[nagdu] Animal control officer in Ct. and Zoo on the buses

[Mardi Hadfield]

Hi  every one,   Linda, I was an animal control officer in Stamford Ct. I
was 27 years old then. It was part of the Police dept. back then. I don't
know if it is still . I was born and raised in Stamford, but have been to
Norwalk many times, and frequently traveled the Post Rd.through Norwalk to
other destinations. The job was hard for me as I am a dog lover and this
work takes it's toll on people like me. I finally quit and went to work for
Oxridge Hunt Club, in Darien Ct., as a horse groom. I really enjoyed this
work as I had my own horses  as well as dogs and cats in my life. This was
years before my accident that damaged my brain and screwed up my sight. But
life goes on...........I agree that the buses are becomming a zoo. I hope
something is done to tighten the laws about service animals. I see a lot of
these so called service animals, that I don't think much training  or
socialization went into their training routine.  An animal becomes a service
animal to do a job, and must be trained to do that job to the best of it's
ability. It also must not be a threat to people or other animals.More people
are training their own animals as service animals ,because there is a long
waiting period to get a program trained service animal. I think ,when people
decide to train these animals , they forget about that part of the
training.Some animals  are just not service animal material!  There is  a
lot of training involved, and I think some people forget this and
think,because their animal has had some obedience training ,that it is now a
service animal.I don't decide when my dog is a service animal. I leave that
up to my trainer. When my trainer says to me that there is nothing more that
Ican teach you and your dog,that the dog is working and doing it's job
correctly and behaving properly,that is when it becomes a service animal.
Before that time, it is just an animal in training to become a service
animal. I think if more people had their dogs  temprament tested
first,before any other training was started, alot of the undesirable animals
would be weeded out,and we would have fewer problem animals on the buses and
other transportation. Food for thought.............Mardi and
Nala,retired,Wanagi,gdit,and Tokala gdit.