Service Monkey at Epcot

TSA deals with EMotional Support Animals which can be almost anything and just require a note from a prescribing doctor. ESAs don't need to be trained for a task but get protection under most housing authorities and with the airlines.
To add, emotional support animals are not covered by the ADA, their interactions with the TSA would be related to the Air Carrier Access Act, which does permit "support" animals as well as service animals.
 
When we were in the parks this fall, we encountered a situation where it was pretty clear these people were abusing the ADA to bring a dog into the park.

While watching the fireworks from the side of the castle one night, this woman came walking by with a dog that began to lose its mind as soon as the fireworks started. The dog was actively trying to bolt from her and in a complete panic. The woman ended up having to pin this adult medium sized dog to the ground to get a grip on it before picking it up and walking away.

I'm sure even complety trained service animals might be a little nervous at the giant booms of the MK fireworks, a true service animal on duty shouldn't fly in a blind panic and try to bolt during them. This dog was old enough that it is unlikely it was in training, or if it was, they're not doing a great job of training it because it should have been exposed to fireworks a long, long time ago. The dog was acting like it was the first time it had ever seen them or been around them.

Orlando based Trained and Maintained(previously linked) starts taking their dogs to the fireworks shows at 8 weeks old.

Willow and Lottie were wonderful on their first outing, floppy, relaxed, apart from those vibrating happy tails, and their response to their first fireworks was as expected–we get the other dogs playing and eating all around them and they instantly get over the noise. They played the entire time during Epcot booming. They stay in a stroller most of the time so they can nap–puppies sleep all day and this is a good way to acclimate them in a safe haven.
We have incredible success with these techniques! Our dogs sleep through fireworks. Most of our dogs do, anyway…some of our dogs enjoy the fireworks so much that they will sneak out of their down-stays so they can get a better look and will watch them! They are hilarious! Onlookers who expect dogs to be frightened are astonished when our dogs doze off, and are even more amazed to see some of the dogs following the explosions with interest. You can clearly see their heads turning to watch the path of the fireworks and see the bright lights.
http://trainedandmaintained.com/trained-and-maintained-service-dogs/our-training-locations/
 
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Sorry I am dog lover and totally back service animals but it has gotten out of hand. Several of my DD adult friends buy the vests on eBay and take their untrained dogs everywhere. LAst trip we were at MGM and witnessed a "emotional" support German shepard having a complete melt down and becoming agressive towards its young adult handler outside Mermaid where the show let out. It could not handle the crowd. I felt pysically sick for the animal because it was completely trapped by people and you could see it was in trouble.

During college, 25 yrs ago, I was recruited buy a training program being an animal science major. It took them 2yrs to train their animals with first year the dog being fostered. The dogs went through 10 levels the second year where the would be culled at every level if they didn't pass. Training was in "mock" situations and only at the latter levels when they were pretty much bomb proof did they train in the real world. At the time there were very few training programs but they were legitimate now anyone can say they train service animals. We have a news story here of a family that paid 10,000 for a service dog and it's not evern house broken and it bit their child.

It needs to be regulated.
 


The Americans with Disabilities Act really needs to be revisited. The first link below is to the Q&A from the ADA web site, that I extracted some information.

"When encountering an animal, positioned as being covered by the ADA, there are two questions you may ask. 1. is this a service dog related to a disability and 2. what work or task is the dog trained to perform?"

Please note that you are not required to have any kind of certificate, professional training, vest or outside marker, prescription or any other proof that this is a service animal. The second link is a pretty good write up by the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. The paragraph that may apply here is:

"Business and property owners who ask the wrong questions or unlawfully deny access to a support or service animal risk discrimination lawsuits. Unaware or confused about the rules, some employers, landlords, airlines and businesses will simply say “yes” to requests when they could say “no” — or vice versa."

I attend various meetings held at churches, and emotional support animals can and do cause disruption. Not being trained in legal matters, but investigating this issue for some time, gives me pause to intervene. The thought of being tied up in court over the issue, defending myself, means that little challenge is given.

Sources:
https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html
http://www.sfchronicle.com/business...rvice-and-support-animals-are-and-7881055.php
 
Or a parent and all parents would get in free when they have their child with them.
I LOVE this :). Yes, Dad of FOUR.... no denying that BOTH parents are "Service Animals" :).

Thankfully? Mine are grown :). Now waiting to become "Grandpa Service Human" :).
 


Orlando based Trained and Maintained(previously linked) starts taking their dogs to the fireworks shows at 8 weeks old.

http://trainedandmaintained.com/trained-and-maintained-service-dogs/our-training-locations/

Regardless of organization, most of the real services animals out there start training basically from birth. Dogs have different developmental stages and training organizations take advantage of these various windows to expose and acclimate the animals as appropriate to as many sights, sounds, smells, etc as reasonably possible. That way the handlers can shape the animal's response to environmental stimuli from the get go so that they can ultimately graduate an impeccably trained bomb proof dog that is going to allow someone to live a more full, independent life.
 
I fly a ton for business, and the number of animals on planes gets more and more common - support, paid for, emotional comfort, etc. I wonder how the airlines and places like WDW balance people that have extreme allergies vs. the needs of the people with animals, like at shows in WDW or in the confines of an airplane. I don't have a position on this (or a dog in the hunt as it where), but I have wondered before.
 
I fly a ton for business, and the number of animals on planes gets more and more common - support, paid for, emotional comfort, etc. I wonder how the airlines and places like WDW balance people that have extreme allergies vs. the needs of the people with animals, like at shows in WDW or in the confines of an airplane. I don't have a position on this (or a dog in the hunt as it where), but I have wondered before.
That is something interesting to think about. In the context of airplanes for things like peanuts they don't serve them on the plane if someone is allergic to them.

I don't have any experience with this next part so just wondering out loud: with animals..if it was a service animal would they ask the passenger who owns the animal to bump to another flight or the passenger with the severe allergies to bump to another flight? Or would they just try to switch seats to try making the exposure potentially lower?

IMHO though WDW is a far cry from an airplane in regards to your thoughts. WDW doesn't just stop serving peanuts for those allergic to it or stop serving other foods but they offer a different menu items prepared in a different way than other foods due to food allergies.
 
OK.......

I can't tell you how many insurance claims I saw just on small toy breeds. However, usually the pay out was around $1,000 or so. It wasn't nearly as common to see from larger breeds.

Chihuahuas are ones that bite a lot. In all honesty most of people get info from the media which can vary from real life and there is also a bias in reporting bites. Do you hear about the small dog that bites a person and broke the skin or do you hear more often from the larger dog (currently it's the pitbull but it was previously the german shepard) biting someone?

I didn't mention anything about deaths and in fact I did actually say larger breeds (that's a lot to do with their size, jaw muscle, etc) tend to cause more extensive damage soooo yeah think you misunderstood that point.

This thread isn't about breed specific stuff. I put that in there (meaning size aspect) because the poster seemed to have a gut reaction due to the size of the dog that was coming closer to their dog (which they also mentioned the size). If that small dog the poster had was a chihuahua or a lhasa apso or a jack russell terrier versus a big dog like an Old English Sheepdog or as someone mentioned upthread a Newfoundland I would be much more concerned with the chihuahua or lhasa apso or a jack russell terrier.

-Let's agree to disagree and move on to the actual topic of the thread-

I'm sorry, but you're wrong, despite whatever apocryphal evidence you have. Here is a table listing dog bite statistics from 1982-2014:

Bodily harm Child Victims Adult Victims Deaths Maimings % of total dog population
Pit bull 3397 1355 1312 295 2110 6.69%
Rottweiler 535 297 141 85 296 2.76%
Husky 83 51 8 26 27 1.04%
Wolf hybrid 85 70 5 19 49
Bullmastiff (Presa canario) 111 46 41 18 63 0.02%
German shepherd 113 65 41 15 73 3.72%
Pit bull-mix 206 78 54 12 115
Akita 70 44 22 8 52 0.07%
Chow 61 37 18 8 40 0.01%
Doberman 23 12 9 8 12 1.70%
Unidentified 81 16 29 8 32
Boxer 64 19 23 7 31 1.25%
German shepherd-mix 45 28 14 7 30

If this is too hard to read, here is a link to the study:
http://www.dogsbite.org/dog-bite-statistics-study-dog-attacks-and-maimings-merritt-clifton.php

As you can clearly see, pit bulls and rottweilers consist of only 9.45% of the total dog population, but account for the vast majority of bites in all categories from bodily harm to deaths and maimings.
 
That is something interesting to think about. In the context of airplanes for things like peanuts they don't serve them on the plane if someone is allergic to them.

I don't have any experience with this next part so just wondering out loud: with animals..if it was a service animal would they ask the passenger who owns the animal to bump to another flight or the passenger with the severe allergies to bump to another flight? Or would they just try to switch seats to try making the exposure potentially lower?

IMHO though WDW is a far cry from an airplane in regards to your thoughts. WDW doesn't just stop serving peanuts for those allergic to it or stop serving other foods but they offer a different menu items prepared in a different way than other foods due to food allergies.

Your thoughts about who they'd bump are also my questions about confined spaces at WDW. How does that work in the stretching room of HM? I mean it seems unlikely that you'd have a situation of both concurrently, but then given the number of places like that, the number of occurrences in a day...who would have to wait?

Anyhow, sorry for drawing strawmen...
 
That is something interesting to think about. In the context of airplanes for things like peanuts they don't serve them on the plane if someone is allergic to them.

I don't have any experience with this next part so just wondering out loud: with animals..if it was a service animal would they ask the passenger who owns the animal to bump to another flight or the passenger with the severe allergies to bump to another flight? Or would they just try to switch seats to try making the exposure potentially lower?

IMHO though WDW is a far cry from an airplane in regards to your thoughts. WDW doesn't just stop serving peanuts for those allergic to it or stop serving other foods but they offer a different menu items prepared in a different way than other foods due to food allergies.

Your thoughts about who they'd bump are also my questions about confined spaces at WDW. How does that work in the stretching room of HM? I mean it seems unlikely that you'd have a situation of both concurrently, but then given the number of places like that, the number of occurrences in a day...who would have to wait?

Anyhow, sorry for drawing strawmen...

I believe the service dog wins out because I don't think allergies are formally recognized under the ADA but the ADA flat out says that a service dog has to be allowed.

Using the peanut example there is no law saying that an airline that has prior knowledge of a peanut allergy can not serve peanuts. Some actually write flat out that they will not and can not guarantee someone has a peanut free plane ride. I believe the allergy issue is due to the fact that there is no way that someone can 100% guarantee that you won't come in contact with your allergen. With dogs for example if you are allergic it is usually to their dandruff or hair follicles. How can an airline possibly ensure you are on a flight free of that? Sure they could say no dogs not even service dogs but really the people who are on the flight may have dogs at home so could have allergens on them that would make your flight difficult. Same with food allergies. They can only stop themselves form serving the allergen they can't stop others from eating it or having it on their person. How would they ever be able to stop someone from having a PB sandwich before they even boarded the plane?

Another big what if that I've heard is what if a diabetic has only PB crackers to help regulate but the flight has someone with a peanut allergy. Diabetic crashes and needs the PB crackers but they were told not to use them because the flight has someone with a peanut allergy. Now what do you do force the diabetic to eat something potentially unfamiliar or at charge or let them have their crackers so they don't crash. The end of the point was that in every situation someone loses out in a potentially dangerous way.
 
I believe the service dog wins out because I don't think allergies are formally recognized under the ADA but the ADA flat out says that a service dog has to be allowed.

Using the peanut example there is no law saying that an airline that has prior knowledge of a peanut allergy can not serve peanuts. Some actually write flat out that they will not and can not guarantee someone has a peanut free plane ride. I believe the allergy issue is due to the fact that there is no way that someone can 100% guarantee that you won't come in contact with your allergen. With dogs for example if you are allergic it is usually to their dandruff or hair follicles. How can an airline possibly ensure you are on a flight free of that? Sure they could say no dogs not even service dogs but really the people who are on the flight may have dogs at home so could have allergens on them that would make your flight difficult. Same with food allergies. They can only stop themselves form serving the allergen they can't stop others from eating it or having it on their person. How would they ever be able to stop someone from having a PB sandwich before they even boarded the plane?

Another big what if that I've heard is what if a diabetic has only PB crackers to help regulate but the flight has someone with a peanut allergy. Diabetic crashes and needs the PB crackers but they were told not to use them because the flight has someone with a peanut allergy. Now what do you do force the diabetic to eat something potentially unfamiliar or at charge or let them have their crackers so they don't crash. The end of the point was that in every situation someone loses out in a potentially dangerous way.
Thank you for your insight on that. That is actually true now that I think about it. They announce (at least in my experience) when they won't be serving peanuts on a flight due to a peanut allergy but in no way do they forbid other passengers from eating peanuts or having sandwiches for example with peanut butter. That is a good point about protected status for the service animal and not protected status for allergic reactions.
 
Ok, I've owned dogs that I loved very much, but I cannot understand why some people want to take their animals everywhere with them. Why would someone want to take care of a pet at wdw at all, let alone want to so badly that they lie about the pet being a service (or emotional support) animal? When I'm at wdw (or anywhere in public, really), I want to be able to enjoy that place, not worry about my pet causing trouble, making a mess, strangers harassing it,... It also seems cruel to subject animals to large crowds and so much stimuli.
 
Ok, I've owned dogs that I loved very much, but I cannot understand why some people want to take their animals everywhere with them. Why would someone want to take care of a pet at wdw at all, let alone want to so badly that they lie about the pet being a service (or emotional support) animal? When I'm at wdw (or anywhere in public, really), I want to be able to enjoy that place, not worry about my pet causing trouble, making a mess, strangers harassing it,... It also seems cruel to subject animals to large crowds and so much stimuli.

One thing is that some people don't care if their pet causes trouble or makes a mess. They see their pet as their family or child and want them at the parks with them no matter if it isn't good for the dog or other people. I'll still never forget the Labrador that was pulling it's handler through DHS and actually broke free from her so it could chase and try to kill a squirrel. The sad thing is they looked like they could actually benefit from a well trained service dog but in reality this pup would not have made it through any service training program since it was reactive to small animals. Yes a Labrador is a retriever but the ones used as service dogs understand they can't chase other animals while they are "on duty" and the puppies that don't learn that are quickly removed from programs and adopted to families who don't need a service dog but would love a dog.
 
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One thing is that some people don't care if their pet causes trouble or makes a mess. They see their pet as their family or child and want them at the parks with them no matter if it isn't good for the dog or other people. I'll still never forget the Labrador that was pulling it's handler through DHS and actually broke free from her so it could chase and try to kill a squirrel. The sad thing is they looked like they could actually benefit form a well trained service dog but in reality this pup would not have made it through any service training program since it was reactive to small animals. Yes a Labrador is a retriever but the ones used as service dogs understand they can't chase other animals while they are "on duty" and the puppies that don't learn that are quickly removed from programs and adopted to families who don't need a service dog but would love a dog.
Ha, I don't even wanna take my kids with me lots of places, and they're obviously humans who can comprehend and appreciate wdw!
 

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