Should We Rethink the Concept of Service Animals?

Earlier, I provided an overview of the law regarding service animals. In that post, I parenthetically mentioned a fascinating and engaging New York Times article, “Creature Comforts,” which focuses on exotic creatures as service animals, including a monkey, miniature horse, and a parrot. That article was written by a well known journalist, Rebecca Skloot, who, by the way, has a wonderful blog called Culture Dish. Rebecca’s blog is definitely worth checking out because she has written follow-ups to the original New York Times article here, there, and over yonder, along with photos and videos of people with their exotic service animals.

A few months after Rebecca Skloot’s article was published, Joe Eskenazi wrote an article in the San Francisco Weekly creatively titled “Service With a Snarl.” In that article, we meet some of San Francisco’s service animals: Tita, a vicious chihuahua and an alleged service dog who has bitten people; Skippy the iguana who seems quite friendly enough; and Fiona the Mastiff who seems to have gotten in worse trouble than Tita. As we read through the article, we are graced by the presence of a few rats, snakes, and tortoises, that are allegedly service animals that assist people with various psychiatric disorders.

Rebecca’s article is largely about how these exotic creatures help people with physical disabilities and mental illnesses, as well as the legal and ethical issues associated with owning these exotic creatures as service animals. Joe’s article is concerned with how many of these creatures, exotic and domestic, don’t appear to be service animals at all (or at least, they are not very well behaved service animals); and even if they are not truly service animals, there’s little that the government can do about it.

Two articles. But one law — the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act is to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability. The law also provides that individuals with disabilities may be accompanied by their service animals in places where the public is invited.

One has to wonder if Congress anticipated that there would be service animals trained to help people who suffer from invisible diseases or mental disorders of various degrees? This would be an interesting research topic.

Caption: A man and a chicken look at each other face-to-face

When we think of service animals, we typically think of animals who are trained to perform a specific task or tasks to mitigate the person’s physical disability. Another way of describing it is to say that a service animal is an “extension” of one’s person. A guide dog (or miniature horse) is a blind person’s sight. An alert dog is a deaf person’s hearing. A monkey is a paraplegic person’s arms or legs.

But some people find it difficult to imagine how a service animal can be an “extension” of a person who has a psychological disorder or has no visible physical handicap.

Can an animal be trained to keep a mentally ill person from experiencing panic and anxiety attacks? Soldiers returning from Iraq experiencing post traumatic stress disorders have been assisted by so-called “psychiatric service dogs.” The evidence suggests that these dogs have helped soldiers returning from Iraq re-adjust and re-adapt to their new lives as civilians. Are they really service dogs or companion pets? It appears that many psychiatric service dogs have been trained quite well. There are plenty of stories illustrating that psychiatric service dogs do help soldiers with post traumatic stress disorder. In fact, USA Today and the Chicago Tribune recently reported that the U.S. Department of Defense is conducting a study to learn how these dogs actually help soldiers.

Can an animal be trained to save the lives of people who have no visible physical handicap? Recently, there have been a few stories about dogs trained to detect peanuts. You see, some children suffer from severe peanut allergies that could potentially result in death. (See this video about Kate Slobodian who is deathly allergic to peanuts, eggs, and dairy products.) In a 2008 article, a medical expert claimed that a cure for peanut allergy will be developed sometime in the next five years. In the meantime, there is high demand for “peanut sniffing service dogs,” and a few children are lucky to have their own “peanut sniffing service dog” by their side. These are dogs that are trained to smell peanuts from a distance and warn peanut allergy sufferers not to go to a particular area. One dog in particular, a Portuguese water dog, has received considerable press.

What about people with autism who have service dogs? Autism is a very interesting brain disorder with seemingly unexplainable origins. People with autism may have poor social development and poor communication skills. Some parents who have children with autism say that service dogs help improve social development and communication skills. (Read first hand perspectives at Assistance Dog for Autism.) Service dogs may also help prevent these autistic children from harming themselves. Service dogs for children with autism has become such a hot issue because some school districts are reluctant to permit autistic children to bring their service dogs to school. I discussed common arguments schools have against children with disabilities who want to bring in their service dogs in “Service Animals in the Schools.”

Caption: A young kid hugs her dog

In some ways, the traditional notion of service animals (the “extension” concept) seems overly restrictive. It is easy for blind, deaf, and physically disabled people to explain how their service animals can help by describing the specific tasks the animals perform for the handlers. The handlers can even give a demonstration. It is not quite as easy for children who have peanut allergies, but it’s do-able. But people with certain psychological disorders, such as post traumatic stress disorder, autism, or panic attacks, face an uphill battle; if they are not able to explain in detail what specific tasks their service animals can perform “on demand,” skepticism naturally tends to set in.

Some people might argue that maybe, just maybe, the “extension” concept is wrong. Perhaps we should be thinking about how disabled people and service animals “balance” each other out. This “balance” concept would seem to fit the mold between service animals and people who have visible or hidden health issues. But this doesn’t draw any lines, does it? In fact, any animal (mammal, reptile, amphibian) could bring “balance” or “harmony” in the human minds of those who own them.

The fact that the “balance” concept doesn’t draw any lines is not going to sit well with a lot of people, particularly business owners, lawyers, judges, and politicians. Those who agree that there should be lines drawn face two tough questions: Where do we draw the line, and How do we get there?

Part of the trouble of drawing lines is most people stick to the traditional notion of what a service animal is (i.e., seeing-eye dog for the blind, alert dog for the deaf, etc), but there are so many people with different types of disabilities of various degrees who genuinely benefit from their furry counterparts.

Another reason why we have trouble drawing lines is because we often disagree about whether certain conditions are “disabilities” at all. Is peanut allergy a disability? Is post traumatic stress syndrome a disability? When someone suffers from frequent panic attacks, is this a disability?

In light of the fact that there are more people with unique health issues, and given that there are animals who have been trained to assist these people in ways that we had not imagined ten or twenty years ago, perhaps we should rethink the traditional concept of service animals.

© 2009, Matthew Stoloff. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

1. Badly Behaved “Service Animals”
2. Service Animals and the Law
3. Calculating Damages and the Legal Value of Service Animals
4. Service Animals Now “Defined”
5. Service Animals in the Schools
6. The Year of the (Service) Dog
7. Service Animals in Training on Airplanes
8. Accommodating Service Animals
9. Are IEPs Necessary for Service Animals?
10. Service Animals, Tort Reform, and Layla’s Law