[nfbmi-talk] Guide Dog School Speaks Out on U.S. Airways Incident with Guide Dog and Blind Passenger

[Terry D. Eagle]

Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind

 

Last week Albert Rizzi, a Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind graduate, and
his guide dog Doxy were removed from a flight from Philadelphia to Long
Island.

 

We stand by the training that Mr. Rizzi and Doxy received from our
organization; training that is provided to all when they are partnered with
a guide

 

dog from the Guide Dog Foundation.  Unless it was an emergency or
life-threatening situation, a guide or service dog would not leave its
handler's side.

 

 

 

 Mr. Rizzi and Doxy are a well-functioning guide dog team that travel
frequently by air. We support Mr. Rizzi, graduates of our program, and the
entire

 

disabilities community by actively advocating to ensure that people with
disabilities enjoy the same rights of access as people without disabilities.


 

As the first assistance dog school in the United States to be accredited by
both the International Guide Dog Federation and Assistance Dogs
International,

 

it is a mission to which we have been devoted since 1946.

 

 While we cannot comment on the details of what happened on that particular
flight, we will continue to stand up for the rights of guide and service dog

 

users to be accompanied by their assistance dogs in all places open to the
public. To learn more about the Guide Dog Foundation, visit 

 

www.GuideDog.org.

 

The Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind

guidedog.org