“Creature Comforts”

This article by Rebecca Skloot, confronts the issues surrounding people having animals help them live their daily lives as normally as possible. Skloot does a very good job with the descriptions of the people and the animals. She pulls at the readers’ heartstrings and causes them to think things like “Who would break up this relationship” and “These people need these animals to survive”. At least that’s what I found myself thinking while reading the article.

As I was reading the article it became abundantly clear to me that for the owners like Ann Edie, Jim Eggers and Debby Rose, their animals have become a major part of their lives and are an integral part of their survival. I think the article could have focused more on the other side of the issue. It should have given examples of service animals that have harmed people or caused an actual health crisis to humans. These situations were mentioned but no examples were given. The article seemed biased towards the disabled people and their animals.

Since people appear to take advantage of the system, I understand why there needs to be stricter regulations but as Frieden said “Many people try to make this issue black and white-this service animal is good; that one is bad-but that’s not possible, because disability extends through an enormous realm of human behavior and anatomy and human condition.” I included that quote because I thought that it really encompasses the main message of the entire article and it’s what makes the issue so complex. This article was published an the beginning 2009, and I am wondering if their has been anymore decisions or debates surrounding the issue.