[nagdu] One thing to remember about service animals

[Jenine Stanley]

I'm still not quite sure how I feel about all manner of animals being used
as service animals. I see the logic in many of the species being used, with
appropriate training. 

One thing I hear a lot from people is this "fear of untrained or ill behaved
animals". It's important to keep in mind that even a well trained service
animal earns the right for you to have it work with you through its public
behavior as well as its training. The most highly trained guide dog from the
oldest, most well established, most progressive, whatever adjective you
want, school, can be tossed out of a business if it barks repeatedly, jumps
on things or people, growls, eats things repeatedly or bothers people for
attention. 

I've heard many blind people say that our dogs are somehow superior because
of their training, yet I see plenty of them, mine included, misbehaving in
public from time to time. I just retired a dog whose behavior fell into one
of those disruptive categories. 

If the animal has been trained to perform specific tasks, can do so
reliably, is clean and does not pose a proven disease risk, and finally and
probably most importantly, is under good control, then why not allow it to
be seen as a service animal? 

Where I'm conflicted though is just when to draw the line in terms of
disability. I fear the ADA Restoration Act is going to make this an even
murkier dilemma. I'm also a bit skeptical about some of the claims people
make about their animals' abilities. 

In the "Creature Comforts" article Anne shared, it mentions nothing about
the parrot's toileting habits that I recall. I don't know a lot about
parrots but I'm not sure that many of them can or do have control of their
eliminations. A friend had Sun Conyers, along with several other types of
parrots. The Sun Conyers were the only ones regularly allowed to hang around
the house because they only toileted in their own cages. This was a natural
behavior, not a trained one. The other birds came out now and then for short
periods, and never without some mess. 

I was really bothered too in the article when the monkey licked something in
a store. OK, our dogs lick things, probably more often than we realize, but
as the article did note, primates can carry some diseases dogs do not and
those diseases are spread through saliva. Could this woman not get the same
benefit from a dog trained to do the same behaviors of calming, etc? 

I do completely agree with Dr. Freidan and I know I've spelled his last name
wrong. Our goal should be to punish those who fraudulently claim to have a
disability to gain some benefit. Proving this though is nearly impossible
and will be even harder in the future. 

Then I go to my basest thoughts about the issue which involve backlash. It's
hard enough to get access with a large dog, to cabs, airport escorts, some
small businesses, but when they realize that anything can be a service
animal and anyone can claim a disability and claim his or her animal is
trained, regardless of whether the business understands that it is able to
take action if there is disruptive behavior, the business owner and/or front
line staff are going to just throw up hands and say, "No one comes in!" Then
I and others have to fight to prove ourselves. Or, if we so choose, fight to
prove the rights of others. It feels at times like a giant Mobius strip.

 Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com