NEADS in the News

Read our archive of selected media coverage about NEADS World Class Service Dogs. If you would like to write or film a story about NEADS, please contact us.

WCVB-TV: New push to keep people from taking advantage of service animal program

September 12, 2017
Nichole Berlie, WCVB-TV: MA Bill H.2277 is taking aim at people who misrepresent their pets as Service Dogs.
Full Story

Parenting Special Needs Magazine: Considering a Service Dog? Meet My Monty

May 17, 2017
Tracey L. Stoll, M.ED., B.C.S.E., A.C.A.S, Parenting Special Needs Magazine: My Monty is a Social Therapy Assistance Dog, specializing in trained social behavior and emotional support. (Please turn to pages 22-28)
Full Story

WDSU-TV: Meet Suzie the incredible, adorable New Orleans courthouse dog

April 20, 2017
WDSU 6 News: For nearly a year, Suzie has been serving as the courthouse assistance dog for the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court. She knows how to open doors, turn lights on and off and turn the pages of a book. Full Story

The Boston Globe: The story of Rescue and Jessica, a dog, a woman, and rebirth

October 27, 2016
Cristela Guerra, The Boston Globe: It brings Jessica Kensky joy to watch her dog run.

At the park, Rescue the black Labrador chases balls down and leaps with athletic abandon.

He came into Kensky 's life six months after the Boston Marathon bombing. Full Story

WBUR: NEADS Assistance Dog Bailey Graduates From Service Dog Training

May 26, 2016
Here and Now, WBUR: Here & Now has spent the last year following Bailey, a budding Service Dog raised by MA-based NEADS. During the week, NEADS are trained by, and live with, prison inmates (under the expert guidance of professional dog trainers). Then, on weekends, the dogs go to families. In this segment, Bailey graduates from service dog training. Here & Now co-host Robin Young has our story.

WBUR: NEADS Service Dog Meets His Match

May 25, 2016

by Robin Young, Here and Now, WBUR

Here & Now has spent the last year following Bailey, a budding service dog raised by the Western Massachusetts-based NEADS organization.

During the week, NEADS dogs are trained by, and live with, prison inmates (under the expert guidance of professional dog trainers). Then, on weekends, the dogs go to families. Bailey started his life with inmate Bernard, but after committing an infraction, Bernard lost Bailey, who was transferred to inmate Antonio.

In this segment, Bailey meets his new owner, Ashley, who has weakness in her arms and also uses a wheelchair. Here & Now's Robin Young reports.

Listen to the previous segment here:

Worcester Telegram: CEO One on One: Gerry DeRoche

April 26, 2016

Chief Executive Officer, Gerry DeRoche, has been leading NEADS since 2010, when he made the decision to leave a 33-year career in banking for the nonprofit world. The University of Connecticut graduate resides in Concord with his family, which includes two golden retrievers. Full Story

WBUR: How A Dog Becomes A NEADS Service Dog

November 11, 2015
Robin Young, WBUR: Western Massachusetts-based NEADS is nationally known for its remarkable success training dogs to be service dogs for deaf and disabled Americans. In the first of a series, Here & Now's Robin Young takes a look at how a dog becomes a NEADS service dog.

Providence Journal: Handling with care: By training service dogs, ACI inmates help others

February 24, 2015
John Hill, Providence Journal: On Tuesday morning, two dozen inmates filed into the cafeteria at the John J. Moran Medium Security Prison. There were 13 dogs in the room with them.
But the dogs weren’t there to guard the inmates; the inmates were there because they train the dogs.
Full Story

The Boston Globe: Princeton nonprofit sells stuffed marathon service dogs

January 29, 2015
Sacha Pfeiffer, The Boston Globe: In need of a ‘Rescue’? Nonprofits are always on the hunt for new revenue, and some of them dabble in retail to bring in extra money.

Think museum gift shops or online stores selling coffee mugs and note cards. Now NEADS, a Princeton, Mass., nonprofit that trains service dogs, wants to bolster its fledgling retail operation — and, if history repeats itself, the item it’s selling won’t stay in stock for long.

Full Story

The Boston Globe: Her decision, their life

January 25, 2015
Eric Moskowitz, The Boston Globe: They were full with newlywed love that brilliant Marathon Monday, fused in joy and then in disaster. Raked by the blast, Patrick and Jess would both lose their left legs. But Jess, harder hit, has held for two years now against the loss of her right. Everything seemed bound up in that choice.
Full Story

WCVB-TV: Service dogs Jake, Rossi Boy named after fallen firefighters

July 23, 2014
Two service dogs-in-training have been named after two Boston firefighters who lost their lives in a Back Bay fire earlier this year.

NEADS, a nonprofit organization based in Princeton, Mass., will hold a special event Thursday at the Engine 33, Ladder 15 Firehouse in Boston to honor Lt. Edward Walsh and firefighter Michael Kennedy, who died in March.

Walsh's widow, Kristen Walsh, and Kennedy's mother, Kathy Crosby-Bell, will have the opportunity to meet the two dogs that they have each been named in honor of the fallen men.

Full Story

NPR: Service Dog Guides Marathon Bombing Victims Through A Grim Year

April 20, 2014
Sacha Pfeiffer, NPR -- All Things Considered: At Monday's Boston Marathon, many runners will be on the course to honor the 16 people who lost limbs in last year's bombing. One married couple was among them: Jessica Kensky and Patrick Downes. Among many dark stories of that day, theirs is among the darkest. They were newlyweds of just seven months when each had their left leg blown off. Their injuries were so severe that they were some of the last victims to leave the hospital. But we want to tell you an encouraging part of their story. It involves an 80-pound black Labrador retriever named Rescue who is specially trained as a Service Dog by NEADS. Full Story

MSNBC: How Boston marathon bombing survivors celebrated Valentine’s Day

February 17, 2014
Claire Kim, MSNBC: Two survivors of the Boston Marathon bombings celebrated Valentine’s Day in a very special way at Copley Place, near the site of the attack last April. Jessica Kensky enlisted the help of an organization called NEADS to plan a surprise for her husband Patrick Downes. The couple stood near the finish line when the bombs went off during the marathon and were seriously injured.
Full Story

The Boston Globe: Nonprofit reaches out to bombing victims with an offer of service dogs

November 2, 2013
Sharron Kahn Luttrell, The Boston Globe: Since the Boston Marathon bombings, Jessica Kensky and her husband, Patrick Downes, have been grappling with the enormity of all they have lost. The attack cost each a leg, casting the young couple into a nightmarish world of trauma and recovery and shattering their plan to move to the West Coast, where Downes had accepted a pre-doctoral internship in clinical psychology. But late last month, the flow of loss was offset a bit when the couple gained something: a young, black Labrador retriever named Rescue.
Full Story

NEADS in the News