Over the weekend, a news story out of Texas about a man asked to leave a Walgreens store because of his service dog spread across the Internet. The important question is, should we be filled with righteous fury at the store, or at the dog-toting shopper? While asking the pair to leave could have been handled more graciously, the important question is whether the dog is a service animal at all.
The customer is a Marine veteran, who says that his dog is therapeutic. Providing comfort and companionship isn’t the same as being a service dog, though: a dog can be your best buddy and provide emotional support, but that doesn’t matter if it lacks training to perform a specific function other than just being a dog, such as alerting people to its owner’s seizures.
There is no national registry of service dogs, and another wrinkle is that the Veterans Administration isn’t currently using service dogs as a form of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder: if it did, it would provide the dogs and training, as well as veterinary care for the dogs. Some nonprofits are filling in the gap, providing specially-trained pups or training for the dogs that veterans might already have or acquire from a shelter.
PTSD service dogs do exist: they are trained to distract their owners when a stress reaction occurs or is imminent. Slapping an orange vest on your BFF and calling him a service dog doesn’t automatically make him one.
An attorney explained to Fox 4 in Dallas-Fort Worth that there are two questions it’s okay for businesses to ask someone with a purported service dog in their establishments: “Is that a service dog?” and “What is it trained to do?” A demonstration isn’t required, since that would be dangerous for dogs trained to detect seizures or low blood sugar.
Vet says he was asked to leave Walgreens because of service dog [Fox 4]
COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SERVICE ANIMALS IN PLACES OF BUSINESS [USDOJ]
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