Harvard for the Simian Set

By Cassie J. Moore

Thirty capuchin monkeys are enrolled in a nonprofit “college” in Boston this year, complete with dorm rooms and a monkey spa. Their curriculum takes about two years to complete, after which they all go on to the same job: monkey helper.

Helping Hands-Monkey Helpers for the Disabled, a 26-year-old group in Boston, trains the capuchins to serve as live-in assistants to paralyzed men and women. The skills they learn include scratching an itch, turning on a lamp, and opening a drink for their human owners.

Capuchin monkeys, native to Central and South America, are especially well suited for these tasks because they are more intelligent than other monkeys of similar size and have opposable thumbs and toes.

Travis Roy, who was paralyzed by a hockey accident, says the monkeys do more than take care of chores. “As big a part as the physical abilities the monkeys offer in making a paralyzed life better, they’re equally valuable, if not more valuable, as companions,” he says. People in wheelchairs often “don’t have a lot of interaction with society, they don’t get out all that much,” he says. “To have that companion with you 24/7 is huge.”

Mr. Roy, 30, has been involved with the group since 1996, shortly after his accident. The charity he founded, the Travis Roy Foundation, which helps other victims of spinal-cord injuries, made a $25,000 grant in 2004 to help build the monkey college.

Helping Hands took in about $700,000 last year, most of which came from individuals, foundations, and special fund-raising events. The group’s director, Judi Zazula, says she hopes to bring in $1.1-million in 2005.

Helping Hands pays for most costs associated with the monkeys, a total of about $32,500 each, and just placed its 100th capuchin.

Here, Mr. Roy demonstrates how a female capuchin named Ayla uses a CD player.