The young, perfectly healthy looking guy ahead of me in Panera Bread walked his fifty lb. dog to the front of the line - I can't tell you the breed since I don't know dogs - and was immediately told that the dog had to go. "Um, I have an anxiety disorder", he replied. The cashier turned around to consult with the manager, but people were still waiting to order, and soon it was conceded that the customer and his service dog/best friend could stay for lunch. And they did.
The Chicago Tribune reports that similar incidents are cropping up on airlines. Passengers dread having their pets locked up in a kennel in the cargo section, and airlines charge hefty fees for the service, so some of them are taking advantage of a legal loophole allowing service dogs of disabled people to ride in the passenger cabin free of charge; but in these cases the disability is "emotional distress" rather than, say, blindness. Many of these passengers pay a licensed therapist for the certificate of need required by airline gate attendants, and for an expensive vest for their "service animals".
From the Tribune story:
"It's definitely gotten carried away to the point where people are taking advantage of the system," [Atlanta flight attendant] Williams said. "It's hard when someone is following protocol and they're not allowed to take the animal out of the cage, but others use the loophole to have an animal sit on their lap."
The story mentions that some fellow passengers and advocates for the (real) disabled are annoyed with the game-playing and lax enforcement. However, others perhaps side with the late Harry Nilsson, who famously sang "I'd take my puppy everywhere, la-la-la I wouldn't care. We'll stay away from crowds, signs that said 'No friends allowed'".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @04:58AM
No, it is easier to force everyone else to bend to your will. Thankfully, other than the specific laws dealing with housing and air travel, ESAs are not given special status. For example, it is perfectly legal under the ADA to kick someone out of your restaurant for their ESA. True service animals are defined as being either dogs or horses that are specially trained to assist the person do whatever vital activity they cannot on their own. So, your emotional support animal doesn't count, but the PTSD dog trained to react to your anxiousness or the autism dog trained to prevent wondering is.
Do note that state laws can different, (for example, my state also recognizes helper monkeys) but almost all of them require the animal have specific training to respond and assist a recognized disability. This requirement almost always excludes ESAs.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday November 17 2016, @05:20AM
the autism dog trained to prevent wondering is.
Tell me more about this "autism dog". Sounds like a threat to philosophy, if you ask me, as a philosopher.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @05:36AM
Many soylent posters have such dogs, supporting their confidence and helping them be incurious.
(Score: 2, Funny) by aristarchus on Thursday November 17 2016, @05:53AM
This explains so much! Thank you, AC! I will report this immediately to the Amalgamated Union of Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries, and other professional thinking persons. (For those Soylentils with the aforementioned dogs, this is a very subtle reference to Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I recommend you read, even though the movie version was not exactly Vogon poetry, although it did include Vogon poetry. )
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday November 17 2016, @04:26PM
but the PTSD dog trained to react to your anxiousness or the autism dog trained to prevent wondering is.
Why on earth would you want to prevent autistic people from wondering about things? What's wrong with that?
Next thing you know, we're all going to be required to have implants to prevent us from thinking improper thoughts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @07:57PM
That's an error on my part. I meant to use the word "wandering." Kids with autism can get distracted by loud noises and wander around and ignore their caregivers, they also have the tendency to "bolt" in stressful situations, usually around traffic. You can see some of the training dogs get here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nxgtc5vYTo&list=PLipwG5kEXgI2xWjwLtUQJ6uVJ8rccQpY2 [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Friday November 18 2016, @05:36AM
That's an error on my part.
Yeah, we all knew that. We were just ragging on the typo. Perhaps if you get a typo-preventative support animal? These are usually called "editors" and are notoriously hard to train.
But it is cool that actual support animals can help autistics. Man's best friend, and all that.