[nagdu] One thing to remember about service animals

[dmgina]

I am interested in knowing if anyone felt they needed to send a dog back and 
not deal with all of the problems from the public?
Does this happen allot?

--Dar
www.mypowermall.com/biz/home/5779
Every saint has a past
every sinner has a future

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jenine Stanley" <jeninems at wowway.com>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 5:10 PM
Subject: [nagdu] One thing to remember about service animals


> 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
>
>
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