Health Department Directs Woman To Prove Her Monkey Is Service
Animal
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
September 18,
2006
SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI--Does the 1990 Americans with Disabilities
Act protect a person's right to have an untrained pet that helps the owner deal
with a mental illness?
Debby Rose thinks so. She says her bonnet macaque monkey Richard helps
her with her anxiety symptoms so she can get out of the house and enjoy things
like grocery shopping and dining out.
Until recently, officials with the Springfield-Greene County Health
Department agreed with Rose. But then they received complaints from customers
at one buffet style restaurant, claiming that Rose let Richard eat off
restaurant dishes and visit the food bar.
A health inspector told the News-Leader that she phoned an ADA hotline
and was informed that the monkey could only be covered as a service animal if
it is trained to perform a specific task, such as picking up keys that have
been dropped.
On September 5, the department sent a letter to Springfield-area food
establishments, telling them they could not allow Rose's monkey inside. In
fact, restaurants could be cited for violating the 1999 Missouri Food Code if
they let Richard in, it read.
Health Department officials met Friday with the Southwest Center for
Independent Living, which is representing Rose, who denies that her monkey was
out of line at the restaurant. Kevin Gipson, director of health, reportedly
said Rose must provide some kind of federal ruling or certification proving
that the monkey is a service animal before health officials would allow her to
take it into public eating establishments.
A spokesperson with the U.S. Department of Justice told the newspaper
that the ADA is rather vague when it comes to emotional support animals, but
that the law still does cover them.
Other cases have made the news in recent years regarding different kinds
of animals that help people with all sorts of disabilities.
Last month, for example, an Ohio judge ruled that 13-year-old David
Valentine could keep and raise two goats as a reasonable accommodation for his
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The Miami Township Zoning Board had
tried to disallow the goats that do not perform specific tasks, nor are they
certified as service animals.
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Reproduced here under special arrangement
with Inclusion Daily Express international disability rights news service.
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