From the Jackson [MI] Citizen Patriot:

Michigan’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has accused a local school district of breaking the law by preventing a 5-year-old with cerebral palsy from bringing her service dog to school.

Ehlena Fry’s parents argue that her medically prescribed, certified service dog, Wonder, must accompany her to school in order to help her to become an independent member of the community. Ehlena’s IEP team in the Napoleon Community Schools concluded that the girl’s needs are being met by her full-time classroom aide.

“To force a 5-year-old girl with cerebral palsy to choose between her independence and her education is not only illegal, it is heartless,” said Michael J. Steinberg, ACLU of Michigan legal director.

Community members helped the Frys raise more than $13,000 last year to get the dog from 4 Paws for Ability.

The editorial board at the [Portland] Oregonian says schools should allow properly trained service animals to accompany kids with disabilities in the classroom. An excerpt:

Yes, school districts need strict policies in place so that families can’t abuse the system and classrooms don’t become menageries. But when a highly trained dog can help an autistic boy learn more and disrupt other students less, you’d think school officials would grab the dog biscuits rather than call the lawyers.

The editorial follows a report about an Oregon school district’s refusal to allow a 9-year-old boy with autism to bring his service dog to school. Scooter Givens’ family argues that the dog improves his access to education by calming him down.

From the New York Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with Youtube video of the commercial ‘It’s Good To Give Milk-Bone’:

A new $10 million ad campaign for Milk-Bone dog treats underscores a popular tactic in consumer advertising, in which companies seek to do well by doing good.

Del Monte Foods, owner of the Milk-Bone brand, is using cause marketing in an effort to give consumers a warm fuzzy feeling when they support a company that supports a worthy charity. The company is giving “a portion of the proceeds” from sales of the dog snacks to Canine Assistants, a Georgia charity that trains and provides service dogs to people with disabilities.

The television commercial features Jake Jeter, above, a law student who uses a wheelchair. Other aspects of the ad campaign are featured in newspaper ads, as well as on the Milk-Bone web site and in social media like Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and Youtube.

(Photo from Milk-Bone commercial)

From the New York Times:

Anecdotes about the benefits of companion animals abound, but there has been little research to date to document the effects of service or therapy animals on human health.

Now the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is embarking on an effort to study whether these animals can improve childrens’ well-being. The research was jump-started by a $2 million grant from the Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition in England, part of the Mars candy and pet food company.

People working with animals expect the research to back up their observations that animals improve the lives of people with chronic illness and disabilities. Family members of children with autism say animals can improve behavior, communication and socialization. Said one mother, “it’s almost like a cloud has been lifted.”

(New York Times photo)

See also:

Dog helps keep diabetic teen alive and well — [Tacoma, WA] News Tribune

From ABC News:

A couple in Fayetteville, NC, have lost their challenge to a city ban on hogs in a futile attempt to allow their 8-year-old son with autism to keep his pet pig at home.

Anthony Pia’s parents said the 80-pound black, pot-bellied pig helped the boy interact and behave appropriately, and that the boy regressed when the pig was sent away in response to complaints.

Council members voted in favor of upholding the ordinance, citing property values and foul odors as concerns.

See also:

• Dog attends class with autistic boy; battle looms—Associated Press
• Schools fight families over autism service dogs—Associated Press
• An aide for the disabled, a companion, and nice and furry—New York Times
• Oregon wants ‘dog friendly’ to be less so —New York Times

(ABC News photo courtesy of Bobby Tibbetts)

From the New York Times, a feature about Google’s T.V. Raman, a Silicon Valley software engineer who is called the computer industry’s leading thinker on accessibility issues. He built a version of Google’s search service tailored for blind users, and is now working on an accessible touchscreen phones.

Raman lost his eyesight at the age of 14. He can solve a Braille Rubik’s Cube in 23 seconds.

Instead of asking how something should work if a person cannot see, he says he prefers to ask, “How should something work when the user is not looking at the screen?”

As Raman designs software to make electronic gadgets and Web services more user-friendly for people with visual impairments, he is making improvements that will likely be useful for sighted people as well — like drivers who need eyes-free access to a phone.

(T.V. Raman with guide dog Hubbell and colleage Charles Chen, New York Times photo)

By Rebecca Skloot in the New York Times Magazine:

Service animals are showing up everywhere — not just guide dogs for the blind, but monkeys for agoraphobia, a goat for muscular dystrophy, a parrot for psychosis and any number of animals for anxiety, including cats, ferrets and pigs.

There’s now a growing debate over how to handle these animals, as well as a widespread suspicion that people are abusing the law to get special privileges for their pets.

The ADA requires that service animals be allowed wherever their owners want to go, but increasingly business owners, landlords and city officials are challenging the legitimacy of noncanine service animals. Animal owners are responding with lawsuits and civil rights complaints.

Related posts here.

(Jim Eggers and parrot Sadie in New York Times photo)