[nagdu] Legislative Consideration

[Ann Edie]

"Do people ever ask you if Panda bites?"

No, they usually just go right ahead and stick their fingers in her mouth. 
I guess they want to find out for themselves!

Best,
Ann

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tamara Smith-Kinney" <tamara.8024 at comcast.net>
To: "'NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users'" 
<nagdu at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 1:11 PM
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Legislative Consideration


> What?  Give disabled people recourse against abuse?  How about that! 
> /grin/
>
> Good points, as always.  And yes, the waters are very, very muddy. 
> There's
> a healthy growth of pond scum there as well!
>
> I was having a friendly argument with a friend -- on of those arguing just
> for something to do types -- about those issues.
>
> His premise -- and he insisted he knows more than I do about it -- is that
> he could take Mitzi down to the grocery store and take her in with him, 
> and
> they couldn't do a thing because she is a service dog.
>
> My premise was they the most certainly do something about it, because he 
> is
> not disabled. We both knew there would be no permission given for him to
> take Mitzi anywhere in the first place, BTW!
>
> Still, he insisted, if I wanted to take Daisy down to the same grocery
> store, I could take her in with me, and they couldn't do a thing about it,
> because I am disabled and have a service dog -- even though it's not 
> Daisy.
> "Well..."  He paused, considering.  "She would bite someone, then they 
> could
> do something about it.  But until she did, they couldn't get you in
> trouble."
>
> Ignoring the fact that at I would never consider doing such a thing, what
> with the biting and all, they could kick me out in a heartbeat because 
> Daisy
> is not a service dog.  I would have to tie her up outside and let her do 
> her
> biting there.  /smile/
>
> Needless to say, we don't take Daisy out in public because of that fear
> aggression thing.  We've been giving her a bit more exposure with a soft
> muzzle on and me, Mitzi and Daisy's Dad all keeping our eagle eyes (or 
> ears,
> in my case) out for someone who might come closer than 100 feet.  When it
> comes to "not taking chances with her," I guess we err on the side of
> paranoia.
>
> Anyway, even though nobody was planning to take anybody's dog to the store
> that day, unless I went along and used Mitzi as a guide, this person
> genuinely believed that he had it right!  I picked up enough over the 
> years
> from casual discussion around here that the majority of people --  
> including
> those who are likely to make the decision of whether to allow a dog access
> -to realize that he was stating something pretty close to the commonly 
> held
> assumptions.
>
> So, like you say, education must go on!
>
> Do people ever ask you if Panda bites?  /grin/
>
> Tami Smith-Kinney
>
>
>
>
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