[NFBMT] Layla's Law

Wed Aug 23 23:09:11 UTC 2017

I found this extremely interesting.  I think Layla's Law was passed in
Washington in the early 2000s.  If we ever want to go to the legislature and
pass a law regarding guide and service dogs, which I think we should do and
which was attempted last year, this information may be helpful.  Joy 

>From the guide Dogs for the Blind web site:

Snip snip 

Layla's Law - Interfering With Service Animals

Guide Dogs graduate Hy Cohen, 24, of Mountlake Terrace, Wash., was the
principal writer and lobbyist for "Layla's Law." The bill was named after his
black Lab guide (the duo are pictured, left, in front of the Washington State
Capitol building). For almost a year, he and Layla were accosted by an
aggressive off-leash dog whenever they were leaving or returning home. The
dog would charge out of the neighbor's yard, and threaten Layla with barking
and intimidating behavior, often causing them to stop in the middle of the
street.

These constant confrontations started to have an affect on Layla. She began
to avoid all dogs, thus impairing her guidework and the team's safety. Guide
Dogs sent an instructor to help bring Layla's confidence back to a safe
working level. The city charged the owner of the loose dog with having his
dog off-leash, and asked him to pay the lowest allowable fine of $75.
According to Hy, city officials said there were no current laws other than
the "leash law" which were appropriate to use against the owner of the loose
dog.

Although he had no prior experience with the legislative process, Hy decided
that action was necessary to help prevent such horrifying experiences from
hampering the disabled. He decided to work to change the laws in his state so
that guide dogs and other service animals would be put in a different class
than pets, because of their special role in helping people with disabilities.

ESSB 5942, officially called "Layla's Law," was the product of Hy's hours of
research with guidance from Guide Dogs' Graduate Services staff. The bill was
overwhelmingly received by the Washington State House of Representatives and
Senate and signed by Governor Locke in a special ceremony (during which Layla
rested her chin comfortably on the Governor's foot). "Layla's Law" makes it
illegal for any person or their dog to interfere with the use of a dog guide
or any other service animal, or for any person or their dog to injure,
disable or cause the death of a dog guide or any other service animal.
"Layla's Law" also makes it illegal for anyone to take unauthorized control
of a dog guide or any other service animal.

If someone is found guilty of violating this law, not only may they be fined
and/or jailed, they will also be required to cover all expenses for the
animal's training, health care or replacement, as well as any loss of income
to the disabled person resulting from the incident.

Snip snip 

This is from a blog in 2015.

Snip snip 

October 4, 2015

Article on Problems using Washington State Layla's Law, Aug 12, 2010- Trina
Baker

This is a very relevant article. It discusses the issues and problems that
face Guide Dog and Service Dog users after the law was passed. What do people
think about it? What do people think will happen after Bill 17 becomes Law?
Will a Government ID Card guarantee access for you and your Guide Dog to work
in Public? What regulations need to be put into place?

August 12, 2010
Law protecting service & guide dogs

I was part of the group that lobbied hard to obtain passage of Layla's Law in
Washington State.

The Assistance Dog Club of Puget Sound had one member who was an attorney,
and he wrote up the bill and all of our club worked to get it passed in the
state legislature. The idea was begun by Hy Cohen, for his guide dog Layla,
who had been threatened daily by the neighbor's dog.

We were the first state to pass such legislation and it has been copied by
many other states since then. When I later moved to Oregon, I worked with the
Guide Dog Users of Oregon to get a bill like Layla's Law passed in Oregon,
but we were opposed there by the dog food manufacturing companies, as the
contaminated dog foods were a big issue at that time.

The manufacturers did not want to be held responsible for perhaps $150,000 if
their bad food killed a guide or service dog. The Oregon bill failed because
of the dog food makers' opposition. We had strong support from the
legislature until the time that the dog food scare occurred.

Layla's Law holds any person, or that person's pet dog, responsible for
interfering with or injuring or killing a service or guide dog. The Law also
punishes any person who steals a service or guide dog. Once the court finds
the person guilty of himself hurting or interfering, or allowing his dog to,
that becomes a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on whether the person
intended harm or just wasn't paying attention. Repeated negligence rises to
felony level once the person has been warned.

Once the disabled person obtains a criminal conviction, he may then sue for
civil damages.

Layla's law was the first to attach more than $300 value to the dog. We made
the guilty person responsible for the cost to train a new dog (about
$40-50,000), plus the cost to care for the injured dog, plus the cost to
retire him and maintain him as a pet for the rest of his life,

plus the costs of finding human attendants to do the work of the guide or
service dog for all the time the disabled person waits for the new dog to be
trained (even if that's several years).

Layla's Law is a great law. Our troubles have been in getting prosecution.

1. We have great difficulty getting the county or state governments to pay
for the attorney to handle the case. Most attorneys will not take such a case
"on contingency", that they are paid with a share of the winnings, after they
win. Therefore, the disabled person has to pay the several thousand dollars
to the attorney to get the case to court.

2. We have found difficulty getting police to write thorough enough crime
reports so that a case can win in court.

My service dog and I were attacked by a loose pet dog. The attack caused
injury that later caused my dog to die. I could not get the county attorney
to prosecute the case, even though it was her duty to. I did not have the
money to hire a private attorney. The police attached low value to my dog
when I reported the crime and asked for an officer to come to the scene and
write a report. The police department sent their newest officer, just hired
out of the training academy. He didn't know how to write a report or how to
question a belligerent suspect.

My recommendation is to write Layla's Law for your province, and get it
enacted into law.

Then start educating the police force and educating the disabled people who
have guide and service dogs. Then educate the attorneys (perhaps through
their magazines) of your law and how they can collect significant winnings if
they will take a case on contingency. In the States, a contingency attorney
gets 30% of the winnings in any type of lawsuit. It would be wise to include
in your law the legal fees as something the perpetrator will have to pay for
if he is convicted.-that will make attorneys more willing to accept a case on
contingency.

And when you go to the attorney, make sure he understands how much money you
will be asking for, because otherwise he will assume he's only going to get
30% of a few hundred dollars.

Among people who have sued successfully, one thing they found helped greatly
is to have had photos and home movies of the dog while working, showing him
guiding across a busy street or pushing an elevator button or carrying an
object. You will be claiming that you lost all those services, so your dog
will be on trial to prove how valuable he actually was. This also will help
you get your bill passed if you can show pictures of what the dogs can do,
because pictures tell much better than words.

The best bribe I know of to get the legislators to pass your bill --meet with
them and let them pet your dog. It might be bad etiquette in everyday life,
but it tipped the scales for our group.

We took many types of dogs to the legislature to testify and then to meet
informally with the legislators after the session. The senators were
impressed with the dogs but otherwise not overly enthusiastic. After they got
to pet the dogs or shake hands with them, that did it

At the beginning of your testimony, have the leader of your group point to
each dog who is in attendance and recite what each dog does. Instead of
saying this is a hearing dog, say this dog tells his person when the
doorbell, the alarm clock and the fire alarm are sounding, and when a friend
is calling to his person. Instead of saying this is a service dog, say this
dog helps John walk without falling, picks up dropped objects, picks up the
dirty laundry, unloads the washer, and fetches the neighbors for help when
John is injured. You will be stunned at how little these educated legislators
actually know about service dogs. They don't see great value in service dogs
because they think they are mostly for companionship. Be sure to mention that
each dog is helping a person who, without that dog, would probably be in a
nursing home or other supervised housing that the government would have to
pay for. For the legislators who aren't particularly charmed by dogs, you
want to explain why the dogs are financially beneficial to the government
--they save the government a lot of money.

Trina

Snip snip 

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Web Site: http://www.nfbofmt.org <http://www.nfbofmt.org/> 

Live the life you want

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.

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