2010-04-29, 05:56 PM
Many of my blind friends would actually look down on this person for needing a service dog in the first place and feel that incidents like this are what make them unwanted in public places. Service dogs are to the blind what hearing aids are to the deaf, oddly. Weird internal schisms and biases.
The one who does have a service dog would be horrified at the thought of going any where with out him and offended at the idea that she was unwelcome anywhere just because she needed a service animal to get there. Tying it up outside wouldn't even remotely be an option when you consider the time, effort and expense of training a service animal and the potential for it to be taken by anyone who passed by. Letting a service animal leave proximity to you isn't something most blind people are willing to do, they're codependent after all. By that same token expecting their friends, acquaintances or even strangers, who likely have zero training in assisting them getting around, to take the place of a service animal is something a lot of people are uncomfortable with. How many people would you trust yourself to be led around by blindfolded? Especially if it involved being left alone for indeterminate periods until they came back for you?
Simply avoiding the restaurant is an option yes, but hungry people have to eat eventually, and depending on where you're at, why you're out and whatnot stopping at a restaurant isn't unreasonable and if the only thing that makes you doing so an unreasonable burden on others is your service animal that's more a matter of other people being narrow minded and picky. I have no problems with a service animal, be it dog, cat, monkey or whatever, being present pretty much anywhere I am as long as it's well behaved. Categorically saying it's presence is wrong is just a form of prejudice.
The one who does have a service dog would be horrified at the thought of going any where with out him and offended at the idea that she was unwelcome anywhere just because she needed a service animal to get there. Tying it up outside wouldn't even remotely be an option when you consider the time, effort and expense of training a service animal and the potential for it to be taken by anyone who passed by. Letting a service animal leave proximity to you isn't something most blind people are willing to do, they're codependent after all. By that same token expecting their friends, acquaintances or even strangers, who likely have zero training in assisting them getting around, to take the place of a service animal is something a lot of people are uncomfortable with. How many people would you trust yourself to be led around by blindfolded? Especially if it involved being left alone for indeterminate periods until they came back for you?
Simply avoiding the restaurant is an option yes, but hungry people have to eat eventually, and depending on where you're at, why you're out and whatnot stopping at a restaurant isn't unreasonable and if the only thing that makes you doing so an unreasonable burden on others is your service animal that's more a matter of other people being narrow minded and picky. I have no problems with a service animal, be it dog, cat, monkey or whatever, being present pretty much anywhere I am as long as it's well behaved. Categorically saying it's presence is wrong is just a form of prejudice.