Doctor Irving, The White Faced Capuchin Monkey: Champion For Those With Special Needs 

Our Mission

With your help we will continue to provide this unique assisted therapy program for children with special needs. Our goals are to offer programs promoting a positive attitude, unconditional love, and character education.

• About Bobby Manheim
• Doctor Irving's Resume'

The Gift of Giving...
Dr. Irving's History of Kindness

By a unique series of circumstances Bobby Manheim was given a gift, although it may not have seemed so almost seventeen years ago. While recovering from back surgery and unable to walk for months, Bobby began working with a white-faced capuchin monkey who desperately needed to be rescued from a life unfit for any animal. This 1' 7", ten pound monkey had been confined in a very small cage. Despite being told by experts that this monkey would never socialize, Bobby accepted the challenge because of his background in working with animals.

After ninety days of administering unconditional love and affection 24/7, Dr. Irving finally responded in a positive way by giving Bobby a hug and kiss. Overwhelmed with excitement about the change in behavior he ran to the telephone to report the good news to a friend. That was the first day that Bobby walked in almost a year! The same effect that Dr. Irving had on Bobby was the inspiration for this unique monkey to become the service animal he is today.

He has been used to bring children out of comas, reduce fevers, help autistic children to communicate, and make the last wishes of terminally ill children possible.

Over the past sixteen years Bobby and Dr. Irving have been providing children with special needs with this unique and beneficial therapy and spreading the message of unconditional love to more than fifty thousand school-aged children and adults with special needs each year.

Bobby and Dr. Irving give presentations that are motivating, educational and inspirational. Their programs include Character Education, Maintaining a Positive Attitude, Problem Solving, Responsibility, Health, Fitness, Anti-bullying Campaigns, Helping Kids with Special Needs, and sharing specific information about Dr. Irving, and more.

Dr. Irving is the world's only primate providing animal assisted therapy for children and adults with special needs. He and Bobby visit schools, churches, synagogues, hospitals, and nursing homes where they totally captivate their audiences. Their visits never fail to result in rave reviews from all those in attendance which have included children, the elderly, terminally ill patients, and their families.