[nagdu] Fw: Proposed Act Regarding Service Dogs from the stateof Maine.

Sun Mar 1 19:33:14 UTC 2015

No one evaluates my dog, but me, at least with the last ones.  Jetta was 
trained by someone else, so we have her opinion and mine.

I do a lot of work at blindness events, with my state agency, attend NFB 
state conventions, sometimes the ACB state convention and I have a very good 
friend who is a certified O&M teacher.   There have been a lot of people, 
people who know about how guide dogs work and what they do, see me work my 
dogs.   I am quite often the one they go to with guide dog questions.

Regarding the bigger picture...I have known for some time, or have felt, 
that we are getting to a place where some sort of regulation is eminent. 
There are too many people, making too many claims of questionable facts and 
way too many ill behaved dogs. I don't think it is the outright fakers that 
are the problem.  I think those are actually a very small number and are 
pretty obvious.  What I think is the real problem is folks who don't 
understand what a disability is and claim to have one, when what they really 
have is poor self management, poor decision making skills and an inflated 
sense of what the word impairment means.  Please don't go off on me about 
how there are lots of people with legitimate service dogs in this category. 
I am in no way saying that psychiatric conditions cannot be disabilities, 
absolutely they can.  What I see a lot of is things like, "My Pooky makes 
grocery shopping more pleasant and less stressful."   To me, that doesn't 
sound like a disability.  It sounds normal.  Seriously I just got home from 
the grocery store and less stress is a wonderful thing, but if that were my 
disability, I'd make it a point to go on Wednesday at 10 p.m. when I'd be 
the only person in the store.

It's the people with only the mildest of unpleasant life circumstances that 
choose to haul their half trained dog into public because of their 
perception that the dog helps them that is the real problem. These people 
really believe they have a disability and they really believe their dog is 
trained.  That is their reality and there is no education that will ever 
change that perception.

As I see it there are only really two ways to go to address this whole 
issue.
1. We can have the government come up with some sort of elaborate system of 
determining disability.  Medical doctors are not in a position to do this. 
They are good at diagnosing medical conditions, but disability is how that 
condition affects you on a daily basis.  A doctor can diagnose that a person 
has arthritis, but as we all know most people who have arthritis are not 
disabled.  There are some who could be considered disabled because of 
arthritis though.  Doctors are not trained in this area.  Occupational 
therapists or rehabilitation counselors are in a better position to make 
this determination.  The social security determination is a close, but not 
perfect determination, because it only addresses disability as it relates to 
paid employment.  There are disabled people who do not qualify for social 
security.

2. We can regulate the dogs.  This one has so many problems.  I'm not even 
sure where to begin.  This seems to be the route everyone wants to take 
though.  Any test is only going to evaluate the dog on that day in those 
particular conditions and no test is going to be 100%.  There's also the 
cost factor.  Who is going to do the test?  Who is going to pay for it? 
What happens if the dog later misbehaves, is the tester held liable? How 
long is the approval good for?

or perhaps there needs to be some sort of combination of the two approaches. 
I don't know.  I do know that if we, as disabled people with legitimate 
service dogs, don't proactively work on something fair to everyone, 
enforceable and feasible, we are going to get the short end of the stick.

Julie
Courage to Dare: A Blind Woman's Quest to Train her Own Guide Dog is now 
available! Get the book here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QXZSMOC
Visit my new website on developing courage and living authentically:
http://www.falling-up.com
-----Original Message----- 
From: Bridget Walker via nagdu
Sent: Sunday, March 01, 2015 1:02 PM
To: Sherry Gomes ; NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog 
Users
Subject: Re: [nagdu] Fw: Proposed Act Regarding Service Dogs from the 
stateof Maine.

I don't see it as someone trying to diminish our rights. I do recognize the 
owner training question and I just do not know the answer. I asked this 
question time and time again let's see if I can get some feedback this time.
I do not want to set anyone off on the list so please understand this is 
just to better understand everyone's side. We all know how a guide dog is 
evaluated at a training program so I will not get in to it. I want to know 
who determines when and at what point an owner trained guide dog is ready? 
How is this dog evaluated? Multiple people evaluate a program dog, is it a 
here say from one person, or do multiple people with a background in the 
work of guide dog training see the team?
I'm taking a huge dive here but, I hope someone can see the Devils advocate 
and educate. I know there are some very great individuals who owner train. 
Please apply this to all areas not just guide work. How does anyone decide 
between fake and real service dogs? Anyone can get a dog to follow a few 
commands. Anyone can go buy some equipment off of eBay. Anyone can get a 
doctors note. How is the public to know?
I always thought people would get it that a harness is used with a guide 
dog. This is not the case anymore. There is to much between fake and real 
dogs.
Another point I want to bring up is why doesn't anyone do anything about 
those people who go overboard. Those people who constantly through 
documentation and have every vest and patch ever made to "prove they have a 
service dog." When you have to go that far everyone knows it's an act. We 
need a balance.
I am sure tired of people in New York and New Jersey abusing the ADA. Some 
people may say we choose to use guide dogs as if we don't need them. You 
know what, my guide dog has made my life 1,000,000 times better. Having my 
guide dog should always be a right and NEVER a privilege.
Bridget

Sent from my iPad

> On Mar 1, 27 Heisei, at 11:36 AM, Sherry Gomes via nagdu 
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I got this off another list. Another state trying to diminish our rights.
>
> Below is the text of a bill that is being presented to the state of Maine 
> legislature in the near future.  Again, this is very concerning, much like 
> the recent Arizona bill that failed.  If states keep presenting bill’s 
> such as these, I’m afraid one will get passed and negatively impact the 
> rights of legitimate service dog teams.
>
>
>
> 127th MAINE LEGISLATURE
>
> FIRST REGULAR SESSION-2015
>
> Legislative Document No. 547
>
> H.P.
>
> 371 House of Representatives, February 26, 2015
>
> An Act Regarding Service Dogs
>
> Reference to the Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry 
> suggested and
>
> ordered printed.
>
> 49
>
> ROBERT B. HUNT
>
> Clerk
>
> Presented by Representative CAMPBELL of Orrington. (BY REQUEST)
>
> Cosponsored by Senator SAVIELLO of Franklin and
>
> Representatives: DOORE of Augusta, LAJOIE of Lewiston, MAKER of Calais, 
> NADEAU of
>
> Winslow, STANLEY of Medway, TUELL of East Machias.
>
> Printed on recycled paper
>
>
>
> table with 2 columns and 33 rows
>
> 1
>
> Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
>
> 2
>
> Sec. 1. 7 MRSA §3922, sub-§4, as amended by PL 2007, c. 664, §11, is 
> further
>
> 3
>
> amended to read:
>
> 4
>
> 4. Service dogs. If a service dog has not been previously registered or 
> licensed by
>
>
>
> the municipal clerk to whom the application is being made, the clerk may 
> not register the
>
> 6
>
> dog nor issue to its owner or keeper a license and tag that identifies the 
> dog as a service
>
> 7
>
> dog unless the applicant presents written evidence to the municipal clerk 
> that the dog
>
> 8
>
> meets the definition of "service dog." For the purpose of this subsection 
> "written
>
> 9
>
> evidence" means a service dog certification form approved by the 
> department in
>
>
>
> consultation with the Maine Human Rights Commission. The service dog 
> certification
>
> 11
>
> form must include a letter signed by a physician, psychologist, physician 
> assistant or
>
> 12
>
> nurse practitioner indicating that the owner or keeper or a member of the 
> owner's or
>
> 13
>
> keeper's household requires the service dog and a certification or other 
> document
>
> 14
>
> indicating that the service dog has completed training from an established 
> service animal
>
>
>
> training organization or has been evaluated by a certified animal trainer 
> and found to have
>
> 16
>
> a sound temperament suitable for a service dog.
>
> 17
>
> Sec. 2. 7 MRSA §3923-B, sub-§1-A is enacted to read:
>
> 18
>
> 1-A. Service dog registration tag. In accordance with subsection 1, the 
> department
>
> 19
>
> shall ensure that, with regard to the registration and licensing of a 
> service dog, the service
>
>
>
> dog's registration tag clearly indicates that the dog is a service animal 
> pursuant to Title 5,
>
> 21
>
> section 4553, subsection 9-E. The department shall devise a method of 
> ensuring that a
>
> 22
>
> service dog's registration tag is clearly visible to the public.
>
> 23
>
> SUMMARY
>
> 24
>
> This bill requires that an individual registering a service dog present to 
> the municipal
>
>
>
> clerk a letter signed by a physician, psychologist, physician assistant or 
> nurse practitioner
>
> 26
>
> indicating that the individual or a member of the individual's household 
> requires the
>
> 27
>
> service dog and a certification or other document indicating that the 
> service dog has
>
> 28
>
> completed training from an established service animal training 
> organization or has been
>
> 29
>
> evaluated by a certified animal trainer and found to have a sound 
> temperament suitable
>
>
>
> for a service dog. It also requires the Department of Agriculture, 
> Conservation and
>
> 31
>
> Forestry to ensure that the registration tag of a service dog clearly 
> indicates that the dog is
>
> 32
>
> a service animal and to devise a method of ensuring that a service dog's 
> registration tag is
>
> 33
>
> visible to the public.
>
> table end
>
>
>
> Page 1 -127LR0304(01)-1
>
>
>
>
>
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