Despite shades of Planet of the Apes

Helping Hands-Monkey Helpers for the Disabled is an interesting idea. However, I have it on good authority that monkeys are known to spring at you and pee on your face. I also would be very suspicious if someone placed a monkey named 'Hellion' with me, wouldn't you?

Apparently they are bred for this purpose (no monkey roundups in the wild). Here's an interesting quote from their donations page:

The total cost of breeding, training, and placing a monkey helper, with a life span of 30-40 years, is $25,000. (In comparison, the cost of preparing a Seeing Eye dog with a 10-year life span is $21,000.)

I dunno, there's some aspects of using (and breeding) primates as essentially attendants that bothers me. I guess I seem them as just a little too close to us. On the other hand, the monkeys who are trained as companions probably live a much richer life than, say, one caged in research.

There does seem to be a lot of structure in place to assure a caring foster environment, decent living conditions, humane training, etc. It really could mean a lot for someone in terms of mobility, too.