[nagdu] Leapin' Lizards! Service Animals Are Multiplying Like Doggone Rabbits

Ginger Kutsch gingerKutsch at yahoo.com
Fri Feb 25 14:49:35 UTC 2011


Leapin' Lizards! Service Animals Are Multiplying Like Doggone
Rabbits 
Skippy the Iguana Keeps His Owner Calm, But Therapy Dog Maxx Is
an Impostor.
By ANN ZIMMERMAN 
Wall Street Journal
February 24, 2011
 
Rhonda Kimmel's 11-year-old West Highland terrier, Maxx, goes
with her everywhere-to the mall, restaurants and even to the
bank.
 
 Cosmie Silfa relies on an unusual companion to help him stay
clean and sober: Skippy, a four-year-old iguana. But changes to
the Americans with Disabilities Act could decertify Skippy as an
official service animal. WSJ's Clare Major reports.
 
What gives Maxx entree to places normally off-limits to canines
and other animals is the embroidered, purple vest he sports. It
says: "Therapy Dog Maxx." 
 
Maxx is a lot of things, including well-behaved, and he is a
faithful companion. What he is not, however, is a therapy dog or
a service dog, and Ms. Kimmel is not disabled. 
 
Still, Ms. Kimmel says the vest, which she purchased online, no
questions asked, makes people think otherwise, so they don't
object to Maxx. "They know they are not supposed to ask," Ms.
Kimmel says, alluding to the federal law that protects people
with service animals from inquiries about the nature of their
disability.
 
The various uses for service animals, particularly dogs, have
expanded in recent years beyond the traditional tasks of helping
blind and deaf people get around safely. Dogs now are used to
help people detect the onset of seizures, alert diabetics when
their glucose levels drop too low, and remind psychiatric
patients to take their medicine.
 
View Full Image
 
Brian L. Frank for The Wall Street Journal
 
Cosmie Silfa says his iguana, Skippy, is a bona-fide service
animal-and to buttress his point, he carries around a letter from
his psychiatrist.
.But the trend also means that there are many more ways to game
the system-so pet lovers need never be without their companions,
even if the rules say they should leave the shih tzu at home. 
 
Last summer, after Ocean Park, Md., resident Joseph Wayne Short
began walking Hillary, his four-foot-long iguana on the
boardwalk, the city council passed an ordinance prohibiting
undomesticated animals from mingling with the public, according
to City Solicitor Guy Ayres.
 
Mr. Short fought back. He plunked down $64 to place Hillary on
the Internet-based National Service Animal Registry, a private
company that, among other things, sells service-animal
credentials. 
 

Maxx
.On the company website, where Hillary's picture and registration
number is displayed, it says under service type: unspecified. But
Mr. Short, who couldn't be reached for comment, has told people
that Hillary keeps him calm.
 
"The gentleman claimed that the iguana was his service animal, so
I am not sure the police looked into it further," Mr. Ayres says.

 
The registry didn't return repeated phone calls for comment.
 
Cosmie Silfa, in San Francisco, also has a "service iguana." His
name is Skippy. Mr. Silfa takes him on the bus and walks him in a
local park. 
 
"He cradles him like a baby, a big scary baby," says Roy Mair,
who works the front desk of the subsidized housing unit where Mr.
Silfa lives. Mr. Silfa says what qualifies Skippy as a service
animal is a letter from the psychiatrist who has been treating
Mr. Silfa for depression. The letter says Skippy "helps him to
maintain a stable mood." 
 
Fearing a backlash, advocates for the disabled last fall
successfully lobbied the Department of Justice to narrow the
definition of service animals. 
 
Beginning March 15, the Americans With Disabilities Act will only
recognize dogs as service animals. The new regulations include a
provision that says the public must accommodate, where
reasonable, trained miniature horses as well.
 
The new rules are an effort to "stop erosion of the public's
trust, which has resulted in reduced access for many individuals
with disabilities who use trained service animals that adhere to
high behavioral standards," according to a Justice Department
spokeswoman. 
 
The Department of Transportation, too, tried to crack down on
dubious service animals on planes, but that created more problems
than it solved. 
 
"It's a mess," says Toni Eames, president of the International
Association of Assistance Dog Partners.
 
The DOT attempted to weed out passengers pretending their pets
were service animals in order to avoid having to ship them as
cargo or, in the case of smaller animals, to keep them in a
carrier at their feet. 
 
The new rules allow animals that aid people with physical
disabilities to board a plane freely. The only question airline
personnel are allowed to ask is how the animal assists the
person.
 
But passengers who want to board with psychiatric or
emotional-support animals must contact the airline 48 hours
before departure and submit a letter from a licensed
mental-health professional that documents their mental or
emotional illness. 
 
Mental-health advocates are outraged and have petitioned the
Transportation Department to get rid of the new regulation.
 
"We are forced to disclose we are mentally ill in order to fly.
It's un-American," says Joan Esnayra, president of the
Psychiatric Service Dog Society. "Everyone with a service dog
should be treated the same."
 
What's more, the new rules do little to get rid of the fakers.
"If people are clever and they have a well-behaved dog, they know
just what to say to get their dog on board," says Ms. Eames. "Or
they can get a friendly psychologist to write a note." 
 
It's risky for businesses to deny access to people accompanied by
service dogs-even if they think they are pretending to be
disabled-because if suspicions prove to be unfounded, a business
could face civil penalties of up to $55,000 for violating a
person's civil rights.
 
The new ADA rules might keep service iguanas Hillary and Skippy
off the streets, should the authorities choose to clamp down. Mr.
Silfa, Skippy's owner, says that would make him sad.
 
"The natural sunlight is very good for him," Mr. Silfa says. "But
I guess I'll have to cross that bridge if I get to it."
 
Rhonda Kimmel, owner of "Therapy dog Maxx," says she hates to
"take advantage." But she lives in such a hot climate, she argues
that the only place Maxx can get some decent summer exercise is
in the air-conditioned mall. 
 
Still, she says she knows when to draw the line. She recently was
to meet with her lawyer, whose building doesn't allow dogs. So
Ms. Kimmel, the lawyer and Maxx held their meeting outdoors.
 
"I know I was pushing it and I didn't want to start a fight,"
says Ms. Kimmel. "It's not like I'm blind or something."
 
Write to Ann Zimmerman at ann.zimmerman at wsj.com 
URL:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527487036521045761224611
80284204.html?mod=WSJ_newsreel_ahed




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