For the past seven years, Princess, a yellow labrador retriever, has been by the side of child and adult victims as witnesses at the Centre County Courthouse, giving comfort as they went through difficult experiences.
On Wednesday, Princess passed away at the age of 11.
“Princess was our girl, your girl, everyone’s girl,’ said District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller in a statement. ‘She spoke to a lot of people without using voice. We are currently lost without our golden girl around here.”
Princess came to the DA’s office and courthouse in January 2010 and was the first comfort dog for victims in court on the east coast, according to the DA’s office.
Princess fell ill Wednesday morning after accompanying two children who were to testify in sexual assault cases. She was taken to Metzger’s Animal Hospital and found to have a medical condition from which she would not recover.
Originally acquired to provide companionship for children in court, Princess was found to help witnesses and victims of all ages and served more than 400 victims in her lifetime, sometimes sitting in the witness box with them when they testified.
‘When she was meeting with victims who would become tearful, she would start to make little empathy cries, almost quietly, with her head resting on their laps as she leaned in to them,’ the DA’s office said in a release. ‘It was remarkable.’
She was originally trained through the Puppy Program at State Correctional Institute at Cambridge Springs, a supervised inmate-based program. Princess was trained by a female inmate to be service dog for children with disabilities and later became a ‘Courthouse Canine.’
Centre County victim advocate Faith Schindler was Princess’s ‘handler and mom,’ the DA’s office said. Officials in other counties have been inspired by Princess’s work to acquire courthouse dogs of their own.
‘She was a hero,’ the DA’s office said.
Princess had been semi-retired. The DA’s office plans to continue providing animal companionship for victims and witnesses and had already begun the process to obtain a new dog several months ago.
