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A non-profit charity dedicated to providing free guides for visually impaired individuals.
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The Guide Horse
Foundation
A non-profit charity dedicated to providing free guides for visually impaired individuals. |
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Court finds that Guide Animal users
must obey safety rules For the latest in miniature horse headlines visit: http://www.guidehorse.com/law_n_news.htm
In this article we see that a court
has ruled that guide animal users cannot violate safety
regulations and are not immune from cleaning-up after their
guides:
The Plaintiffs filed a suit against a homeowners association
because they would not allow them to use a street to allow their
guide dogs to poop:
"Dennis and Shirley Bartlett, both blind, filed the suit
Aug. 23 against Pierce for alleged harassment and for
prohibiting their guide dogs from defecating in the street --
the method in which they were trained to relieve themselves so
their owners could clean up after them more easily."
Evidently, the issue was not solely
safety, but that the blind people left dog dropping in the
streets:
"Some Desert Grove residents had complained to the HOA about
dog droppings in the street belonging to the Bartletts' guide
dogs."
This clean-up problem is especially evident in "walking defecator" guide animals who are not trained to stop and signal their handler when defecating: "They were not picking up in a timely manner and when they did pick up they are unable to get it all," Pierce said. The Bartletts said they try to pick up the droppings as best they can, but sometimes miss because they can't see." To prevent this issue with Guide Horses, the Guide Horse foundation requires all Guide Horses to stand still when defecating and to train the handler to notice their spreading of their back legs and raising of their tails. I have been successful in training several Guide Horses to relieve on-cue, using the command "bombs away" to induce relief at the appropriate time and location.
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