WOW! New Service Animal Definition Violates Rights!

Definition of "Service Animal" was changed on July 23, 2010.

On Friday, July 23, 2010, Attorney General Eric Holder signed final regulations revising the US Department’s ADA regulations, including its ADA Standards for Accessible Design. The official text was published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2010. Revisions on how a service animal shall be defined are as follows:

This final rule was published in the Federal Register on September 15, 2010 - and will come into effect in six months on March 15, 2011. What this ruling means is that the government has defined a “Service Animal" as any dog that is individually trained to provide assistance or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability. While other species of animals regardless of being wild or domestic species, trained or untrained, are not to be considered service animals any more for the purposes of this definition.

(Note crafty caveat allowing for miniature horses to be sometimes considered in some instances - see below?!?!)

The new definition also speaks to the work or tasks performed by a service animal that must be directly related to the handler´s disability. Examples of work or tasks include, but are not limited to, assisting individuals who are blind or have low vision with navigation and other tasks, alerting individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing to the presence of people or sounds, providing non-violent protection or rescue work, pulling a wheelchair, assisting an individual during a seizure, alerting individuals to the presence of allergens, retrieving items such as medicine or the telephone, providing physical support and assistance with balance and stability to individuals with mobility disabilities, and helping persons with psychiatric and neurological disabilities by preventing or interrupting impulsive or destructive behaviors.

The crime deterrent effects of an animal´s presence and the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship have been excluded as these tasks are not deemed to constitute work or tasks for the purposes of the new definition.

WOW! Can this decision be anymore injurious and insulting to the mental health movement in our modern society?

What about the US government's promise to promote personal safety of our vulnerable members in our society? Under this new legislation even service dogs that help provide some sense of protection and feelings of security and safety not to mention emotional support for a person with a disability have been eliminated. 

Are we so naiive to assume that the criminal element will not take advantage of this decision? 


On another front - this new legislation discounts the value of emotional support a service animal provides for someone with a disability. Since when has emotional support and comfort become deemed a luxury rather than necessity especially for a person with a disability?

Can ignorance of non-visible disabilities be any less blatant by this new policy and those that ruled in its favour?

Key changes include the following:

1. Only dogs will be recognized as service animals.
2. Service animals are required to be leashed or harnessed except when performing work or tasks where such tethering would interfere with the dog's ability to perform.
3. Service animals are exempt from breed bans as well as size and weight limitations.
4. Though not considered service animals, businesses are generally required to accommodate the use of miniature horses under specific conditions.

It will not take long for this caveat to be overturned with a discrimination prima facie case based on disability by someone using a helper monkey or another type of domestic intelligent animal that has been trained and certified to assist with specific needs. 

However, what will be the financial, temporal, emotional and physical costs to everyone concerned?

Oddly enough, during the period of this regulatory reform taking effect, the existing service animals of all species continue to be covered under the ADA regulations.

How generous of them to throw the disabled community a few morsels of time to adjust and prepare for a life alterting change. Did these legislators really think things through properly?

After all, once this legislation takes effect on March 15m 2011 - what is a person with a service animal other than a guide dog expected to do with it...Give it away? Discard it like a piece of refuse that is no longer of value? Of course not. They can simply continue to enjoy the assistance from their service animal in private. 

Tell this news to a 17 year old boy that became a quadraplegic in a car accident two years ago, and who after multiple surgeries, exhausing months of physical therapy not to mention emotional recovery regained a new lease on his life when he started to work with his new assistane helper monkey. Try telling this young man that after getting a taste for  a more indendent life he now will not be able to be accompanied with his helper monkey into a public place. 

How is this any different from telling a person that is blind to leave their white cane outside the store while they come inside to shop.    

That's right! The expectation is that these people with disabilities using service animals other than guide dogs are to just stay at home incubated behind their four walls where their service animals can continue to assist them. However - not in a public forum!

Has society really regressed into the early 1900's where people with disabilities are not to be seen or heard in public anymore?

It is quite evident that this new legislation set the new precedent of moving our disabled communities back inside their fortress where they are granted limited rights in private!

What happened to people with disabilities having the freedom to choose about their care and to lead more independent lives by going to work, doing their shopping, visiting friends, and leading full social lives?

This new US legislation is an insult not only to society's intelligence but on an ethical level as it violates human civil rights and freedom of choice! 

These policy and legislator that allowed this new ADA revision to pass have clearly NOT thought things through or they have and they just don't give a hoot. Regardless, shame on them and on whoever supports this move!

Existing policies that were clarified or formalized include the following:
1. Dogs whose sole function is “the provision of emotional support, well-being, comfort, or companionship” are not considered service dogs under the ADA.
2. The use of service dogs for psychiatric and neurological disabilities is explicitly protected under the ADA.
3. “The crime deterrent effects of an animal's presence” do not qualify that animal as a service animal and “an animal individually trained to provide aggressive protection, such as an attack dog, is not appropriately considered a service animal.”

These previously existing policies are already in effect. For additional information about this legislation visit the following links:

Final Rule for Title II:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleII_2010/reg2_2010.html

Title II Fact Sheet:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/factsheets/title2_factsheet.html

Text of Revised Title II Regulation:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleII_2010/titleII_2010_withbold.htm

Final Rule for Title IIIhttp://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleIII_2010/reg3_2010.html

Title III Fact Sheethttp://www.ada.gov/regs2010/factsheets/title3_factsheet.html

Text of Revised Title III Regulation:http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleIII_2010/titleIII_2010_withbold.htm