Jun 25
Doing a disservice to Service Dogs
A recent Los Angeles Times article draws attention to a new amendment to the NYPD Patrol Guide which has expanded the definition of service animals to include those animals that assist people with epilepsy, heart disease, lung disease and other conditions, including mental disorders - in addition to seeing-eye dogs.
As assistants to people with disabilities, service animals are granted all types of access that normal pets are not…to restaurants, stores, public transportation - access that most pet owners would love to have. So, does this broader definition of a service animal make it easier for people to fraudulently pass off their pets as service animals? Of course.
Now personally, I firmly believe that if you take advantage of laws that were created to help people with disabilities by pretending that your dog is a service animal, you are banking a BOATLOAD of negative karma. But I know that some people think…what’s the harm in bending the rules a little if my dog is trained and well-behaved??
My husband feels that Oscar should be granted special privileges because he’s a therapy dog (NOTE: Therapy dogs are not granted ANY special privileges). Yes, it’s true that he went through pretty extensive training and is very well-behaved and it would be much more convenient for us if we could bring Oscar wherever we wanted - but we don’t NEED to bring him everywhere with us to be able to effectively function in society.
The problem is that taking advantage of the privileges that are granted to service animals, like Adele, undermines the laws that exist to help people with disabilities.
I think it’s terrific that authorities are acknowledging that service animals extend far beyond traditional service dogs for the blind. Maybe service animals need some kind of animal version of the handicapped parking permit…something to identify them as legitimate service animals that can only be issued to owners with disabilities.
What do you think?
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A little ranting here I see! I totally agree with you though! I think it is marvelous that the NYPD is expanding their definitions to included other types of animals that are necessary to join their owner in certain places. Moreover, it is such a shame that people use this as an excuse to bring their dog(s) places. I think that the worst thing for ALL dog and dog owners are those dog owners that do not take the time or effort to make sure their companion is well behaved. This applies to ALL dog and dog owners not just those trying to get away with having a “service dog.” How someone views dogs is so subjective based on his/her past experience. Therefore, it is up to each dog owner to make sure that his/her dog is well behaved and affable so that everyone has a great first encounter!
Comment by Liz — June 25, 2008 @ 2:09 pm
Interesting! As a person with disabilities (invisible) using a service animal, it’s about time that the NYPD gets up to date with the Federal law, the ADA that has been in affect since 1990. LOL. However even if they didn’t choose to change, the ADA prevails over any conflicting laws or those laws that provide lesser protection against discrimination.
Even though I have a service dog patch stating that my dog is a service dog it wouldn’t matter if I wasn’t a person with disabilities. As service animals really do not have legal rights. People with disabilities have the right to be accompanied by an individually trained service animal that performs tasks to help such individual.
Yes even with such a patch and easily recognized equipment some businesses will still come up and say No Dogs or No Pets allowed. Yes some places will even go further and state only Guide Dogs. While on the other hand, the same place a Guide Dog team was denied access along with any other type of service dog. With or without Identification. So the theory of having a special ID like the handicap tags wouldn’t wash. I was also denied access a couple of times(though not many) in which I formally complained and was taken care of.
We must also look at how many people abuse the system with such tags. Look at fake Drivers Licenses, ID thefts each year. So why not the same for service animal fake Id’s. Not to mention whom would give out these special Id’s. The government, schools, private trainers. Who? Then how many people with disabilities will we leave out of the equation such as psychiatric service animals. Being there isn’t any schools that train such at this time so people have to teach on their own. Not to mention that service animals have special tasks and these tasks varies for the benefit of the individuals needs. So many people cannot comprehend all the different types of service animals and all the different type of tasks within tasks.
The business do have the legal right under the ADA to ask if this is a service animal? Are you a person with a disability? However they cannot ask what type of disability you have though many will try!
Then we must also look at another factour in which makes additional issues as it’s not so clear to people. Under the FHA as well as the DOT they include Emotional Support Animals as being service animals. However even with the ADA restoration these animals are not Service Animals therefore they will not have the same rights under Title II and Title III of the ADA. But they (emotional support animals) do have the right in housing and transportation.
With those two laws adding ESA into the equation as being Service animals, people do not realize that these animals (ESA) cannot go into place of businesses under the ADA rules and regulations, (ie hotels, restaurants, hospitals).
Comment by on Call 24/7 — June 26, 2008 @ 8:48 am
Wow, thanks for your comments, on Call 24/7. I’m sorry to hear that you’ve had so many difficulties with uniformed businesses. Do you have any ideas on how the current situation could be improved?
Comment by anya — June 26, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
Sorry I didn’t get back with you right away anya. We had nothing but thunderstorms here so I wasn’t on much. I have been thinking about what you have asked here about improvement.
One big way of improving awareness and facts about the laws is to educate business staff, police, general public as well as other individuals with disabilities. Those with service animals and those without! Reason why is that there are way too many misinformation and misconceptions about service animals. What is and what is not! (eg. ID and certification papers).
Many schools will just say show these papers if confronted while the Dept of Justice which enforces the ADA states businesses cannot required ID’s and or Certification papers to gain access.
Many people including the disability communities are not aware of all the types of service animals that’s out there. Many people only go with guides, hearing and mobility. This is also caused by the lack of understanding from the state and local laws in which many are restricter or conflicting with the ADA. Some States laws on service animals excludes other types of animals not to mention the invisible disabilities. These same State laws will make more restrictions such as guide dogs must have guide dog harnesses. Hearing dogs must have orange capes and service dogs has to have packbacks. The term service dogs for the States means only for those individuals that are physically disabled. Letting many individuals out of the equation. However they intimidate people by claiming they violated the laws when in fact the ADA prevails over lessor or restricted laws.
The police officers are not aware of such because they only deal with their local area so they do not enforce the laws correctly. This is due to lack of education.
So we need to put the correct information out about people with disabilities using service animals as their medical aids and their rights. And now with the ADA Restoration factour there will be some changes of clarification but I will not go into that until it passes all the way through.
To know more about the different types of service animals and some basic tasks that they do I have a blog with such information in hopes to educate more people about all types of service animals. ( www.speak4serviceanimals.blogspot.com )
Comment by on Call 24/7 — July 1, 2008 @ 2:15 pm
Thanks again on Call 24/7 for the thoughtful response. I love the Who are they? category in your blog, it’s a great resource to clearly and concisely explain the definitions of the different types of service animals.
I also found your website http://www.animalsspeak.org/portal.php to be very informative, although the Nutro posts made me very nervous - that’s what Oscar eats! : (
Comment by anya — July 8, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
You are not the only one that is quite nervous when it comes to Nutro. When all those recalls came into play I totally refused to feed my dog any kibble. I went totally homecooking.
Thank you for your comments on my blog and website. You are most welcome to come and join us over there. We have lots of chat boards.
Comment by on Call 24/7 — July 11, 2008 @ 11:06 am