To tell the truth, if I were put in charge of all the difficult questions over where people should be allowed to take their animals, I'd rubber-stamp 'em all "approved." But I still shake my head in dismay over a lawsuit brought under federal fair housing laws to require a school to accommodate a "therapy animal" prescribed to a student to supply her with "emotional support and attachment (reducing symptoms of depression), and physiological and psychological benefits." The school bent over backward to accommodate her, too, insisting only that she couldn't bring her therapy animal into class or into food service areas. Now they've agreed to pay her $40,000.
Still, I say: bring all the therapy animals on. I'm going to enjoy restaurants, doctor's office visits, movie theaters, and even plane rides a lot more if they're chock-full of animals. I'd like to see a lawsuit over a therapy boa constrictor, or perhaps an elephant. Elephants are a sure cure for depression and attachment disorders in my book.
7 comments:
My only beef here is the safety of the animal in the hands of one so needful of emotional support and attachment.
Still, I remember my grade school days. Pets--from hamsters to guinea pigs to squirrels to snakes to...--were common at Show and Tell. Given where many of us lived compared to the school's location, that usually meant the animals were at school for the day.
I think GVSU overreacted to having the pet in class; I think they were entirely justified in saying no to food handling areas. If Velzen is so dependent on her pet that she can't be without it for a couple of hours at a time, I have to ask where her nurse is.
Eric Hines
I love elephants.
That said, I can see the practical dangers in taking my Personal Elephant (is that anything like a personal watermelon?) with me to class :p
I know what would happen to a nice fat guinea pig that appeared in my food service area. Pig fricassee.
LittleRed1
http://www.lyrics.com/please-dont-bring-a-tyrannosaurus-rex-to-show-and-tell-lyrics-joe-scruggs.html
Just an irreverent question... where does her right to a service animal conflict with another student's right to not be around that kind of animal? I've known people who get terrible histamine reactions to animal dander, and given how overboard schools go on peanut allergies and the like, would that potentially be an issue?
I had a better attitude about this kind of thing, before I went to college. College is a dumping ground for people of a certain age that nobody knows how to handle. And anybody who assumes that emotionally impaired college kids take good care of their pets hasn't seen what I've seen.
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