Every now and then you see someone at a store or a restaurant with a service animal. And sometimes you see people with what are clearly pets. The one category is, by federal law, allowed pretty much everywhere; the other can be banned pretty much anywhere. And this is fine. Anyone who has a problem with a legit service animal is, let’s face it, a dick. But it seems perfectly reasonable to me for someone who owns an establishment to at the very least be interested in such things. If for no other reason, some permissible service animals are there for reasons beyond the usually obvious. The purpose of a seeing eye dog… even a blind man can see what the purpose of that is. But some critters are there to guard the owner against seizures or anxiety attacks and other serious, but non-obvious, medical issues. Sometimes the person might simply go unconscious, and, give ’em a few minutes, they’ll come to, shake themselves off and go about their business, and all the help they’ll need or want is to be left alone, protected and aided by their critter. And that’s fine… but if you were to see a stranger go lights out on the floor, *you* wouldn’t know what to do, would you. So it seems to me to be perfectly valid to make inquiries.
But there’s the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act). And one of the bizarre little features of the ADA is this:
§ 35.136 Service animals
(f) Inquiries. A public entity shall not ask about the nature or extent of a person’s disability, but may make two inquiries to determine whether an animal qualifies as a service animal. A public entity may ask if the animal is required because of a disability and what work or task the animal has been trained to perform. A public entity shall not require documentation, such as proof that the animal has been certified, trained, or licensed as a service animal. Generally, a public entity may not make these inquiries about a service animal when it is readily apparent that an animal is trained to do work or perform tasks for an individual with a disability (e.g., the dog is observed guiding an individual who is blind or has low vision, pulling a person’s wheelchair, or providing assistance with stability or balance to an individual with an observable mobility disability).
Note: “A public entity shall not ask about the nature or extent of a person’s disability, but may make two inquiries to determine whether an animal qualifies as a service animal. A public entity may ask if the animal is required because of a disability and what work or task the animal has been trained to perform.”
There are a number of videos on YouTube shot by people with service animals, getting upset about being asked more than two questions, or being asked “wrong” questions. There’s THIS video, which features a woman with a service dog threatening legal action over a sign and saying it’s illegal for an establishment or its employees to make more than those two inquiries.
Ummm…
Since when does the ADA overrule the First Amendment? The ADA may be able to say that a store owner must allow a service animal, but how THE FRAK can it say that it is *illegal* to simply ask someone questions?