[nagdu] researching programs

Jenine Stanley jeninems at wowway.com
Mon Feb 15 19:33:11 UTC 2010


Rebecca asks: Can you describe a scenario where animal control would think a
person
was fine with a guide dog, but where a school would want to take the dog
away? 

Good question or premise for a discussion. Let me think on it to develop a
valid scenario. I do want to note though that most animal control officers
who receive complaints or investigate issues involving service animals are
not "fine" with the person possibly neglecting or mistreating the dog. There
are limitations to what they can bring to court in terms of prosecuting
someone and just like police officers, if they bring too many cases that
aren't founded on solid evidence and things that fall under the animal
cruelty statutes, they will only gain a bad reputation with the judge and
probably some kind of disciplinary action. The judge will just toss out the
cases and everyone gets frustrated. 

So, even when they would like nothing better than to take a dog out of a bad
situation, service animal or not, they really have to consider how it will
play out in court and what steps they will need to take to get a conviction
under the statutes to stick. 

Imagine the PR nightmare if the blind person, who is indeed guilty of some
level of animal cruelty and has had his/her dog taken,  decides to go for
the heartstrings in the media. If the school is less than responsive in its
handling of the issue, the locals get hung out to dry. 

Never an easy situation in these cases, eh? 

Jenine Stanley
jeninems at wowway.com





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