Kirsten “Kiki” Kuhnert watches as a 350-pound dolphin named Matteo tickles a toddler with his snout. It’s a scene that Kuhnert has watched thousands of times; a single mother from Key Biscayne, she’s dedicated the past 15 years of her life to raising funds for dolphin-assisted therapy, a controversial behavior-modification treatment for severely disabled children.
“All animal therapy is controversial, because it hasn’t been researched as it should have been,” says Janelle Nimer, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Tennessee who researched dolphin therapy for her three-year fellowship in veterinary medicine. “People are afraid dolphins are being mistreated. You have exotic animals and parents of autistic kids who are willing to try anything.”
The therapy has been the target of criticism from animal rights groups, which consider it dangerous to humans and unfair to dolphins. “Because of the lack of scientific study, there are two vulnerable groups being exploited: dolphins and children and parents seeking a miracle under expensive circumstances,” said Courney Vail, director of the Caribbean program for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. The treatment can cost $7,000 or more for just two weeks of care.
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While Kuhnert is convinced that swimming with the animals paired with intensive speech or physical therapy helps autism, Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, and other debilitating aliments and birth defects, she admits that she isn’t exactly a trained expert. But “I have seen kids speak their first word, mothers cry because their autistic son looked at her in the eye or kissed her.”