cool article!

[hopefulvet21]

There was an article in NY Times magazine this month on all kinds of cool service animals...including a guide miniature pony Thought you guys might like it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/magazine/04Creatures-t.html

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[TurtleLover]

Wow, that was a really interesting article to read. Thanks for sharing it! I personally would be shocked to see a guide miniature horse, but hey, if it works, why not!

I can't believe there is no "official" certifications for guide/therapy animals. That would greatly improve people lying about their animals. I don't think there should be a limit on what kinds of animals, but instead better regulation on how they can become service animals. But more research should still be done on health risks for such animals like macaques, horses, etc. We wouldn't want to harm anyone elses health either.

 

[hopefulvet21]

i agree turtlelover.

(bumping my thread because I still maintain that this article is cool and i want more people to read it)

 

[Pandacinny]

I'm a little disturbed by the story of the woman with the macaque. I think there should be limits on the kinds of animals allowed full access to public places - especially for old world monkeys. They can carry a lot of dangerous diseases, most notably herpes B virus, which may not cause the monkey to show any symptoms, but can kill people. Also, primates can be very aggressive - even with people they've known and been relatively docile with for years. They aren't domesticated animals like horses or dogs. So yeah, I definitely side with the health board on that one.

 

[elefante7]

Thanks for posting this, hopefulvet. It was really interesting and really made me think about both sides.

 

[pupsforseeing]

I can't believe there is no "official" certifications for guide/therapy animals. That would greatly improve people lying about their animals. I don't think there should be a limit on what kinds of animals, but instead better regulation on how they can become service animals. But more research should still be done on health risks for such animals like macaques, horses, etc. We wouldn't want to harm anyone elses health either.

Unfortunately, it is way too complex for such a simple solution As a guide dog puppy raiser who deals with access issues on a regular basis and has to pay the price for people who label their ill-behaved pets as "service animals", I wish there could be some cut and dry required certification. However, the whole point of the ADA is non-discrimination and equality. I have met several extremely well behaved self-trained, "self-certified", if you will, service animals (along with a heck of a lot of poorly trained ones). Such restrictions would end up hurting people who play by the rules and legitimately use animals to "mitigate a disability" (as definied by the ADA).

In the meantime, I think it is the responsibility of all "animal people" to educate pet owners and people who may not understand the effects them passing off their pet as a service animal has on those people who truly rely on these animals. I cannot tell you how many people in the veterinary profession have asked me where they "can get one of those jackets" for their dogs. Grr. Sorry, touchy subject for me...off my soap box

 

[guppy73]

A different article on service animals, one that I came across yesterday:
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11431594

Anyone else hear about this???

 

[Pandacinny]

Wow, that's awful!