[nagdu] Hawaii and access for guide dogs

Wed Dec 8 10:27:27 UTC 2010

Jenine,
    thank you very much for your detailed summary of this issue. and thanks 
for being on the barricades with us!

fraternally yours,
Marion


----- 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: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 8:37 AM
Subject: [nagdu] Hawaii and access for guide dogs


> Jordan, et al,
>
> First of all, just a note to clarify something Megan said. Hawaii is 
> indeed
> a Rabies-free zone but it is by no means flea free. :) Unfortunately, any
> place with the right amount of heat and moisture will harbor fleas and 
> some
> of the Hawaiian islands are infamous for serious flea infestation. A 
> friend
> of mine goes to Hawaii at least once a year from the mainland. She treats
> her dog for fleas prior to leaving with the typical topical flea products
> and every year he comes home with fleas. The joke is that Kawai actually
> means land of fleas in Hawaiian. It really doesn't, but try to prove that 
> if
> you vacation there with your dog. :)
>
> About the Rabies-free status: This is a designation made by public health
> officials and applies to any animal entering the islands. Hawaii put the
> quarantine in place in 1912 to try to prevent Rabies from occurring on the
> islands and devastating local wildlife, like mongooses.
>
> For many years there were no exemptions for guide dog handlers to bring
> their dogs to Hawaii. If you went there, your dog either stayed home or
> stayed in the quarantine facility, a kennel, located fairly far from
> civilized Honolulu. At some point in the 1980's, an apartment was added to
> this facility so that if someone with a guide dog wanted to stay there 
> with
> the dog, he or she could do so. This meant getting a taxi anytime you 
> wanted
> to go anywhere, and of course leaving the dog behind.
>
> Why? Weren't Rabies shots proof enough that any dog wouldn't spread the
> disease or bring it in? One would think so, but you have to understand 
> what
> it's like to live on a group of islands. Rabies could wipe out significant
> numbers of animals and pose a serious threat to people. Hawaii is not a
> well-off state and rural poverty is pretty common. Rabies poses a huge
> threat to people along with animals and being so far from mainland help is
> also a huge point of concern.
>
> In the late 1970's NFB did try to get some type of exemption for guide dog
> handlers but the state was not convinced that the existing Rabies vaccines
> provided enough protection or proof that a dog would not contract and 
> spread
> the disease. Keep in mind there was a lot of outmoded thinking about a lot
> of things back then, not the least of which was the state's attitude 
> toward
> blind people.
>
>
> In the early 1980's ACB entertained the idea of having a convention in
> Hawaii. This is when GDUI got involved in trying to prove that a 
> quarantine
> exemption could work.
>
> In the early 1990's we, and I say we because by that time I was involved 
> at
> the board level of GDUI, asked the World Health Organization for help in
> gathering statistics about the Rabies vaccines available. We also had a
> member who was willing to file a lawsuit against the state regarding his
> access to services, programs and activities. By then the ADA had been 
> signed
> into law as well and this was shaping up to be a classic battle of state's
> right, the right of Hawaii to determine public health standards and the
> federal government's right to determine access rules for people with
> disabilities.
>
> The person filing the lawsuit worked in the banking industry and lived in
> California. His job required him to travel to Hawaii frequently and he
> wanted to work his dog while there. It just so happened that his cousin 
> was
> the Attorney General of Hawaii, Michael Lily. By the time we got the suit
> arranged, Michael was out of office but had seen how his cousin's dog 
> worked
> and was 100% behind our efforts.
>
> Like many things in life this whole process had compromises. We had to 
> show
> that yes, there had never been a documented case of Rabies in a guide dog
> from the US mainland. This sounds like a no-brainer but the state wanted
> proof, not just our word. They wanted to know that all dogs working as
> guides receive the same level of care, from puppyhood on and that handlers
> are taught about health concerns and take their dogs to the vet regularly.
> These were all things that, with the help of the US Council of Dog Guide
> Schools, we were able to prove.
>
> In 1996 the Department of Justice signed onto our lawsuit. By that time 
> we'd
> been through several appeals to the federal court system. Our next stop
> should our efforts fail again would have been the Supreme Court, had they
> taken the case. As then GDUI president, that had me slightly nervous. :)
>
> Luckily, we came up with a settlement agreement that wasn't perfect but 
> that
> gave the state enough security to feel as if its public health concerns 
> were
> being respectfully addressed while allowing people with guide dogs to 
> travel
> with minimal restrictions. The initial settlement terms only covered guide
> dogs, no service dogs, and only guides trained by members of the US 
> Council
> schools. Why? Because the state wanted proof that these dogs were really
> guides. The number of people wanting to bring their pet dogs along on the
> Hawaiian vacation is still incredible and the last thing the state wanted
> was for someone to sneak in. If you said it was a guide dog, you'd better 
> be
> able to show that ID and allow them to check it.
>
> There's a story about Morris frank and one of the railroads. They insisted
> on having Buddy crated while Mr. Frank traveled on their railroad. He did 
> it
> because he wanted to get where he was going and he wanted to show them how
> much difficulty it would pose. I don't have the exact story, but Morris
> Frank had no legal backing either. He had to crate the dog or not travel.
> Sometimes we do things to prove a point and he certainly did. Seeing Eye
> folks can probably recite the story better, but I don't think it took much
> time for the railroad to realize that having Buddy in the passenger cars
> wasn't going to disrupt anything.
>
> The same was true for Hawaii. The only way we were going to gain access 
> was
> to just do it, following the quarantine settlement, and show the state 
> that
> their excessive bureaucracy was more than enough.
>
> The original settlement was for 5 years, beginning in June of 1998. I'd 
> say
> it was amended well before that time to relax some of the early
> requirements. The overall quarantine for pets is now I believe only 120 
> days
> instead of 6 months. Testing requirements are reduced from several blood
> tests prior to and upon arrival to 2 blood tests.
>
> Yes, you do need an international health certificate to fly there with 
> your
> dog and you do need to notify the Hawaiian Department of Agriculture.
>
> Once there though, I believe Hawaii has some of the strictest access law
> penalties in the country.
>
> To show you though how different thinking is in the Hawaiian culture, and 
> I
> mean the culture of the state, not the native Hawaiian people, there is no
> requirement for Rabies vaccines for pets who don't travel to the mainland.
> If you think about it, wouldn't you want all appropriate animals 
> vaccinated
> against a disease just in case, rather than relying on a quarantine that 
> may
> or may not work?
>
> We on the outside are pretty powerless to change that kind of thinking.
>
> Even before the settlement agreement had ended, Michael Lily was working 
> on
> ways for service animal handlers and those with owner or privately trained
> dogs to access the state. They now have similar requirements that wouldn't
> have happened had we not gone ahead with the settlement and had scores of
> blind people not just gone through the regulations and traveled to Hawaii.
>
> My husband and I were the first people to come from the mainland to Hawaii
> under the new quarantine exemption in August of 1998. It was an incredible
> experience as we also were on hand to witness the formalizing of the
> settlement in federal court in Honolulu.
>
> It's hard in this day and age when we take the protection of federal law 
> for
> granted, to imagine what it was like when we only had state by state laws
> and very little support for federal requirements. You literally had no leg
> to stand on if state law didn't cover your dog and your right to work it.
> It's important to keep that in mind, as well as everything about 
> compromise
> and principles of public health versus civil rights when looking at issues
> like Hawaii.
>
> Besides, if you have ever been to Hawaii, you may ask yourself if it 
> really
> is in the US. :) For those Hawaiian residents on list, no offense meant 
> but
> you know what I mean. You can't understand it either unless you've been
> there. It's a truly unique place.
>
> I'm dying to go back too, especially on days like today when it's 
> literally
> 0 outside. :)
>
> Jenine Stanley
> jeninems at wowway.com
>
>
>
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