"Creature comforts"

As a person that is on a waiting list for a mobility service dog I am all to familiar with the broken system that is service and therapy animals. The article talked a lot about the ADA and portrayed the ADA in a slightly negative connotation; talking about the loose regulations and about the horror story with the companion dog that was killed by another "service animal".  With the laws the ADA currently uses it offers a lot of ambiguity and this was put in place to help protect the disabled people. Now however it has ended up hurting us.

As long as a person can answer these two questions "What tasks does your animal do for you?" and "Is that a service animal" then you can take a dog almost anywhere. The ADA does not require any documentation, this is to help people that cannot afford a professionally trained service dog to still have the ability to live a full life. This is one of the biggest problems I have with the system. Two years ago I got my rabbit, Bunny certified as a pet therapy animal through an organization called Pet Partners. I had to pass a two hour long written test, Bunny had to pass an individual test and then we had to pass a series of 35 different team challenges before we got our badge. With that badge we still have to get written permission, and a bunch of other documentation before we can set foot in a hospital, school, or even a jail.  A service dog has to answer two questions, and the person asking can't even ask detailed questions without fear of a lawsuit.

As I said before I am on a waiting list for a service dog so I have no issues with service animal's, my parents were very weary of me applying because of the struggles that people face every time they go outside. I have also looked into the ADA laws extensively and from everything that I have read, the biggest problems are people that abuse the system. You can go on Ebay right now and get a vest for your dog and then pass your dog off as a service animal, which is such a low thing to do; people taking advantage of others that suffer so much already. It goes even deeper then that though, I know every time someone sees me they think I either make up my conditions or that I look super fashionable with my cool rings. No one looks at me and thinks that I practically live in the hospital. This is because I have an invisible illness, and a very rare one, something most people have never heard about. So when people with fake service animals claim to have some invisible illness it destroys all credibility for us. Many of my friends that have service dogs say that they would be just fine providing documentation for their animal because then they wouldn't have to deal with the struggle that accompanies every interaction. One of my friends once said that if we had something tangible that people could see and hold it would make it much less ambiguous, much more real.

This Article addressed many of the issues that accompany service animals, and it helps to lend credibly to our lives but it also fails to catch some of the the nuances of this powerful and heated debate. Therapy and Service dogs sit in a very shady area, and this might never change.