Yep. They just recently settled.
That or the dog is just a pet and the young women could do that any way. Since service dogs are essentially unregulated, youâll likely never know.
I do know. First, I kept my response short as not to bore people reading this thread. However, there were many more indicators of autism on display that I felt I didnât need to enumerate. Second, I have a lot of experience with people who are diagnosed with some type of autism; probably a lot more than the average person (and no, Iâm not a parent/sibling/relative of someone who has autism). So please donât tell me what I know and donât know. And please donât equate a young womanâs need for a service animal as the same as someone trying to pass off their Maltese as a âcompanion animal,â which are not regulated. Service animals are regulated in the state where I live.
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âGeorge says Brownâs signing of a new law allowing restaurants to decide whether to allow canines onto the patio is really overdue.â
All this law does is allow restaurants to decide whether they want to allow pets on their patio. It doesnât state that ALL restaurants with patios must allow pets. This is a big distinction.
Iâd say you donât actually âknowâ, you have an informed oppinion, which may well be correct.
But if we are going to pull out anecdotes, my experience has been different. While waiting at a dentistâs office there was a young woman in the waiting room who seemed to be autistic. She had a small âservice dogâ complete with vest with her, and she paid it no attention whatsoever as it desperately and nervously wound its leash around her chair legs. She was in another world, obsessviely stabbing at the screen of a smart phone two inches from her face, a hooddie over her head - which sounds almost normal enough for a teenager, but, as with your own observations in your anecdote, the behavior combined with others (such as constant rocking) was not that of a typical person. The dog, rather than helping her in any apparent way, was suffering from minor neglect by being hauled around by a person who paid it no attention. (The young woman left in company of a caregiver who took charge of the dog.)
Now, that annecdote doesnât in my mind prove that service animals are or arenât helpful to people with autism. And I hold your annecdote to the same standard.
Service animals, as I noted, are essentially unregulated. Business owners here in CA (and likely elsewhere) may not question the service animals authenticity. They can ask if it is a service animal and what it is trained to do, but they canât ask for proof that it is really a service animal, nor proof that it can perform those duties, nor proof that the person who has the animal needs or qualifies for such an animal, nor is there a state certification that they could reliably check anyway. And when sketchy seeming service animals are questioned, business owners get slammed in social media. (I was worried for the local Subway manager when he confronted two women with matching âservice animalâ chihuahuaâs on their laps. He said dogs werenât allowed, they pointed to the vests and he let them be. (Iâd bet several hats those were not legit service animals, but the manager could have taken a beating on FB were his questioning of the animals to have gone any further.))
So while faking a service dog may be a violation of regulations, it is un-enforcable in any meaningful way and a violation without any likely negative consequences for a faker. So, yeah, essentially un-regulated.
I donât understand why dogs are disallowed so many places in the first place. Dogs go in cafes in France and the Netherlands with few or no problems. Heck, even most British pubs allow dogs. The FDAâs own study showed the biggest risk was from people tripping over animals. Theyâre thus roughly as hazardous as briefcases. Obviously restaurants shouldnât be compelled to accommodate pets, but they should be allowed to.
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OMG - timely post. I was in a Hungry Jacks (Australian Burger King) last week and there was an overweight but otherwise totally able-bodied woman with a dog that had a vest and a âservice dog - do no patâ patch. I was immediately suspicious because it was a fat little dog (maybe part jack russel) not one of the breeds you usually see as service dogs and could not be expected to do anything of service.
I wanted to ask her what the dog did, but really I just wanted to get my food and leave. My doubts about the dog turned to eye-rolling rage when her friend asked (in a broad 'murican accent) the guy behind the register for gluten information about the food and got really annoyed when he didnât have the information. Iâd normally have some compassion for people trying to know whatâs in their food but I seriously doubt she was one of the 1% of people who are celiac and I also think itâs wishful thinking that pretty much anything in Burger King is going to be gluten free. Itâs not the worldâs job to know every detail about peopleâs latest eating fad.
Aaaanyway - next time Iâm definitely asking people what their âservice dogâ does.
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I spent the weekend at a comicon that had a âservice animals within reasonâ policy, and I saw two service dogs with vests and harnesses, one Pomeranian that wasnât even on a leash (to be fair, it was very well-trained but I was terrified someone would step on it), and a dude carrying his Angora rabbit around the crowded, noisy exhibit hall. People had asked on Tumblr if they could bring a boa constrictor and a miniature horse as service animals.
Also to be fair, there are service dogs for disabilites that arenât visible. Seizure detection and insulin sniffing are two that come to mind. But I think Iâm with you on the celiac. Most of my family has it, and they know exactly what they can and cannot eat at pretty much every fast food place. Lettuce-wrapped burgers, mostly. Sometimes the fries.
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Holy shit. Maybe someone can train a service animal for you - perhaps a parrot to ride around on your shoulder and bite you on the earlobe every time youâre a judgy asshole.
Either youâve got diagnostic abilities far superior even to the mythical Dr. House, or youâre a total small-minded jerk whoâs convinced your baseless opinions are a suitable substitute for actual information.
I hope you ask someone what their service dog does, and they âaccidentallyâ spill their drink down your pants.
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While your post is about protecting the rights of the disabled, you are showing where the problem is, because your attitude is even more extreme than @teapotâs, only in the opposite direction, and why fake service dogs are an effectively unstoppable issue under current regulations.
Seems to me that if Federal and State law require business to accommodate legitimate service dogs, but refuse all other animals (as in the case of health laws), then it should be incumbent upon government to provide a valid and reliable way for business owners to tell one from the other, such as registration of service animals. This should not be considered an unreasonable step considering that it is no more than we do for parking space placards - and there arenât even any health code issues in those cases, so the case is even stronger that service dogs should be government registered.
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That would be a busy parrot!
âOverweightâ was an observation, not a judgement. âAble-bodiedâ, Iâll admit, was a jerky assertion based on observation. Iâve never seen Jack Russels used as service dogs and generally your typical service dog is fairly healthy since itâs pretty easy to take care of an animalâs weight - the situation had two indications that the dog wasnât what one would consider to be a service dog.
It was definitely an American accent, again an observation, and youâd be kidding yourself if you donât understand that the majority of these foolish health trends start in and are pushed along by the behemoth American capitalist machine. 1% of people are celiac but 30% of Americans avoid gluten because âreasonsâ.
Mathematics would be on my side on the final sentence you took issue with since 3% (or 9% if you accept that 2% of the population are sensitive to it) of people who avoid gluten actually need to for health reasons. As manybellsdown confirmed (and as matches my experience of those who take seriously their gluten free diet) people who legitimately should avoid gluten typically know exactly what they can and canât eat and already have their favourite gluten free places or menu items memorised.
I might come across like a jerk but those things are what I thought and Iâm not going to pretend otherwise. I am all for service animals, just not people who wanna take their pet around for lulz. The more people abuse the system the more likely it is for those with legitimate service animals to be turned away or discriminated against. Iâm a person who loves animals and it wouldnât really bother bother me if everyone took their pets everywhere, but the practicality of that in a world where some people are terrified of or allergic to dogs is low. When does someoneâs right to have a service animal trump someone with a fear of dogs right to get around in public without fear?
PS Who is Dr. House? I donât watch garbage television.
The last time someone âaccidentallyâ punched me for something I said it resulted in their teeth âaccidentallyâ getting knocked out. Someone once âaccidentallyâ flicked a cigarette butt in my face so I âaccidentallyâ spat in his face. I welcome any vigilante making their point in the form of assault because I return in kind - but much, much worse.
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Hugh Laurie is not and will never be garbage! He hangs out with Stephen Fry and Rowan Atkinson, therefore heâs awesome.
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