Today’s Edumacation: Working Dog Do Not Pet
A Facebook friend of mine shared Drew Lynch’s (a comedian with a stutter) video on a restaurant experience with his service dog. While Drew is a comic, his message on service dogs is an important one, though often times ignored by many who do not understand the tasks these animals perform allow people with disabilities to live life more independently. (At the bottom of this post is a snippet from the ADA’s requirements on service animals.)
For my blind friends, the text to Stella’s thought bubble (which add to the humor) are directly below the video.
Enjoy!
Doggy thought bubbles (upper right text only):
1. Clean comedy here.
2. No, we weren’t.
3. With the mostest?
4. Think this through.
5. I need a throne.
6. Shots fired.
7. No you weren’t.
8. Zzz
9. Huh?
10. At least I don’t have a stutter.
11. Blah. Blah. Blah.
12. False
13. No F***s Given.
14. Duh.
15. Sorry not Sorry.
16. Not *whatever* you want.
17. I will kill you.
18. Trained to kill.
19. Damn straight.
20. Hired assassin.
21. I’m not.
22. *siiiiigh*
Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.