Tag: service dogs

PAWS Act Becomes Law Not a Moment Too Soon

Just a few days before the war in Afghanistan finally came to an end this week, President Biden signed into law the PAWS Act, aka the Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers for Veterans Therapy Act.  The timing couldn’t be better.

The PAWS Act requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to launch a $10 million, five-year-long dog training therapy program to provide service dogs to veterans suffering from PTSD. Amazingly, this will be the first time in U.S. history that the VA has paid for providing these important service animals to veterans.

“We commend the White House for supporting this bill as a critical step in combatting veteran suicide, and we’re confident in the path ahead for service dogs ultimately becoming a covered VA benefit to veterans with PTSD,” Rory Diamond, CEO of K9s For Warriors, said in a press release. K9s for Warriors is the country’s largest provider of trained service dogs to military veterans suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain injury and/or military sexual trauma.

It’s a tragic statistic that about 20 veterans die by suicide every single day. Nearly 90,000 veterans died by suicide between 2005 and 2018.

Could service dogs help prevent this? Veterans with PTSD who had been paired with service dogs had less suicidal ideation and greater symptom improvement than veterans paired with emotional support dogs, according to a 2021 VA study.

The dog training therapy program will begin on Jan. 1, 2022. Per the PAWS Act, the VA must provide the following:

  • Eligible veterans will be able to receive dog training instruction from nongovernmental accredited 501(c)(3) nonprofit service dog training organizations, such as K9s For Warriors.
  • Those veterans will be taught positive reinforcement dog training for skills that help their PTSD symptoms.
  • Best of all, when the training is completed, the veterans will have the opportunity to adopt the dogs they trained.

“In communicating with veterans and their healthcare providers, it’s more imperative than ever to embrace the lifesaving impact of a service dog and to raise awareness for this treatment option as a proven method for mitigating debilitating symptoms of PTSD and suicidal ideations,” Diamond said.

Here’s hoping the pilot PAWS Act training program will be a huge success. From now on, the VA should provide service dogs free of charge to any veterans who need them.

Photo: K9s for Warriors

Hooray! US Dept. of Transportation Says Delta Airlines Can’t Ban Pit Bull Service Dogs

In response to a growing number of passengers bringing aboard questionable emotional support animals, last year several major U.S. airlines changed their policies regarding these and service animals allowed on flights.

American Airlines, for example, prohibited hedgehogs, chickens, ferrets, snakes and some other rather unusual critters. JetBlue only allows dogs, cats and miniature horses aboard as emotional support animals. Southwest Airlines allows emotional support dogs and cats on leashes.

Unlike any other major airline, in June 2018 Delta Airlines banned all “Pit Bull-type” service and emotional support dogs from flights.

This controversial ban was “the direct result of growing safety concerns following recent incidents in which several employees were bitten,” according to a statement at the time from Delta. In one of those incidents, two flight attendants were bitten by a dog identified as a Pit Bull.

What’s interesting is that a Delta passenger was mauled in 2017 by an emotional support dog identified as a Labrador/Pointer mix — yet the airline banned neither of those breeds.

So instead of doing the sensible thing and taking action against the owner of the dog in the most recent biting incident, Delta decided to punish hundreds of dogs and their responsible owners. Breed bans and breed-specific legislation (BSL) unfairly single out dogs, usually Pit Bulls, based on their looks instead of their behavior. It’s sometimes referred to as “breedism.”

Because BSL is so unfair and has proven to be ineffective in increasing public safety, it’s opposed by almost every major animal welfare organization. The heads of both the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) quickly released statements condemning Delta Airlines’ new policy.

Prohibiting Pit Bulls only serves to spread “false and life-threatening stereotypes,” said Matt Bershadker, CEO of the ASPCA. “Every dog is unique, even dogs within the same breed, and their behavior is influenced by many factors.”

Kitty Block, president and CEO of the HSUS, agreed, pointing out that Delta’s ban also discriminates against passengers who need these dogs.

“People across the country and the world rely on their pets for their physical and emotional well-being,” she stated, “and this discriminatory policy hurts them without providing any associated safety benefits. … Federal laws in place to protect emotional support and service animals do not discriminate based on breed, but instead base exclusions solely on the behavior of the individual animal in question.”

Delta Airlines’ ban did, in fact, break those federal laws.

Banning Pit Bulls as service dogs violates both the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). Under the ACAA, airlines may exclude service animals that are too large or heavy, pose a direct threat to the health and safety of others, cause a disruption of cabin service or are not allowed in a foreign country. Nothing in these regulations “permits the airline to deny ‘Pit Bull’ dogs (or whatever label someone subjectively wants to assign to them) as service dogs,” notes the Animal Farm Foundation (AFF), which provides service animals, including pit bull type dogs, to people with disabilities.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), which oversees the ACAA, confirmed this in June 2018, stating that “a limitation based exclusively on breed of the service animal is not allowed,” according to the Washington Post.

Fourteen months after enstating its Pit Bull ban, Delta Airlines will have to end it — but not because it wants to.

On August 8 the DOT released a Final Statement of Enforcement Priorities Regarding Service Animals. The final word is that U.S. airlines can’t discriminate against certain dog breeds. (Hooray!)

“The Department’s Enforcement Office views a limitation based exclusively on breed of the service animal to not be allowed under its service animal regulation,” the Final Statement says. “The Enforcement Office intends to use available resources to ensure that dogs as a species are accepted for transport. Airlines are permitted to find that any specific animal, regardless of breed, poses a direct threat.”

The DOT’s Final Statement also includes new rules that allow airline employees to ask passengers “reasonable” questions about a service animal’s vaccinations, training and behavior. Airlines can still require advance notice if passengers are bringing emotional support animals on flights. Any animal perceived by an airline to pose a threat to the health or safety of other airlines can be prohibited from a flight.

The new rules will go into effect after the Final Statement is published next week in the Federal Register. Airlines will have one month to start following them.

Many thanks to the DOT for this decision that will help save the lives of Pit Bulls and the people they support. As for Delta Airlines, I strongly recommend that all dog lovers take their business to an airline that doesn’t unfairly and illegally discriminate against certain dog breeds.

Portions of this story were originally published on Care2.com in July 2018.

Photo: MichaelDarby1976

Yearbooks Go to the (Service) Dogs: Class of 2017 Edition

Over the past few years, service dogs who accompany students and teachers to school have earned their rightful place among the class photos in yearbooks. This really cool trend continues this year with Alpha, the service dog for Andrew “A.J.” Schalk, a junior at Stafford High School in Falmouth, Va.

Ever since Alpha was only 4 months old, the black Lab, now 3, has been assisting Schalk as a diabetes detection dog.

“The amazing thing about Alpha is that he knows 20 to 40 minutes before my blood sugar actually does go low or high due to his amazing sense of smell,” Schalk, who has type 1 diabetes, told Buzzfeed News. “He has saved my life multiple times already, by waking me up in the middle of the night to extremely low blood sugars, which are very dangerous.”

Schalk asked the yearbook staff if his lifesaver’s photo could be included, and they were all totally on board with it. So Schalk brought Alpha along when he got his own picture taken.

“The only thing they changed was the camera height,” he told Buzzfeed News. “They just had to lower it a little, ha ha.” (Maybe next year they can lower it just a little bit more, LOL.)

“Where you see A.J., you see Alpha, and he’s just one of the gang,” the school principal, Joseph Lewis, told NBC Washington.

“He has been a great companion and added a lot of happiness to my school’s environment,” Schalk told Buzzfeed News. “It brightens people’s days seeing him in the halls or in my class and I love being able to have that effect on people.”

Class of 2016

Last year a photo of Presley, a 5-year-old Goldendoodle, appeared next to that of Seph Ware in the yearbook for Good Hope Middle School in West Monroe, La.

Ware, now 15, has had Duchenne muscular dystrophy since he was 3 years old and is confined to a wheelchair. While Ware was attending middle school, Presley helped him by picking up things he dropped, turning on lights, opening drawers and performing other tasks in the classroom and at home.

School officials came up with the idea of including Presley’s photo in the yearbook.

“Seph says that it took about 10 minutes to get Presley to look at the camera — and who knows how many shots,” his mom, Lori Ware, told AL.com.

After Presley’s yearbook photo was shared on Facebook, it went viral.

“We’re kind of stunned at all the attention,” Lori Ware told FoxNews.com. “It’s humbling. I’m glad Presley is making the world happy.”

Class of 2015

Two years ago, the hundreds of photos in Minnesota’s Blaine High School yearbook included those of Caramel Thomas and Dakota Comancho.

Caramel is a service dog belonging to Rebecca Thomas, who is hearing impaired and teaches American sign language at Blaine High. For the previous 10 years, Caramel had joined her in class.

Dakota, a certified therapy dog, belongs to Vicky Camancho, who teaches a special education class at the school and brings in Dakota once a week.

“The students love seeing the service dogs in the yearbook,” Thomas told Yahoo Canada.

Including the two dogs in the yearbook started in 2013, when Dakota’s photo was taken for an identification badge on class picture day.

“When we got the disc of student and staff photos, we automatically flowed the pictures into the yearbook page sections,” Faculty Adviser Jill Farrell told the Star Tribune. “The editors and I giggled like mad when we saw that a picture of Dakota was included in the images.”

Lynn Florman, head of the special education department, told Yahoo Canada the photos send a positive message.

“Sometimes the unique services they provide are not understood or valued by others, so seeing them recognized in such a public and memorable way as a yearbook sends a strong message to all that they are an integral part of the team that supports our students,” Florman said.

Photos via Twitter; Facebook; Twitter

Aww! Service Dog-in-Training Poses for Caricature at Disneyland

Yahoo, a service-dog-in-training, got a unique Disneyland souvenir — for dogs, at least.

A photo of the young yellow Lab calmly posing as an artist draws a caricature of him riding a surfboard is going viral.

Yahoo lives in San Marcos, Calif., with a volunteer from the nonprofit Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), according to Buzzfeed News. He’s currently learning basic obedience and socialization skills. When he’s ready in a couple of years, Yahoo will be given free of charge to someone with disabilities.

The photo was taken Oct. 14 by the parents of a woman named Katie, who shared it on Twitter. As of Tuesday morning it’s been liked over 132,000 times and shared over 53,000 times.

“Based on that photo, Yahoo is practicing basic obedience commands as he waits for his photo [to be] taken,” Jeanine Konopelski, a spokeswoman for CCI, told Buzzfeed News. “That’s a perfect training and socialization for one of our dogs to get used to waiting and sitting at attention.”

The volunteer told Buzzfeed News that’s exactly why she and a friend took their service dogs-in-training to Disneyland. The always-crowded theme park would provide plenty of high-level distractions for the dogs, but also be a “fun trip,” she said.

Disneyland is not only the Happiest Place on Earth, but apparently also the Best Place for Training Service Dogs on Earth. In February, a guide dog-in training was treated to an obedience lesson from Pluto.

By next February, Yahoo will be trained to open doors, turn on light switches and pull wheelchairs — but not necessarily to ride a surfboard.

Pit Bull Service Dog Dies While Saving Owner from Alligator Attack

Robert Lineburger is alive today thanks to his seizure-detection dog, a Pit Bull named Precious.

But it wasn’t her detection of a seizure that saved Lineburger.

Two months ago, as Lineburger and Precious were walking to a restroom at the Port LaBelle Marina in Florida, where they live on a boat, an alligator suddenly lunged out of the water and onto the dock.

Because there are no lights around the marina, Lineburger didn’t see the alligator until it was too late.

Precious “jumped in front of me,” Lineburger told WPTV. “She was roughly 2 to 3 feet away from me when the gator attacked.”

The alligator killed Precious, but Lineburger was unharmed. His hero dog would be alive today if the marina had proper lighting, Lineburger said.

“We have no lighting, which is mandatory code enforcement,” he told WPTV. “Fire extinguishers are mandated by the fire marshal, we have cluttered docks, and at night with no light, you can’t see the clutter. You trip over them, and now you put the alligator problem on top of it, it’s a place for a disaster to happen.”

A neighbor told WPTV he’s seen alligators all around the marina, and has no doubt they’ve been on the dock.

Lineburger wants Glades County code compliance officers to inspect the marina. Nothing will bring back Precious, but Lineburger hopes the tragedy will help others be safe.

“I do not want her death to be in vain,” he told WPTV. “At least let it accomplish something and get some of these violations taken care of.”

Photo via Twitter

Exit mobile version