained dogs often visit hospitals and nursing homes, but they are brought to disaster sites as well. The dogs and their handlers were early on the scene after the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, and they visited Boston soon after the marathon bombing. Last week, they traveled to Moore, Oklahoma, to visit victims of the deadly tornados. LCC president Tim Hetzner describes the dogs\u2019 ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dogs, says Tim Hetzner of Lutheran Church Charities, are \u201ca very gifted part of God\u2019s creation.\u201d In disaster situations they sense when someone is hurting, and together with their handlers they minister compassionately to the needs of victims. More →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":18453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6569],"tags":[11124,6794,17596,6081,17602,6793,10968,17611],"class_list":["post-18444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videocast","tag-boston-marathon-bombing","tag-disaster-relief","tag-dogs","tag-lutheran","tag-lutheran-church-charities","tag-natural-disaster","tag-newtown-shooting","tag-tornado","topics-faith-and-spirituality","faith-christian","spotlight-faith-based-responses-to-natural-disasters"],"yoast_head":"\nNovember 22, 2013 ~ Comfort Dogs | November 22, 2013 | Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"These specially-trained dogs often visit hospitals and nursing homes, but they're also brought to disaster sites to provide comfort to hurting people.\" \/>\n<meta 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