Leader Monkeys For The Blind
It's a zoo out there -- of the various kinds of service animals (and "service animals"), writes Rebecca Skloot for The New York Times. One blind woman has a tiny pony leading her around. Another woman, Rose, has a monkey:
(Rose) has agoraphobia and severe anxiety disorder with debilitating panic attacks. Until getting Richard four years ago, she required heavy doses of anti-anxiety drugs just to go out in public. "I couldn't have come in this store before Richard, let alone handled all these people talking to me," she said. "Now I like it."Rose adopted Richard in 2004; he was badly neglected and near death. She and two of her six children -- whom she raised as a single mother -- run an exotic-animal shelter. Rose says she believes that Richard was trained as a service animal for his previous owner, an elderly woman whose son gave Richard away when she died. He had been neutered, and his tail had been surgically removed. He'd also had his large and potentially dangerous canine teeth pulled, a procedure commonly done with service monkeys for safety (and often cited as one of several ethical concerns with using wild instead of domesticated species for such jobs).
As Richard returned to health, Rose realized that he had begun to recognize her panic attacks before she did. Her doctor suggested that she train him to help with her disorder, then wrote a letter approving of him as a service animal, saying that Richard was "a constructive way to avoid use of unnecessary medications." Rose took that letter to the Springfield-Greene County Health Department, got permission for Richard to accompany her in public and has been drug-free ever since. She ordered a service-animal ID certificate online; she even got a restriction on her driver's license saying that she can't operate a car without a monkey present. Now he sits in her lap with a hand on the wheel while she drives, and she never leaves home without him.
But the number of places Rose and Richard can go is decreasing. In September 2006, after receiving complaints that Richard was sitting in highchairs in restaurants, touching silverware and going through a buffet line with Rose, the Health Department sent a letter to all local restaurants announcing that Richard was a risk to public health and not a legitimate service animal. It instructed businesses to refuse him access and to call the police if Rose protested. Businesses posted the letter on their doors and in their bathrooms; soon Cox College of Nursing and Health Sciences, where Rose was attending nursing school, refused Richard access, too. Stories started appearing about Rose and her monkey in the newspaper and on TV. "Suddenly," she told me, "everyone knew I had a mental disorder."
Rose dropped out of school and filed a lawsuit against her local Health Department, the nursing school, Wal-Mart and several other local businesses that had forbidden Richard access, saying that they violated the A.D.A. Kevin Gipson, director of the local Health Department, told me that he had asked Rose to show him what "tasks" Richard performed that would qualify him. "She couldn't," he said.
Defining "task" is often a point of contention in these cases, especially with psychiatric service animals, whose work generally can't be demonstrated on command. Before going to T. J. Maxx, I saw Rose begin to panic while sitting in her lawyer's office talking about her case. Her face flushed; her voice quivered. Richard, who had been dozing in the chair beside her, leapt onto her arm and began stroking her hair. He hugged her, rubbed her ear and cooed while she talked. She immediately calmed down. "He snaps me out of it before the attacks happen," she said. "If they start at night, he'll turn on the light and get me a bottle of water."
For Gipson, that's really beside the point. "Even if Richard is a legitimate service animal," he told me, "if he poses a public-health risk, the A.D.A. says he can be excluded. And we believe primates pose a significant health risk."
Rose says that Richard is perfectly safe and immaculately clean. She showers and blow-dries him every day and uses hand sanitizer on him regularly, and he always wears diapers. But that doesn't impress the Health Department. Monkeys can carry viruses, like herpes B, which are essentially harmless to them but usually deadly to humans. Those viruses can be transmitted through saliva and other bodily fluids. In 1998, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study titled "B-Viruses From Pet Macaque Monkeys: An Emerging Threat in the United States?" saying that 80 to 90 percent of adult macaques like Richard carry herpes B. It's possible to test them for viruses, which Rose does every year with Richard, but those tests often give false negatives. Plus, Gipson told me, "he could catch it any time from contact with other monkeys, which we know he's had." Five days before the Health Department banned Richard, a local newspaper ran pictures of him and several other monkeys hanging out at Rose's family's sanctuary.
Lex Frieden, a professor of health-information science at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and a former director of the National Council on Disability, says:
"People shouldn't be able to carry their pets on a plane or into a restaurant claiming they're service animals when they're not," he says. "But that has nothing to do with what species a service animal is." The appropriate response in those situations isn't a species ban, he says, but rather strict punishments for people who pose as disabled. "It's fraud," he points out, "and it results in increased scrutiny of people with legitimate disabilities."...We've now said, by law, that regardless of their disability, people must have equal opportunity, and we can't discriminate. In order to seek the opportunities and benefits they have as citizens, if a person needs a cane, they should be able to use one. If they need a wheelchair, a dog, a miniature horse or any other device or animal, society has to accept that, because those things are, in fact, part of that person."
I'm lucky, I guess. I have a species-specific olfactory disability and need a service dog to sniff out pheasants, grouse, and woodcocks for me. Fortunately, the dog is not banned from any place where bird hunting is legal.
Axman at January 4, 2009 7:34 AM
To hell with monkeys! Bring on the rats!
Giant African pouched rats, to be precise. They don't lead the blind (yet), but they do save lives & detect diseases. Several years ago, Bart Weetjens, a Belgian businessman, was reading depressing accounts of African children being maimed & killed by the millions of landmines buried on that continent, when he recalled the pet rats he had as a kid and wondered if local African rats could not be trained as deminers.
As it turns out, rats are perfect for this task. They're intelligent, very trainable, easy to keep & maintain, can sniff out the minutest traces of TNT & other explosives in metal & plastic mines, and they're light enough to step on the mines without setting them off. So now they're busy sniffing out mines & bombs in several African countries:
http://www.herorat.org/en/home
The folks at herorat have also found out that rats can sniff out TB bacteria in human spit samples faster & more reliably than lab technicians with microscopes. Anyone who wants to contribute to this worthy cause can sponsor their own rat for 5 euros.
Martin at January 4, 2009 10:08 AM
Let the lady have her monkey. He provides a real benefit to her and isn't a threat to the public's health.
Truth at January 4, 2009 12:00 PM
I like my many people call bullshit on this women. Most (99 percent) people would not blink if we saw some blind dude with a dog. Most people would once again would not question a guy in a wheelchair with a dog but some people including me would ask WHY!? Why does this man who can see/hear need a dog? But most will once again brush it off. Because we can see and do understand the handicap the man has. His dog gives him that little bit of extra mobility. Now lets take a fat/obese woman in a scooter who is so fat she needs a monkey to get her things. Bullshit is called here we have some one with a problem that most people will call her fault when most of us would say get your fat ass out of the scooter and get it yourself and maybe you could loose a few pounds in the process.
Take an old lady who is lonely and wants to take her little poodle into a cafe so she will hae sme one to coo over! We call bullshit!
Now we have a women who by all cases seems normal - can see, hear, walk around, thin, not to old. Yet she needs a helper monkey. We ask WHY! Okay some of us may thing okay maybe her disability is internal like epilepsy. It helps her when she has an attack!. Then we find out NO it so when the woman panics she has something to calm her down. Why do you need the animal once again is asked! If you are panic why not just find a calm place for a minute or if desperate hug a bloody teddy bear. SO a whole majority of people call BULLSHIT!
It is her disorder, too! We of modern age have learned that people with physical disabilities and some serious mental disabilities are people who deserve to be out in public too. That do not need to be shut out! We acknowledge that some may need help. But most people are not enlightened about unserious disorders, especially mental . We hear somebody has ADD and we think ok for you know go pull yourself together and do something. But if said ADD person malingers and whines and says life is too hard we usually have no sympathy. Same with people with Bipolar disorders, alcoholism, ....
We thing all it takes is MIND over MATTER. Pull up your socks and work it out for yourself. Life sucks, live with it! and SO ON. So we have a woman that has panic attacks we see her as weak by her choice not by a accident or serious disability. All she has to do is grow a pair and try harder!
John Paulson at January 4, 2009 4:49 PM
John Paulson, despite your very long and excited post, it isn't apparent what your opinion is.
I wholeheartedly agree with "the truth".
Jessica G at January 4, 2009 5:21 PM
John,
Have you ever had a panic attack? I am guessing you haven't. They can come on sudden, with no discernible reason. It feels like you're having a heart attack and that you're going to die.
I have had one in my life and have no wish to repeat the experience. I can only imagine what this poor woman goes through on a daily basis.
As the article states, she is now pharmaceutical free and able to live a more productive life. Isn't that what we all want? For the disabled to become more independent and productive?
Truth at January 4, 2009 5:38 PM
Overall I really do not care about the helper monkey. She can have it as long as it does not affect me or harm me in anyway!
My opinion was the perceptions about helper animals. What people think when the see one.
And no I have never really had a panic attack. That is my point above. People do not understand the problems people have! It is about perception. People think someone has ADD they thing they are weak! Not all think that - some! continue a little later - got to teach.
John Paulson at January 4, 2009 7:48 PM
Continuing on - People have trouble they need help so they use what is at hand. Helper animals are one way in which to help. Question is - how much should we enable people? This may sound silly - but I have a friend he has no car and walks very slowly (sometimes in pain) but he can ride a horse and has access to a horse. Should he be enabled to ride the horse to the mall on roads and highways? What if the mall is big enough to hold a horse can he ride it inside? Yea I know it sounds silly - but that is the point - when does it become down right absurd. or something that bothers other people.
Going on - Lactovists - over zealous mothers who feel they can whip put a breast and breast feed their baby, any place, any time. Many times people perceptions is ok do what you need it is not really bothering me (unless said breast is in my face). But change the situation to someplace absurd. Let's take Palin (she was voted VP) with her young child and she is hosting some foreign diplomat should she have the right to breast feed at the negotiation table infront of the diplomat. Okay really silly! Try different. I am at 4 star resturaunt and some lady starts to breast feed her kid. I do not like it it because it ruins the experience. I am spending upwards of 300 dollars for a experience and some noisy kid has to be soothed with mom whipping a her tit out full. Now I could be one negative out of the 50 customers. My opinion is overridden by the majority. Still it is the situation.
I can go on with a more scenarios but I hope you have the general idea. How far should situtation go to enable somebody. Should other people have to deal with someone elses difficult situation because somebody feels they have the right too.
John Paulson at January 4, 2009 11:49 PM
John, you are an ass. Fuck you.
Mental illnesses are not just something you can pull yourself up with your bootstraps about. My depression doesn't make me a weak person. When my Graves' disease flares up I spend weeks walking around in a rage. It's not something I can just get over by putting my mind to it. I've had a fortunate few number of panic attacks myself. It's not something that you can will away. When your body doesn't listen to you and all you can think about is fight or flight it is terrifying.
Thank your lucky stars that you are unafflicted by an invisible mental disorder. And when the time comes when you need help I hope the people in your life are more compassionate than you are, you miserable fuck.
Elle at January 5, 2009 11:23 AM
Elle, Graves is not something that "flares up". Either you are hyperthyroid, or you are not. You can control that with medication quite well with no side effects (unlike the panic attacks).
If you allow yourself to "spend weeks walking around in a rage" you are playing with death. Get your thyroid under control before it puts you in a pine box.
brian at January 5, 2009 11:51 AM
Elle - I know that mental ilness is NOT something that you can always just get over. Yet mental illness is not simple it can be complex and brutal to mild and bothersome. Through mental disorders can be managed with drugs, therapies, even helper/therapy animals. I am giving the point is if (normal/regular) people can not SEE an affliction/disorder they think it is NOT real or that it is not serious. Most people are visual if they can not see they do not generally understand it. I will say that I am ignorant of Graves disease. I do not understand it I need to be educated but until then I will have my preconceptions about the disease. I will lump it in with other things like epilepsy or maniac-depression. I do not know how serious it can be.
Next. When I say WE I mean the general public ,your regular Joes and Janes. It can include me and my opinion as part of that whole. But I do not always share the same opinion.
Also the problem is about enabling. How far should a shop, community, family, and friend go in helping somebody with their problems or life. Should a school ban peanuts because one student could die from it. YES? NO? Should a man who killed his girlfriend because he missed taking anti-psychotic meds be given a pass. YES? NO? Should a woman with a monkey be allowed in a buffet line? YES? NO? Should a man with parrot be allowed to have it in a sterile dentists office? YES? NO?
A further problem is people go okay YES because ..... OR No because ...... There will always be good reasons and exceptions for people but the LAW does not always say that. As the articles said the LAW says you have to allow for helper animals. You do not have a choice! You have to allow it! But the problem is some people see it being abused. And they want the law to be scrapped or fine tuned. That is the problem is the law can not always be fine tuned. It is black and white. Grays can not always exist.
Back to you Elle. You comment that you get into rages. Okay. That I can understand or maybe I don't really understand! But should we excuse or enable you? Your rages can go from the simple (snapping at somebody) to the complex (to hitting somebody). Have you ever harmed somebody? If you have should we(the public) just understand and nod our head or should you suffer the consequences.
Believe me when I say I have had my fair share of dealing with mental illness in my family. It can be a serious problem. So when my mother threw a glass water jug at my brother during dinner, should I just have said 'hey it is her maniac depression". It is not her fault. Me, my mother needs help but she has to accept the consequences of her actions.
John Paulson at January 5, 2009 10:45 PM
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