[nagdu] Take the menagerie off the bus

[Ginger Kutsch]

Take the menagerie off the bus
A dog's fatal attack on another illustrates why the feds must tighten their definition of "service animal"
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The Oregonian
Editorial
No offense, ferret lovers. (And we know you're out there. More than a
million ferrets now live in U.S. homes.) Your pet may be clever and
adorable, in your
view. It may offer emotional support.

But it shouldn't be roaming the aisles of a TriMet bus or train. And, in our
view, neither should any other animal with sharp teeth. The only pets that
should be traveling, uncaged, on buses, trains and planes are trained
service animals.

These animals today -- mostly dogs -- can be trained to do truly astonishing
things. For them to travel with their owners is only right and fair, and
it's
also the law under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. But this week,
Portlanders learned that the law has been stretched in a loosey-goosey way.

On TriMet and other transit systems around the country, increasingly, almost
any "companion animal" can go almost anywhere with few questions asked. The
death of Buddy, a 7-pound Pomeranian, bitten by a 50-pound Rottweiler mix on
a bus, is a painful reminder of all the snarling, growling, biting seatmate
possibilities.

If you haven't encountered a ferret yet, well, it's just a matter of time. A
2003 ruling by the U.S. Department of Transportation, in effect, propped
open
the door of the veterinarian's office by saying people with emotional
ailments had the same right of access for their animals as people with
physical ailments.

We have no quarrel with that broad notion. It's certainly true that
"invisible" problems are every bit as real as visible ones. It's also true
that animals
can be trained to soothe people who have a variety of afflictions, including
those that come with aging. The aging of the population makes it likely that
we will see a boom in the training of such animals.

Unfortunately, though, the ruling didn't say anything about training. Since
the 2003 ruling, "a veritable Noah's Ark of support animals" has emerged,
The
New York Times wrote. Airlines have accommodated "monkeys, miniature horses
and even an emotional-support duck." (Dressed up in a costume, no less.)

In the wake of the Pomeranian's death this week, TriMet plans to take a look
at its rules and procedures, to see whether there's a way to tighten them
within
the confines of the Americans with Disabilities Act. We hope there is.
Transit agencies should lobby for tighter definitions. The operative word
should
be "training."

Those who stand to be hurt the most by the current free-for-all include the
owners of the well-trained dogs. They could suffer a backlash -- or maybe we
should say a back bite -- from the untrained ones.

There are 72 million pet dogs in the United States, and nearly 82 million
pet cats -- and all can be classified, loosely, as "companion animals." Add
a
few rabbits, rats and ferrets to the mix, and you can imagine a bus ride
that veers a little too uncomfortably close to the zoo.