Should You Be Allowed to Take Comfort Animals With You?
Utah, always quirky, is having some trouble with its legislation regarding animals that serve therapeutic purposes. From the Salt Lake Tribune:
Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, and several supporters say they are not against the animals, which have a soothing affect on owners who may suffer from emotional or psychological difficulties.
But Dayton says the law needs to be rewritten to differentiate between those animals and service animals such as guide dogs, which have unique training and certification that therapeutic animals may not.
“If you have a note from a marriage counselor that says you need to have a cat with you because you’re so stressed not having a companion — that meets the [current] requirement,” Dayton said.
…
For Chyrisse Haydon of Clearfield, an 8-year-old Chihuahua-poodle mix named Gizzmo soothes her anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, which she suffers as a result of her experiences during the war in Rhodesia decades ago.“If I don’t have him with me, I don’t leave my house,” she said.
But critics complained Tuesday about the lack of specifics on shots and training and the vagueness of the law.
At Brigham Young University, the University Accessibility Center receives about one therapy animal request per month, and most are approved.
“So long as a mental health practitioner says it would be helpful, we’re pretty much bound by that,” said director Michael Brooks.
It’s an interesting debate with all kinds of serious implications, yet I found two passages very personally meaningful:
1. “Legislators had laughed on hearing that one college student asked to bring his sugar glider, an animal that looks like a flying squirrel, to campus.”
Okay, hello? They don’t look like flying squirrels! You’re talking about my Champ, Buster and Rosie, so watch it. Does this sweet face, peeking out from a robe, look like a menacing flying squirrel? Please.
2. “Most of the requests involve dogs and cats, although hamsters have joined the list.” And what’s wrong with that? Here’s a photo of my hamster, Popcorn, thinking: Can I come with you to work? Please?
liz | 11:37 AM | alternative treatments, cute fix
LIz,
Bring Popcorn to work with you. the Hamster, not Orville Redenbacher.
Can I bring my therapy cat to visit PW and cheer the troops?
I’m torn about this issue–I think it’s important to have public support of people’s emotional well-being. However, I have experienced being around people and their companion versus guide animals. The animal (in this case a dog) was not well-trained or well-behaved. He continuously approached other people, unrestrained by his owner, and repeatedly bothered people who were uncomfortable with dogs. He was extremely disruptive (this was in a classroom setting) and the owner made no efforts to control his pet, insisting that it was a therapy dog and thus he had every right to have the dog there and let it wander around. I think there needs to be more regulation of companion animals, because people in work and school settings at the very least (commerce locations might be different) deserve to have some expectation of a well-behaved workplace where they will not be subjected to animals that may bother or scare them or trigger allergies.
In September 1997 I adopted a female cat I named Pushkin. Don’t ask. I turns out that she was empathic and during that terrible winter following my separation, she was my source of comfort and consolation. A bipolar drunk with a cat…weird but it worked. I’d cry, drink, and hold the cat. Then the cat would jump down, I’d lose interest in the glass, and get on with the night. When Pushkin died in September 2006, I was inconsolable for two weeks. She’d been my best friend, and I turned out to be the only human she actually liked. I still miss my wonder-kitty.
It would be a huge comfort to me to bring my dog to work everyday. I KNOW I would be less stressed throughout the day which would equal better concentration.
I have severe public anxiety and bipolar with depression being the main component.
The big issue with emotional support animals vs service animals is the training or lack of training. A service animal must be individually trained to perform tasks in which will benefit a person with a disability. This includes psychiatric service animals. (eg panic attacks, PTSD, Bipolar Disorder). Whereas an emotional support animal does not need to be trained for specific tasks. However these animals (ESA) must have basic house manner training and is under control.
Some animals could be considered a threat (massive threat) such as a snake which many not a few people have phobias. Or alters a business by size in which businesses have the right to refuse.
Although when it comes to DOT and the FHA Emotional support animals are covered by those laws but not by the Federal ADA law. Which brings me to the controversy of the Amendment with more restrictions to trained service animals. Because too many individuals are coming in with many different types of exotic animals in which one cannot be totally sure that these animals have the right temperament of being around lots of various types of humans not to mention the different types of noises and smells and they are not trained service animals.
Not every animal could be a service animal due to these factours. I have personally cut my cost with several dogs, mini horse for them not having the right temperament as they were way too stressed out. And that was through many hours of training.
So if emotional support animals are included out in public which I think also the difference of having doc. This will become confusing to businesses as they would start violating more with people with service animals that do not need to show proof. Along with the fact that being no majour training is involved how much if any evaluations are being done to make sure emotional support animals have the right temperament?
I would personally not have an issue with ESA if on that one factour that not only do they have to be 99% reliable in basic training but they should also have the right temperament to handle stressful situations. What happens if a child runs up and pulls on the ear of said animal? Can this animal be reliable not to bite the child? As service animals must not do! What if there is a big bang or even a chemical smell would said animal be able to cope and stay calm while calming their partner?
Of course I know many psychiatric service animal teams in which these animals are trained for those individuals that has panic attacks, Majour Depressive Disorder, Autism, etc). Even though they do calm people with disbilities they still are trained with specific tasks such as Autism dogs are trained to guide the child away from traffic similar to guide dogs.
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