Doctors Over Prescribing 4-paws and a Wet Nose By Laura Attwood April 10, 2014
There seems to be an epidemic outbreak of people being prescribed emotional support pets in the Ketchikan area and there's an awful lot of therapists and psychiatrists transferring the suffering from a human in hurt to an innocent animal with no voice to protest. First of all, lets get one thing straight. Almost NONE of the dogs you see running around are "service dogs." Service dogs are specifically trained, generally by professionals, to perform a specific task to aid a person with a disability. These are generally seeing eye dogs, diabetic or seizure alert dogs, or dogs who aid persons with limited mobility in activities of daily living. You probably do not own one. If your doctor "prescribed it", you probably own an emotional support pet. It makes you feel good. It is not entitled to go to the grocery store, any community event, or run amok at The Plaza just because the doctor prescribed it. Let's refer to the Wiki definition of what protection an Emotional Support Pet receives in accordance with the American's With Disabilities Act of 1990: "ADA allows people with disabilities to bring their service animals in public places. However, the ADA only extends these protections to dogs that have been "individually trained" to "perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability," which is the definition of service animals under 28 C.F.R. § 36.104. Since emotional support animals are typically not trained for an individual's specific disability and since emotional support animals may not dogs, they do not receive the protections of the ADA. A public place can therefore deny an emotional support animal admission." This means there are about 5 dogs in Ketchikan that are permitted to enter businesses and the rest of you are just embellishing the "services" of your PET. And you're ruining it for everyone. There sure seems to be a lot of people "needing" emotional support animals. This is merely a loophole to get around the "no pets" rule many landlords have. You want a dog but your landlord prohibits them so you run off to your therapist, insist a puppy will make all of your problems go away, and they write you a prescription. Landlords, do your homework. If you really read up, you do have power to limit your "support pets" in your rentals. Now, to chastise the doctors "over prescribing" wet noses. Listen up so I can tell you just what you're doing. Eight times out of ten, you're merely transferring suffering from the person you're treating to an animal. What do I mean? I mean that you are not doing that animal a favor by "prescribing" it to someone with mental health issues. Many of these people are already living on a fixed income getting aid to survive. They're living in low-income housing, using food stamps to provide food for themselves, and their medical bills are paid by Medicaid. They have very limited disposable income. Guess what: it costs money to care for a pet. I've seen way too many instances of people needing the community to provide food for their pet because at the end of the month, there is no money left over from their little allowance left to care for the pet. Pets cost money. They need food, veterinary care, toys, training, and supplies. Dogs go hungry or are left with agonizing illnesses when the bank account shows that there is nothing leftover that month to provide care for their animal. And since food stamps don't cover kibble and Medicaid can't be cashed out at the vet clinic, the dog gets the raw end of the deal. What happens if a kind-hearted person doesn't come forward and deliver that bag of kibble that month? Have all of you who are "over prescribing" these dogs given thought and consideration to whether the person has the means to provide care? How do you sleep at night knowing that dogs are going hungry and are being left in pain because their owner is unable to provide them basic care? What kind of stimulation is that dog you prescribed to someone with major depression who is unable to get out of bed most days getting? And when they don't get out of bed to walk and stimulate the dog, the landlord is left with rancid, urinated on carpet because they got put up against a wall with your "prescription." To all of you hauling around your PETS, whether prescribed by a doctor or not, and calling them "service animals", shame on you. There is a huge market for people illegitimately registering pets and calling them "service animals", flashing badges printed on home computers while their pet sports a vest that someone made and shipped to you. I once boarded a bus in San Francisco on vacation, only to have a near miss with a Rottweiler that tried to bite me. The man in the seat said, "Don't worry, he won't hurt you. He's my service dog." Taken aback and startled, I said, "Oh, what does he do?" The man replied, "He's my drinking dog. He tells me when to stop drinking." After enduring several minutes of that dog growling and baring his teeth to the other passengers, I stepped off of the bus. Having worked a number of years with people with disabilities, I can tell you one thing for sure. Their lives are not easy. Their day is filled with obstacles and challenges too numerous for you to even wrap your mind around. Their caregiver along side them is challenged with tasks too numerous to name in an effort to get them through the day. Because of the constant and increasing abuse to the system of service animals and support pets, I'd say with certainty we are facing legislation of a federal database of registered REAL service animals which WILL require their handler to carry federal identification citing their dog is legitimate. Bringing along extra paperwork in daily activities or during travel to "prove your dog is real" is just another obstacles to the individual in need of the dog and their support staff. There will be registration paper work, badges and IDs to remember, and maintaining records-- all because those of you who want your pet to sit next to you on board the plane and called it a "support pet" to skip some fees abused the system. To those of you with emotional support pets providing them care and doing it right, may you be blessed and I hope your pet does help you. To the doctors whipping out the prescription pad without consideration, writing a prescription for neglect, lack of care, and hunger by prescribing a pet to someone with zero means to care for it, shame on you. And to those of you running around with a regular house pet, calling it a "service animal" GROW UP. I don't want to buy a can of mandarin oranges at the grocery store that your pet licked after it ate some duck feces in the parking lot on the way in. May karma catch up with you in 10 years and you find yourself in need of a genuine service dog, stuck filling out endless paperwork, registering it with the government, updating identification cards, and enduring a laundry list of maintenance records in conjunction with your disability... all because you abused the system and the government was forced to implement such rules so that I can avoid being bitten by a Rottweiler on the bus in San Francisco. Laura Attwood
Received April 09, 2014 - Published April 10, 2014 Viewpoints - Opinion Letters:
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