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)

From the New York Times:

Unlike federal and state law, which explicitly prohibit asking about or demanding proof of a disability, a vague New York City law allows businesses to challenge people who use service animals. For those whose disabilities are not plainly evident, this disparity can lead to discrimination and embarrassment, advocates say.

They report incidents in which others challenge their right to use a service animal and demand proof of their disability.

“We’re the last minority that it’s permissible to treat this way,” said Cissy Stamm, who is partly deaf. “You never know when someone’s going to look at you, and make a decision that you’re a criminal and you don’t belong where you are, or they have to double-check to see if you’re a real person with rights.”

(New York Times photo)

By Robert Pear in the New York Times:

The Bush administration is about to propose far-reaching new rules that would give people with disabilities greater access to tens of thousands of courtrooms, swimming pools, golf courses, stadiums, theaters, hotels and retail stores.

The proposal would substantially update and rewrite federal standards for enforcement of the Americans With Disabilities Act, a landmark civil rights law passed with strong bipartisan support in 1990. The new rules would set more stringent requirements in many areas and address some issues for the first time, in an effort to meet the needs of an aging population and growing numbers of disabled war veterans.

More than seven million businesses and all state and local government agencies would be affected.

… [The proposal] is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, with 60 days for public comment. After considering those comments, the government would issue final rules with the force of law.

Already, the proposal is stirring concern. The United States Chamber of Commerce says it would be onerous and costly, while advocates for disabled Americans say it does not go far enough.

From Newsday:

Defying a state agency’s order to comply with New York’s human rights laws, a Westbury principal refused to allow a deaf student to bring his service dog to school.

… The school’s refusal to let Simba attend classes with Cave sets up a possible showdown with the state Division of Human Rights, which on Monday told the district to change its policy on service animals.

The school district superintendent said the district will appeal the ruling.

Earlier post: New York says deaf student may take service dog to school

From the New York Times:

More than a year after the East Meadow School District in Nassau County barred a deaf high school student from taking his service dog to school, a state official ruled on Monday that the district had violated the state’s Human Rights Law.

John Cave Jr., who is deaf, was barred from taking his service dog, Simba, to school, but the state overturned the ruling.

(more…)

By Gerry Braun in the [San Diego] Union-Tribune:

After McDonald’s told him twice in one day that his guide dog was not allowed in the restaurant, a San Diego disability activist called the cops — and a columnist. He wanted to make sure no one else would ever be subjected to similar treatment.

“It was like a bad movie. Unbelievable,” he told me. “The obvious hostility and outright digging-your-heels-in obstinacy of these people blew my mind. I’ve heard about it before but never encountered it.”

The restaurant owner has promised changes.

From an Associated Press story in the Boston Globe:

Patty Cooper, Vermont woman, wants to use a miniature horse to pull her wheelchair. But the Central Vermont Community Land Trust, which owns her housing complex, is not sure it can accommodate her request that the horse move in to a stall in her living room.

(more…)