{"id":97551,"date":"2018-10-11T15:52:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T21:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pet-or-service-animal-the-distinction-matters\/"},"modified":"2018-10-11T15:52:27","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T21:52:27","slug":"pet-or-service-animal-the-distinction-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pet-or-service-animal-the-distinction-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Pet or service animal? The distinction matters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sue
Sue Garlick, a special education teacher in Cortez, talks about the effects that her dog Mochi, a 7-month-old labradoodle who is an autism service dog, has in building a rapport with her students in the classroom. Garlick and Mochi attended a training Tuesday at the Durango Community Recreation Center about the legal requirements for service and assistance animals.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Sue Garlick needs to connect with her students, but it\u2019s not always easy. As a special education teacher in Cortez, building a rapport with her students can be the difference between effective education and a chaotic classroom.<\/p>\n

Now, after two decades of teaching, Garlick has found a means of connecting with her students that no human could facilitate: her dog, Mochi.<\/p>\n

Mochi is a service animal, a 7-month-old labradoodle with 100 hours of training. He fills a specific role: helping to calm students who are overwhelmed and providing a means of social connection that does not come naturally to her students with autism.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has given me a whole new opening with the kids,\u201d Garlick said of having her dog in the classroom with her. \u201cI used to have to work hard to build a rapport with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mochi is one of countless service animals in the country \u2013 including canines and mini horses \u2013 that have been trained to perform specific tasks for people with a disability. These animals are not to be confused with support animals, which may help an individual with stress or depression but not with a specific task, said Martha Mason, executive director of the Southwest Center for Independence<\/a>, an advocacy group for people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

For people with disabilities, these animals can be a lifeline that must be with them at all times, Mason said. That means service animals often travel with their owners into restaurants, grocery stores and other establishments that otherwise don\u2019t allow pets. These animal are allowed in these spaces because they are often desensitized to them, something Sue Mooney works to do with the dogs she trains as service animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cDurango is such a dog friendly town that we can bring them to restaurants, library and doctors offices,\u201d Mooney said.<\/p>\n

While service animals are not a new phenomenon \u2013 think seeing-eye dogs \u2013 it seems that the general public has taken notice, and they want in on the privileges that come with owning a service animal, Mason said.<\/p>\n

A Google search for \u201cservice animals\u201d produces ads for registering a pet as a service animal. Some local restaurant owners have expressed concern about patrons claiming they have a service animal when they don\u2019t just so the dog can gain entry into the establishment. Some people claim to have a service animal so they can take the animal into hotels, onto airplanes and even into court hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople like the idea because I guess it\u2019s cool to have a service dog,\u201d Mason said. \u201cIt\u2019s cool to be able to take your dog in a restaurant with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of the confusion around the issue has to do with the distinction between service animals and emotional support animals, a line that is often confused by the public and business owners, Mason said.<\/p>\n

The distinction is this:<\/p>\n

A service animal performs an action for an individual who cannot do it themselves. That could be anything from guiding a person who is blind to alerting someone with diabetes if their blood sugar is too low or high. And service animals, per Colorado law, can be a dog or a mini horse, and nothing else.<\/p>\n

To further complicate the matter, there is no national or state registry for service animals, meaning there is no state-sponsorship to verify the legitimacy of a service animal, Mason said. And just because a dog is wearing a service animal vest doesn\u2019t mean it qualifies as such, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that physical act of doing something for the person that makes it a service animal,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n

Emotional support animals have different allowances under the law. While emotional support animals do not count as pets when it comes to housing \u2013 meaning landlords cannot charge fees for them \u2013 they do count as pets when it comes to public spaces. That means restaurant owners can deny entry of an emotional support animal because the animal is legally a pet, not a service animal, Mason said.<\/p>\n

Business owners skeptical of whether an animal is a service animal can legally ask two questions: Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability and what specific task does the animal do for you. But these questions are restrictive, said Joseph Marinan, manager of the Grassburger on Main Avenue. While the restaurant promotes itself as dog-friendly, health codes keep animals from being anywhere food is prepared or eaten.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love being pro dog and dog friendly, but it does cause great confusion when people assume that dogs are allowed in the restaurants,\u201d Marinan said. \u201cIt\u2019s an ongoing battle.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Durango Natural Food Co-Op, the problem doesn\u2019t come with animals but with those people who don\u2019t have them, said Kamaljit Punia, marketing and outreach manager. Some customers complain that there are animals in the store, but all the store\u2019s management can do is explain the allowances under the American Disabilities act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is this growing trend,\u201d Punia said of people with service animals. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s mostly just doing damage control to our customers who don\u2019t have support animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while businesses do not have the authority to outright reject a service animal, they can ask a misbehaved animal to leave, even if it is a service animal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gone around downtown Durango, and some of the stories that I\u2019ve heard have been pretty ridiculous\u201d Mason said. \u201cSomeone said it was their service dog and the dog was on her table eating off her plate. There\u2019s no way that was a service dog.\u201d<\/p>\n

For people with service animals, those who abuse the system only make it more difficult for those who actually need an animal to help them, Mason said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are not doing the disability community any service saying they have a service animal (when they don\u2019t),\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n

While Garlick said she doesn\u2019t take her dog, Mochi, out in public situations \u2013 his place is in the classroom \u2013 she said people who claim their animal is a service dog when it is not do a disservice to people who really need it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is disheartening to think there are some people who would go out in the community and say that the animal has a job that the dog doesn\u2019t do,\u201d Garlick said. \u201cIt would be great if people could be really honest about what they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

allow people to claim special status for their pets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[2045,13,445,4259],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-disabled","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-newsletter-sign-up"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97551"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}