{"id":2673,"date":"2018-05-16T04:56:23","date_gmt":"2018-05-16T12:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=2673"},"modified":"2018-05-16T04:56:23","modified_gmt":"2018-05-16T12:56:23","slug":"wild-and-sometimes-crazy-wednesday-are-we-taking-advantage-of-the-service-therapy-animal-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=2673","title":{"rendered":"Wild (and Sometimes Crazy) Wednesday \u2013 Are We Taking Advantage of the Service\/Therapy Animal Concept?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2009\" src=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/dogs-028-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/dogs-028-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/dogs-028-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/dogs-028-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/dogs-028.jpg 1014w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>All week we\u2019ve been talking about support and service animals. I think we all support the idea of therapy animals, but are some people taking this concept too far? Are we taking advantage of the public and the corporate world? I mean a goose or a goat as a passenger on an airline? A service kangaroo in a fast food restaurant? A therapy snake in a Mexican food restaurant? A turkey on an airline? What are we thinking?<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m all for enjoying our animals to the fullest. They give us a lot of <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1602\" src=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/RoadTrip-027-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/RoadTrip-027-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/RoadTrip-027-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/RoadTrip-027-375x500.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/RoadTrip-027.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/>comfort. Some people, including at-risk or ailing children might need a more intense commitment from their pets and, as we\u2019ve discussed before, some animals can help in detecting disease, predicting when a seizure is coming and so forth. But raise your hand if you think some people are taking advantage of this concept. And because of these people, who must take their turkey into the passenger compartment of an airline, for example, or a goose or a goat, well, I think they\u2019re pushing the envelope and they\u2019re making life more difficult for those who need a service dog or cat and for those who must travel on public transportation with an animal for a legitimate reason. One woman in Hawaii is training a miniature horse to be her support animal, which is wonderful. Horses are being used as therapy for children and less-abled adults all the time. But she intends taking this little horse into restaurants and other public places. Can you potty-train a horse?<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1441\" src=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/EasternCruise-002-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/EasternCruise-002-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/EasternCruise-002-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/EasternCruise-002-375x500.jpg 375w, https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/EasternCruise-002.jpg 1487w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/>Are airlines cracking down on therapy and service animals on board? Oh yes. Here are some of the airlines\u2019 new rules: \u00a0United Airlines: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.united.com\/web\/en-US\/content\/travel\/specialneeds\/disabilities\/assistance_animals.aspx\">https:\/\/www.united.com\/web\/en-US\/content\/travel\/specialneeds\/disabilities\/assistance_animals.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>American Airlines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aa.com\/i18n\/travel-info\/special-assistance\/service-animals.jsp\">https:\/\/www.aa.com\/i18n\/travel-info\/special-assistance\/service-animals.jsp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a list of other airlines and their requirements: <a href=\"https:\/\/esadoctors.com\/airline-requirements-for-traveling-with-an-emotional-support-dog\/\">https:\/\/esadoctors.com\/airline-requirements-for-traveling-with-an-emotional-support-dog\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>You might enjoy this site showing some of the more unusual animals being used as service animals: <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.ncpad.org\/2010\/12\/13\/6-of-the-most-unusual-service-animals\/\">http:\/\/blog.ncpad.org\/2010\/12\/13\/6-of-the-most-unusual-service-animals\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All week we\u2019ve been talking about support and service animals. I think we all support the idea of therapy animals, but are some people taking this concept too far? Are we taking advantage of the public and the corporate world? &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/?p=2673\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2673"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2674,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2673\/revisions\/2674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.matilijapress.com\/catscapades\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}