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"I was very surprised to learn that the first documented institutional use of animals as therapy dates back to a mental facility in England in the 1700s. One of America's first early prison pet programs goes back to 1975 at Lima State Hospital in Ohio. Don't come at me. It is Lima, not Lima. My mother's family is from Lima. I've been correcting that forever. The staff noticed significant improvements in the mental health and overall health of an inmate who was nursing an injured baby bird."