(Hat tip to Rebecca Skloot)

We’ve become pretty accustomed to guide dogs for the blind. But when I read this New York Times article about other animals used for other handicaps – and a social ‘backlash’ of sorts against them – I wondered how long it actually took us, as a society, to get used to guide dogs in the first place.

Note the patronising 'Things that make you go aahh' slant

One interesting new development mentioned in the article is the use of miniature horses, instead of dogs, as guides to the blind. Apparently some people, in some contexts, find horses to be superior guides. They live longer, so the owner does not have to re-bond with as many guide-animal partners in their lifetime, the horses have a better temperament and don’t go running after cats, dragging their owners along, the horses have near-360° vision and so can keep a better eye on how their owner and obstacles she might bump into, and so forth.

But no denying it, the idea of a guide horse breaks the mould.

And we people like our moulds. In the NYT article, they mention the rising problem of fraudsters taking their pets along into public spaces where pets are not allowed, and then claiming the pets are “service animals” for some unmentioned psychological disorder.

And instead of a common-sense, compassionate approach, people fall back to their boxes.

If the animal is not a dog, nor the owner blind, then – dissonance! Therefore, some moves are afoot disallow all non-dog service animals.

This is not the first time I hear of novel use of service animals. The article mentions, in passing, the use of dogs to “[help] autistic children socialize” (isn’t it amazing, the bias – autistics are always children, when they grow up the disappear, off society’s radar, into a la-la land where they now longer need dogs to help them socialize?).

If read of that in 1995 already from Jim Sinclair (J8, as he is known amongst some – an autistic letter-counting nickname of sorts). He calls them SSigDOGs – Social Signal Dogs and Orientation Guides.  And it goes further than just helping him to ‘socialize’. Dogs are more adepts at reading human body language than most autistics are, therefore a good SSigDOGs role is to growl at or shun people who act threateningly or dishonestly towards their autistic master, and to be chummy with trustworthy people. One would presume from that that the autistic owner finds it easier to read the animal’s body language than humans’.

One gets the feeling, from reading Jim’s account, that these kinds of dog fulfill a purpose that is very difficult to grasp if one is not in the shoes of an autistic:

I found that with my dog by my side, my overall awareness and orientation to my surroundings was better. I actually understood more of what I saw and heard when I had the dog to direct my attention to the particular things in the environment that were important for me to attend to.

…

… a dog who responded well to people, distinguished between familiar people and strangers, distinguished between people who just happened to be standing near me and people whose body language indicated they were trying to get my attention–all things that are very difficult for me to do.

…

Isosceles has enabled me to recognize acquaintances when I encounter them, which has made it easier for acquaintances to turn into friends.

…

Several years ago I saw a report about service dogs being trained to help people with Parkinson’s disease break out of motor “freezes,” and I realized that Isosceles had been doing this for me for years.

Precisely how a dog would help one to recognize acquiaintances is a bit murky to me – but since I don’t have the problem I suppose it is not for me to judge the solution. More power to Jim.

I suppose the idea of a grown up autistic not just existing but also functioning, choosing and training and buying a guide dog, acquainting and befriending people shatters some stereotypes.

Which brings us back to people and their boxes, and the following very saddening comment on Rebecca’s blog:

Rebecca
it’s always nice when a sighted journalist tries to enter our world and always makes for some amusing reading. You see my wife has been blind since birth and she uses a guide dog. So let’s look at some of the facts that you seem to have left out your article and I have some questions for you. First of all you fail to tell your readers who was responsible for having the changes made to the ADA [a law that limits the definition of serivce animals to dogs-only - Ed.] . It wasn’t the big bad government it was the guide dog users themselves… We have a hard enough time as it is for business allowing us access to their establishment with a well-trained guide dog. Having ill trained animals pretending to be service animal’s just makes it harder for us to be accepted… how do you train a horse not to defecate or urinate when it wants to? How do you take a horse on an airplane? How do you command a horse to lay down? Horses require iron shoes how are you going to protect delicate floors? How are you going to get a horse to the second level of a building that has no elevator?… You cannot train non-domesticated animals to do the same functions as dogs. And we the disabled community that use service animal’s correction service dogs are sick and tired of people who want their pets to travel with them so they figure that they will fool the general public because people are afraid to confront the disabled. I do believe that the parrot does help the man who has bipolar disorder. And the monkey is a great help to someone who has lost the use of their arms. But should they be for afforded the same rights and privileges that we guide dog users have struggled for over 80 years I think not.

I get the feeling of someone whose become so immersed in one particular world, that of blind people and their guide dogs, that they’ve become blind to the fact that other worlds, other people with other problems, exist. And too blind to notice that the objections are precisely the same kind of objections that were and are still made against guide dogs for the blind: “But what if the dog poops on the street or in the restaurant? How will you ever take a dog into a hospital waiting room?”.

The “I’ve got my rights – now I’ll join the majority in bashing other minorities” syndrome is always a sad sight to see.