SPORTS
8A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 2016
Harber makes
irst start for
Wisconsin
The Daily Astorian
GRAND CHUTE, Wisc. — Three pitchers — including Asto-
ria’s Conor Harber — combined on a two-hit shutout to lead the
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers to a 1-0 win over the Great Lakes
Loons Thursday afternoon.
The victory at Fox Cities Stadium was the ifth straight win
for the Rattlers, the Midwest League afiliate of the Milwaukee
Brewers.
Wisconsin’s David Denson drove in the only run of the game
with an RBI single in the eighth inning.
After making six relief appearances this year, it was the irst
start of the season
for Harber, who
responded by strik-
ing out ive batters
PREP SCHEDULE
in two and two-
TODAY
thirds innings.
Baseball — Astoria at Banks, 5 p.m.; Sea-
The only hit side at Scappoose, 5 p.m.; Knappa at Nestuc-
allowed by Har- ca (2), 3 p.m.
Softball — Tillamook at Astoria (2), 3:30
ber was a bunt sin-
p.m.; Banks at Seaside (2), 3:30 p.m.; Warren-
gle in the top of ton at Ilwaco, 4 p.m.; Knappa at Nestucca (2),
the third to Gage 3 p.m.
SATURDAY
Green.
Track — Dick Baker Invitational, Gladstone,
Alex
Farina
took over with two 10 a.m.
outs in the third
and retired all four batters he faced. Jake Drossner pitched the
inal ive innings and got the decision for Wisconsin.
Harber faced 11 batters and threw 53 pitches (36 for strikes),
walking two.
“I thought it went really well,” Harber told the Rattlers’ radio
network after the game. “Right out of the gate, the defense made
a really good play and gave me the conidence to keep throwing
strikes.”
For the season, Harber has allowed 11 hits in 12.0 innings
pitched, with 18 strikeouts, six walks and a 4.50 ERA.
SCOREBOARD
Wisconsin Timber Rattlers
Astoria High graduate Conor Harber got his first start of the season Thursday, and gave up just one hit in 2.2 innings
pitched.
Lady Fishermen sweep Valiants in doubleheader
The Daily Astorian
BEAVERTON — The Asto-
ria softball team bounced back
from Tuesday’s tough loss to
Banks with a 3-1, 15-1 double-
header sweep over Valley Cath-
olic Thursday in Beaverton.
The No. 10-ranked Lady
Fish tuned up for today’s dou-
bleheader vs. Tillamook by
shutting down the Valiants’
offense.
Libby DiBartolomeo got the
win in Game 1, allowing just
four hits with ive strikeouts
and no walks.
Rylee DeMander had two
of Astoria’s four hits, while
Mykka Abrahams added a dou-
ble for the Fishermen, who
scored a run in the irst and two
in the ifth.
DeMander pitched all ive
innings of Game 2, in which
Astoria scored six runs in the
irst inning.
The Fishermen had four play-
ers (DeMander, Abrahams, Han-
nah Mather and McKailyn Rog-
ers) with two hits apiece, while
DeMander gave up just two hits
with 10 strikeouts and two walks.
Abrahams and Abi Danen
each had a double in Game 2.
Astoria improves to 4-3 in
league (10-6 overall), and can
take over second place in the
Cowapa League with a sweep
over Tillamook today. The last-
place Valiants fall to 0-7 in
league.
VA study of service dogs for vets with PTSD faces questions
Some worry
animals become
substitutes for
hard work
By ALLEN G. BREED
Associated Press
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. —
Army veteran Joe Aguirre opens
a restaurant door, then steps
aside to let his golden retriever
take point. “Clear,” Aguirre
commands, and 3-year-old
Munger pivots right, left, then
right again, sweeping the room
for potential threats.
“He’s basically looking for
... anything that would be out
of the ordinary. A bag. A par-
ticular weapon. People acting
erratic,” says Aguirre, who suf-
fers from post-traumatic stress
disorder after three tours of
duty in Iraq and one in Afghan-
istan. At the cash register, Agu-
irre says “Block,” and the dog
places himself perpendicular to
his master, creating a buffer to
anyone who might approach.
Before Munger, a sim-
ple outing like this would have
been terrifying, if not impossi-
ble. “He’s put faith back into my
way of looking at society,” Agu-
irre says.
But do the comfort and secu-
rity this lovable dog provides
come at the expense of true
healing from PTSD? Is Munger
merely preventing Aguirre from
confronting his demons?
Since 2002, the U.S. Depart-
ment of Veterans Affairs has
paid veterinary bills to veterans
with guide or service dogs for
physical disabilities. Now, the
agency is in the midst of a $12
million study to gauge the efi-
cacy and costs of using dogs
to help those who suffer from
post-traumatic stress.
Four years in, that research
has been plagued by problems.
Only about 50 dogs have been
placed with veterans, and crit-
ics question whether the proto-
col itself is lawed — with the
dogs being trained to do things
that could reinforce fears. Oth-
ers worry the animals could
become a substitute for the hard
work that comes with therapy.
“You will have the veterans
go to more places with the dogs
and do more things than they
would otherwise do. But they
are reliant on the dog, not on
their knowledge of ... whether
really they are afraid of a ghost,”
said Dr. Edna Foa, director of
the Center for Treatment and
Study of Anxiety at the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania Perelman
School of Medicine.
Only ‘evidence-based’
therapies
More than 350,000 veter-
ans of the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars have sought help from the
VA for PTSD. Yet the agency is
authorized to pay only for “evi-
dence-based” therapies such as
cognitive processing and pro-
longed exposure, which involve
having veterans confront and
analyze traumatic events.
In 2010, Congress permit-
ted the VA to study alternative
treatments for PTSD, including
A storia B a n d B oosters
CAN & BOTTLE DRIVE
1 P.M . - 3 P.M. • SUNDAY, MAY 1 ST
AT ASTORIA HIGH SCHOOL
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fu n c tio n in g. P lease h elp b y d ro p p in g o ff yo u r
em p ties o r m ak in g a d o n atio n .
Trained for cues
AP Photo/Allen G. Breed
Army veteran Joe Aguirre drapes a tattooed arm across the back of his service dog,
Munger, in Fayetteville, N.C. The Department of Veterans Affairs is in the middle of a
multiyear study to determine whether it should pay for such psychiatric service dogs.
the therapeutic use of animals.
The study began in late 2011 in
Tampa, Florida, with three non-
proits contracted to provide up
to 200 service dogs for veter-
ans, who would be compared
against a control group that did
not receive dogs.
The effort soon ran into trou-
ble. The VA cut off two of the
three dog vendors following bit-
ing incidents involving partic-
ipants’ children. The inal con-
tract was terminated in August
2012 amid allegations of lax
veterinary care and placement
of dogs “with known aggres-
sive behavior,” according to VA
records. By then, only 17 dogs
had been placed.
During the next year and
a half, the study protocol was
revamped to exclude veterans
with children under age 10. It
also dropped the no-dog control
in favor of a group that would
receive less-specialized “emo-
tional support dogs” whose
“sole function is to provide
comfort.”
NORTHWEST
PRAYER
BREAKFAST
to a rra n ge picku p of la rge a m ou n ts.
Coast Community Radio presents
DAVID BARSAMIAN
of Alernative Radio
talking about Saving the Planet
Thursday, May 5 th , 2016
National Day of Prayer
At Seaside Doogers
505 Broadway
WAKE UP AMERICA
~ Isaiah 58:1A
Breakfast Buffet from 7:30 to 8 am
(Please pay upon arrival)
Ca ll (503) 791-8134 or em a il i_wa n t_to_help@ a storia ba n d s.org
Critics of the study object
most strongly to the tasks the
VA is requiring of the dogs —
sweeping the perimeter of a
room before a veteran enters, for
example, or protecting the vet-
eran by “blocking.”
“Isn’t that saying that al-Qa-
ida could be behind the shower
curtain? That’s supporting par-
anoid, pathological thinking,”
said Meg Daley Olmert, author
of a book on how contact with
a dog can create a sense of
well-being.
Olmert is chief research
adviser for Warrior Canine
Connection, a Maryland-based
nonproit that uses veterans to
train service dogs for their fel-
lows. The group’s leaders say
dogs should be trained to pick
up on cues from PTSD suffer-
ers and then provide the appro-
priate support, such as learning
to wake someone up during a
nightmare or detecting when a
veteran is anxious, and interact-
ing in a way that helps calm him.
The VA’s training protocol
“reinforces the cognitive distor-
tions that accompany PTSD,”
said Robert Koffman, a retired
Navy psychiatrist and chief
medical oficer for Warrior
Canine Connection.
Rick Yount, executive direc-
tor of the nonproit, questioned
whether the study had perhaps
even been set up to fail so that
the VA wouldn’t have to pick
up the tab for veterinary bills
for psychiatric service dogs.
Already the VA is on the hook
for upward of $1.4 million a
year to cover bills for service
dogs for physical disabilities.
Michael Fallon, the VA’s
chief veterinary medical oficer,
said the insinuation that money
is the researchers’ chief con-
cern is “ludicrous.” As for the
training guidelines, he said the
list of commands was devel-
oped during more than a year of
consultation with mental-health
experts, service dog provid-
ers and veterans. They help get
veterans “out into the commu-
nity and integrated more into the
public life,” he said.
Prayer and Song Program from 8 to 9 am
May 6 • 7pm • $10
Performing Arts Ctr - 16th & Franklin, Astoria
Tickets $10 at the station & door
info at CoastRadio.org
Hear Alternative Radio Thursday at 3pm KMUN 91.9
Astoria/KTCB 89.5 Tillamook
