Photo by David P Cardaciotto
All's Joseph Harris from Trenton, NJ wanted was a guide dog to help him get around but he received a letter from the Morristown guide dog school called The Seeing Eye Inc.
The letter from the school said: We regret to inform you that we will not be able to be of service to you. Our primary concern is with the loose dogs in your area. We would be reluctant to put a Seeing Eye dog at risk by placing him in a neighborhood that has a number of aggressive dogs within close proximity.
How can a business that it suppose to train these dogs to help people out like Joseph Harris have the right to say No. I thought that that’s what they are in business to help people out and not say No. What a shame to read this article.
Read the article by Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman here.
If I was Joseph Harris, I would contact other types of guide dog schools and see what their policy is. Unfortunately some of these organizations do tend to say no for one reason or another that is why one needs to put their applications in many of them.
ReplyDeleteIt is also some truth to the fact of lots of irresponsible pet owners allowing their animals to roam freely and do what they tend to do. I would think that the school would band together with the community there to get the law enforced. Personally if the school stated no because of what if's because of loose dogs then they need to also say no to 100% of their students. After all no matter where I had lived I had seen many loose dogs which could be considered aggressive.
Guess the school figures it's much easier to deny a blind individual a choice to have a guide dog then it would be to fight for the blind's rights by lobbying to enforce those leash laws.