Good thing Harper’s not a monkey

That's Harper doing his thing at a nearby street corner.

If you have a disability and want to bring your helper parrot, monkey or snake with you in public, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. starting today, March 15, 2011, only service dogs and trained miniature horses are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. These ADA revisions were drawn up after some disability advocates asked the Department of Justice to crack down on people who were faking or exaggerating disabilities in order to get their companion animals into places of public accommodation. I wrote a post for today’s Bark Blog about all this – here’s an excerpt:

It really does make it harder for the rest of us when an animal or his handler’s poor behavior causes people to think badly about service animals. I’ve heard stories about helper parrots pecking at shoppers in stores, a therapeutic rat that quelled anxiety in his owner but caused anxiety to others, and comfort pigs going crazy on airplanes. In my own life, however, the only negative service animal stories that have affected me personally have been about…dogs.

The last time I went to a Cubs game I was stopped while trying to get into Wrigley Field with my Seeing Eye dog. The man taking tickets said he didn’t know if the dog was allowed. I pointed to the harness, told him she was a Seeing Eye dog. He was skeptical.

Turns out that a week earlier someone had brought their puppy to Wrigley, claiming the dog was a service dog. The dog misbehaved, and fans sitting nearby complained. After that, the people working the gates were told to scrutinize anyone coming in with a service dog.

Faking a disability to gain privilege is fraud. It also results in increased scrutiny of people with legitimate disabilities. You can link to the Bark Blog to read my guest post in its entirety. Bonus: there’s an awfully cute photo of Harper and me there, too – it was taken when we were just getting to know each other at the Seeing Eye.

New definition of service animal: only dogs allowed

If you have a disability and want to bring your helper parrot, monkey or snake with you in public, I’m afraid you’re out of luck.

That’s the first line of a guest post I wrote for The Bark Magazine’s blog about revisions made to the Department of Justice’s ADA regulations. The DOJ used to define

Dog Is My Co-Pilot

a service animal as “any guide dog, signal dog or other animal individually trained to provide assistance for the benefit of an individual with a disability.” Revised regulations signed by Attorney General Eric Holder last week define a service animal as “any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability.”

Notice the specific word “dog” in that sentence. Other species of animals, whether wild or domestic, trained or untrained, no longer qualify as service animals for the purposes of this new definition.

At risk of being labeled a species-ist, I confess I am happy to hear about the changes to the regulations. In my blog post for The Bark, I explained that when you travel everywhere with a dog like Hanni, you get an earful of stories about other service animals.

Helper parrots pecking at shoppers in stores; comfort pigs going crazy in airplanes; a therapeutic rat that quells anxiety in his owner but ends up causing anxiety to others instead.

Seeing Eye pioneers worked long and hard to open the doors and give our dogs public access. Opening ADA legislation to even more animals who may not truly be qualified could possibly ruin the good name our Seeing Eye pioneers have worked so hard to build over the years. My hope is that limiting the number of allowable species will stop erosion of the public’s trust in our well-behaved, helpful—and absolutely necessary—service animals.

The Bark posts blogs on its Facebook page and I’m bracing myself for the onslaught of comments. But hey, bring ‘em on. It’s worth it! The Bark has published a few of my pieces in their magazine before, and it’s a thrill to be connected with a magazine that also publishes stories by the likes of Ann Patchett and Augusten Burroughs. You can read my latest guest blog at The Bark’s site. Do me a favor, though. Be kind with your comments…!

Helper Parrots & Guide Horses: Where to Draw the Line?

Yesterday’s Day to Day programon National Public Radio (NPR) aired a story called Helper Parrots, Guide Horses Face Legal Challenges.

Day to Day, January 2, 2009 • Chances are you’ve seen a blind person accompanied by a guide dog.  But what about a guide horse, a service parrot or a monkey trained to help an agoraphobic?

These are just a few of the nontraditional service animals that are used across the country to help people with disabilities and psychological disorders.

As their uses are expanding, however, the government is considering a proposal that would limit the definition of “service animal” to “a dog or other common domestic animal.”

Day to Day host Alex Cohen interviewed Rebecca Skloot, the author of an article in the New York Times Magazine called Creature Comforts – Assistance Animals Now Come in All Shapes and Sizes.

Rebecca Skloot outlines why many people are upset about the pending law. Sometimes less familiar animals make better helpers, she tells Alex Cohen.The NPR story described how Sadie, a parrot, helps a man who suffers from bipolar disorder.  The parrot can sense when he is on the verge of a psychotic episode and talk him down. Richard, a bonnet macaque monkey, helps a woman get through the day without debilitating panic attacks.  And Panda, a miniature guide horse, guides a woman who is blind.

Skloot spent many hours observing how a miniature horse named Panda helped a blind woman named Ann Edie.  Even after all her preparatory research, Skloot was blown away.

“I could sort of envision how a horse could guide a person. But the level at which Panda guides her is amazing. In just a few blocks, I saw her maneuver around things that I, as a person that’s sighted, wouldn’t have thought of.”

When it comes to getting into airports, restaurants and other public places with a service animal, the ADA allows employees to ask a person if the animal is a service animal, and if the animal is required because of a disability. Documentation of the person’s disability or the animal’s training can NOT be required as a condition for providing service to an individual accompanied by a service animal.

In other words, people don’t have to prove they are disabled or that their pets are service animals in order to have those animals accompany them into a public place. All a person has to do is claim a disability and say their pet has been trained to provide assistance. No questions asked.

This is just one of many reasons the government is considering revising the definition of “service animal” in the American’s with Disabilities Act – it’s not simply because bigoted dog lovers want to keep other animals off the list.

A piece I wrote for The Bark about a teenager who sat next to me on a plane helps explain:

“I’m an only child. Rusty’s like a brother to me.”
Unwilling to have their German Shepherd fly as cargo on family vacations, her dad came up with a solution. “My dad wears sunglasses,” she said with a laugh. “He acts like he’s blind, and pretends our German Shepherd is a Seeing Eye dog.  He even, like, had somebody at the leather shop make one of those harness things for Rusty.”  She was really laughing now. Can you believe that?”

I could. In fact, this was the second time I’d been given a firsthand account of someone faking blindness to get a dog into an airport. I’ve heard stories, too, about people faking or exaggerating other maladies in order to get their animals on board with them.

“We are getting more and more complaints about service dogs,” a specialist on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) information line told me. She said that most complaints come from business owners. People with guard dogs, attack dogs, therapy dogs, companion dogs, and even security dogs are calling their dogs “service” animals to get them special privileges. “We just tell businesses to let the dogs in,” she said. “Otherwise they’re asking for a lawsuit.”

I guess “reasonable accommodation” is just a one-way street, then? Doesn’t seem fair to me.

Those of us with legitimate service animals suffer when others fake or exaggerate a disability so they can bring their pets wherever they go. Last year I was stopped while trying to get into a Cubs game at Wrigley Field with Hanni. The man taking tickets said he didn’t know if the dog was allowed. I pointed to Hanni’s harness, told him she was a Seeing Eye dog. He was skeptical.

Turns out that a week earlier someone had brought their puppy to Wrigley, claiming the dog was a service dog. The dog misbehaved, and fans sitting nearby complained. After that, the people working the gates were told to scrutinize anyone coming in with a service dog.

In addition to being despicable, faking a disability to gain privilege is fraud. It also results in increased scrutiny of people with legitimate disabilities. I’ve had this happen at Crate and Barrel on Michigan Avenue. And at Andy’s Jazz Club on Hubbard. At Jimmy John’s Sandwich Shop on State Street.

I was stopped at the door at each place. At the first two, the doorman checked with a supervisor before letting me through. At Jimmy John’s, they just kicked Hanni and me out. We haven’t been back.

The Seeing Eye is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. As the very first school in the US to train guide dogs for the blind, Seeing Eye pioneers worked long and hard to open the doors and give our dogs public access. I can tell you stories and stories of people who have faked blindness or other disabilities to get their pet dogs into public places. I have no problem allowing qualified service animals of any type – horses, monkeys, parrots — into public places with their disabled human companions. I just worry that opening ADA legislation to even more animals who may not truly be qualified could possibly ruin the good name our Seeing Eye pioneers have worked so hard to build over the years.

You can read more about the proposed legislation in Skloot’s article in The New York Times Magazine and see photos of her blog.

Hanni the Diamond Dog

 

Gus, Hanni and I--in front of the Hank Aaron statue outside Miller Park in Milwaukee.

 

Gus is always happy to be at a ball game--especially on his birthday.

 

 

 

A fourth grader raised his hand Friday and asked,” What happens when you go to Wrigley Field?” We were at Emma Melzer Elementary School, doing the “q&a” part of our presentation. Meltzer School is in Morton Grove, a northern suburb of Chicago. Like most north-siders, the principal -and many of the students – at Melzer are Cub fans. And sometimes Cub fans can’t imagine going to any other park than Wrigley. “You mean, how does Hanni get me to a baseball game?” I asked. After all, I told them, Hanni has been to five different major league parks with me. And as it happened, Mike, Hanni and I were leaving the next morning for Wisconsin – it was our son Gus’ birthday, and we were taking him to a Milwaukee Brewers game.

At all the parks Hanni and I have gone to together (Seattle, St. Louis, Milwaukee plus Wrigley and US Cellular in Chicago) we’ve traveled “sighted guide” – a method you might remember from reading my My Date with Billy Balducci post.

“But a lot of times the people I’m there with are all men,” I said. “So Hanni guides me through the women’s bathroom by herself.” They laughed and laughed at that one. It was a killer!

The question about Wrigley gave me an opportunity to talk about something serious, too. The only time Hanni ever went with me to a game at Wrigley Field, the man taking tickets said he didn’t know if the dog was allowed. I pointed to Hanni’s harness, told him she was a Seeing Eye dog. He sent me to a different gate. The man at the second gate wasn’t sure. He’d have to get a supervisor.

Turns out that a week earlier someone had brought their puppy to Wrigley, claiming the dog was a service dog. The dog misbehaved, and fans sitting nearby complained. After that, the people working the gates were told to scrutinize anyone coming in with a service dog.

“The guy who brought the dog in with them was pretending he had a disability, just so his dog could come along,” I told the kids. “And that’s not right.” I didn’t have to explain ADA law, or how long the Seeing Eye and other pioneering guide dog schools had worked to get access legislation passed, or what backlash means. The kids understood. And they agreed with me. “

That’s not nice!” one of the kindergartners in front said. She sounded troubled. That’s when I remembered. I hadn’t finished the story. The supervisor finally said we could go in, I assured them. “It just wasn’t right to make Hanni and me wait while everyone else got to walk right in.”

They agreed. After all, we might have missed batting practice. And everyone knows, duh, that batting practice is your best chance to get autographs. Or catch a baseball!