Understanding service
animal laws helps
prevent problems
By Jade McDowell
EO Media Group
C
onfusion over what con-
stitutes a service animal
can sometimes lead to
standoffs between dog
owners and business owners over
whether an animal is allowed in-
side, but the Americans with Dis-
abilities Act does provide some
clarity.
“As with everything made for
people with disabilities, there are
going to be people who take ad-
vantage of it,” said Darrin Um-
barger, CEO of Clearview Media-
tion Disability Resource Center in
Pendleton.
But Umbarger said for many
people a service animal is a le-
gitimate necessity that helps mit-
igate their disability. Dogs can be
trained to help people with visual
impairments navigate or to alert
people with hearing impairments
that someone is knocking on their
door or a timer is going off. They
can also assist people during a sei-
zure, perform tasks such as turn-
ing on lights for individuals with
post-traumatic stress disorder,
help a handler with autism stop re-
petitive motions like hand-flapping
or alert a diabetic owner that their
blood sugar is getting too high or
low.
“There are so many different
things a service animal can be
trained to do,” Umbarger said.
What is a service
animal?
A service animal, under the legal
definition provided by the federal
Americans with Disabilities Act, is
26 // Family Health Guide 2018
EO Media Group file photo
Alex, a 3-year-old standard poodle in this 2014 photo, was the
breeding stud for Barbara Pierce’s business of breeding and
training service dogs.
a dog or miniature horse trained to
perform specific tasks to assist an
individual with their disability, such
as a dog that helps someone with a
visual impairment or limited mobil-
ity navigate.
Rabbits, cats, pigs and other
animals are not legally considered
service animals and can be barred
from establishments. Oregon law
automatically bars all pets (but not
service animals) from restaurants,
grocery stores and other businesses
where food is present.
Emotional support, therapy or
comfort animals that provide emo-
tional support simply by being pres-
ent are considered pets, not service
animals, under the law.
“These terms are used to de-
scribe animals that provide com-
fort just by being with a person,”
according to the U.S. Department
of Justice website. “Because they
have not been trained to perform
a specific job or task, they do not
qualify as service animals under the
ADA ... If the dog has been trained
to sense that an anxiety attack is
about to happen and take a specif-
ic action to help avoid the attack or
lessen its impact, that would qualify
as a service animal. However, if the
dog’s mere presence provides com-
fort, that would not be considered a
service animal under the ADA.”
The ADA does not require reg-
istration or certification for service
dogs. Websites and companies that
offer “registration” for a fee do not
have any legal bearing on a service
animal’s validity.
Where are service
animals allowed?
Service animals are not consid-
ered pets under the law and cannot
be barred by a “no pets allowed”
rule in restaurants, housing, public
transportation or other areas. Em-
ployers, schools and other entities
are expected to make reasonable
accommodations for use of the
service animal.
The ADA allows only two
questions to be asked in determin-
ing whether an animal can enter
the space: Whether the animal is
legally considered a service an-
imal under the ADA, and what
tasks the service animal has been
trained to perform to help mitigate
a disability. Staff cannot ask about
the nature of the handler’s disabil-
ity, charge a fee for the service ani-
mal or ask for documentation.
A service animal can be asked
to leave if the animal makes a
mess on the floor, is running
around out of the handler’s con-
trol or jumps on or bites anoth-
er patron. It can also be barred
from certain non-public parts of
a building, such as the kitchen in
a restaurant or the operating room
of a hospital.
What is the proper
etiquette when
interacting with
someone who has a
service animal?
Guidelines by the Northwest
ADA Center recommend that
everyone treat service dogs as
working animals, not pets, and
not touch the animal without
permission. People should not
feed the animal, talk to the ani-
mal instead of the handler or ask
the owner about the nature of
their disability.