[nagdu] Service animals take their spot on Portland buses

[Ginger Kutsch]

Service animals take their spot on Portland buses
10/29/2008, 1:02 a.m. PDTThe Associated Press    
http://www.oregonlive.com:80/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/sports-6/

1225267742210400.xml&storylist=orlocal
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The term "service animal" tends to conjure an 

image of a guide dog that assists the blind.

But the definition is much broader, according to TriMet, the Portland area 

mass transit agency that sees all types of animals on its buses and trains.

Spokeswoman Peggy LaPoint says "all animals" can be service animals.

"It could be a goat, not that we've ever seen a goat," she said. "But there 

have been rabbits. There have been cats. There have been, I imagine, 

rodents."

On Sunday, the animals were a 50-pound Rottweiler mix named Max and a 

7-pound Pomeranian named Buddy. As he and his owner were making 

their way off the bus, Max attacked and killed Buddy, leaving the little dog 

to bleed to death on his owner's lap.

Max was on a leash. That would have been fine for a service dog, which is 

how the owner described Max to the driver when boarding. But it's not 

OK for a pet, which is what Max is, owner Leroy Morley confessed when 

later confronted by transit police.

Police cited Morley for bringing a nonservice dog on the bus, and banned 

him from riding TriMet buses and trains for 30 days.

The Americans With Disabilities Act says any "animal individually trained 

to provide assistance to an individual with a disability" is a service animal. 

All drivers do is ask boarding riders if their leashed companions are 

service animals. If the riders say yes, it's not TriMet's place to deem the 

animal unserviceable, LaPoint said.

Though the Rottweiler was not really a service dog, the woman who owned 

the Pomeranian had a doctor's note saying her dog did provide a service - 

mostly social interaction. Buddy's 59-year-old owner has hip and back 

problems, and the doctor wrote that a companion would help.

Whether dogs that offer love and comfort are true service animals "is a big 

debate, even in the community of people who are blind or disabled," said 

Joanne Ritter, spokeswoman for Guide Dogs for the Blind, which has 

campuses in California and Oregon.

Some say only training makes a service animal. Animals, however, can help 

some socially isolated or mentally troubled people function better.

TriMet keeps no statistics on animal ridership. But Kae Seth, the president 

of Guide Dog Users of Oregon, says she increasingly encounters "people 

who try to stretch the letter of the law" to get their pets into buses and 

businesses. Some disabled people worry there will be a backlash against all 

animals if too many people start stretching the rules.

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com