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Note: Scroll down to read about he Americans With Disabilities Act

Service dogs, More than meets the eye: Businesses must let canine helpers in

By DEBBIE GILBERT
The Times
GAINESVILLE, GA

Not every animal that assists a disabled person is a Seeing Eye dog. These
days, there are dogs trained to help people with all kinds of disabilities.

Sometimes the people are in wheelchairs and their condition is obvious. But
some have hidden disabilities, and you would never guess that they need
assistance.

That's the case with Gainesville resident John Ward. A former funeral home
director, he has suffered from epilepsy since 1973, when he fell from a two-
story building and fractured his skull.

For the past eight years, Ward has been accompanied everywhere he
goes by Mara, a certified service dog trained by Michigan-based Paws
With A Cause.

"She can detect when I'm about to have a seizure, by sensing changes
in my body chemistry," Ward said. "She pokes me in the leg to let me know."

There is no way to prevent a seizure. But at least Ward can make sure he's
in a safe place when it happens.

Then Mara does something that is quite extraordinary. She goes to
the nearest person, attracts their attention and tries to persuade them
to follow her back to Ward.

If the first person does not respond, Mara is trained to go to the next
person, and to keep trying until she finds someone who is willing to help.

But it's hard for many people to understand why someone with epilepsy
would need a canine helper. Unlike the guide dog who wears a harness
and pulls a blind person along, Mara's role is not immediately apparent.

This puts Ward in the position of constantly having to justify the
dog's presence.

"I've sort of jokingly thought of putting on dark glasses (to pretend to
be blind)," he says.

According to both Georgia law and the federal Americans With
Disabilities Act, service dogs must be allowed inside any place that
serves the general public, including restaurants, grocery stores, hotels
and public transportation.

Yet Ward still finds himself confronted by business owners who think
he has no right to bring the dog inside their establishment because he
isn't blind.

"She wears a service dog jacket, and I carry a card that explains the law and
says this dog is registered with Paws With a Cause," Ward said.

"But that doesn't seem to mean anything to some business owners,
especially in some of the more rural areas. There have been times when
the police ended up being called, and even the police officers were not
familiar with the law."

Laurie Wentworth, a restaurant inspector with Hall County Environmental
Health, said she has received calls from restaurant owners who feared
allowing a dog into their business would create a health hazard.

"I have to explain the law to them, that they cannot refuse to serve a
customer just because that person has a service animal," she said.

Wentworth added that some restaurateurs assume that the service animal
will behave like a pet dog, running excitedly from one table to another,
jumping up on people and making a nuisance of itself. But they don't
understand that the animal is a "professional."

"These dogs are usually well-trained and very predictable," she said. "They
typically just lie there at the owner's feet, and they don't come into contact
with food."

Deb Davis, spokeswoman for Paws With A Cause, said the nonprofit has
served more than 2,000 clients during the past 28 years.

"We've never heard of a negative incident," she said. "These dogs go
through at least six months of intensive training, and they are extremely
well socialized and screened."

And yet, the hassles that Ward has experienced are not that unusual
for people with service animals.

"It's more common than we'd like it to be," Davis said. "One reason is
that guide dogs (for the blind) have been around for more than 75
years, but the assistance dog industry started only about 25 years ago.

"Also, some of our clients are upright and mobile, and they look just
like someone who's out walking their (pet) dog."

Bob McGarry, director of the Disability Resource Center in Gainesville,
said there needs to be more education.

"We need the public to know that service dogs are for people with all
types of disabilities," he said.

Also, McGarry said, business owners should know that the law does not
force them to put up with bad behavior, either canine or human.

"If the dog is creating a nuisance or problem within the business, it is
legal for you to ask them to leave," he said.

But you can't bar them on the presumption that they might create
a problem, McGarry said. He added that under the law, you can't
even force a person to provide documentation of their disability.

He said if someone is having difficulties with a business, it's best for
them to contact a disability rights organization that can help to smooth
out any misunderstandings.

"Better to take that approach than to sue," he said.

But some cases do end up in court.

"We've had a few clients who had to sue national business chains in
order to defend their civil rights," Davis said.

Even though these corporations have policies of not discriminating
against the disabled, she said, individual employees or franchise owners
apparently did not understand the rules.

"In most cases where there were misunderstandings, the proprietor
of the business was not a native of the United States," Davis said. "Most
often the person was from an Asian country, where cultural perceptions
about animals may differ from ours."

But Kit Dunlap, president of the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, said
there are plenty of home-grown business owners who probably don't
know the rules either.

"The mom-and-pop businesses are the hardest ones to reach with
that type of information," she said. "It's almost impossible to educate everyone."

But Ward said once people meet Mara, a flat-coated retriever with a
sweet personality, they realize she's not a threat to anyone.

"Ninety percent of people in Gainesville know me or my family one way
or another, because we were in the funeral business," he said. "The places I go
on a regular basis, everybody knows Mara, and there's never been a problem.

"But when I go outside my usual circles, I still encounter people who have
never seen a service dog."

Contact: dgilbert@gainesvilletimes.com; (770) 718-3407
Originally published Monday, September 3, 2007

What the law says

The Americans With Disabilities Act sets the following rules for service animals:

Businesses that serve the public must allow service animals to go anywhere
that customers can normally go, including restaurants, hotels, grocery
stores, public transportation, theaters and hospitals.
Businesses can ask what tasks the service animal is trained to perform,
but they cannot ask about the person's disability.
A service animal can be removed from the premises only if its behavior is
out of control or it poses a direct threat to someone's health or safety.
(If a person on the premises has allergies or is afraid of animals, that is
generally not considered a valid reason to remove the animal.)
Businesses that sell food cannot refuse to allow service animals even if
local health codes normally would prohibit animals in such places.
Businesses cannot charge a disabled person an extra fee just because
they have a service animal. However, if the animal actually causes damage,
the customer can be required to pay for it.
Those who violate the ADA can be fined, and may also have to pay
restitution to the disabled person.
For more information, call the federal ADA hot line: (800) 514-0301 or visit
www.ada.gov.

Posted on SHARE Yahoo group - Sept. 3, 2007