Blaisin' Access 151 Service Animal Advocacy

This is the Blaze in access podcast amplifying disability perspective. One story at a time. Today is Wednesday, May 29. I'm blaze Bryant. A few of us blind people with seeing eye dogs over the past few days have been having a conversation about various service animals and the very, very muddy landscape that has happened because of fake service animals. It's become extremely unclear, very confusing, and it all started when a friend of mine in Cleveland talked about how he was refused service at a restaurant and the lady said to him, essentially, well, the dog could offend other customers. What the hell does that even mean? The dog could offend other customers? Yet the dog isn't paying the bill. The dog isn't leaving a tip. The dog is a perfectly trained seeing eye dog, and it's just become. And Covid has exacerbated this to a degree. But over the past decade or so, we've been hearing more of places and restaurants, grocery stores, the like heck, even getting a ride using uber or Lyft. There's no guarantee if you have a guide dog, seeing eye dog or other service animal that you are going to be allowed in the car because all the driver has to do is just hit the cancel ride button. It has happened to me. It has happened to many guide dog users. I know. And as a matter of fact, the seeing eye, which is the guide dog school I went to and will get all of my dogs from, they did a survey of guide dog users a few months ago and the report showed over 80% were refused rides. Now, why? I mean, all we're trying to do is get from point a to point b, we can't drive. Life is already difficult enough. Now we're going to make it more difficult. And I bring this up because when it comes to how do we address this issue? I'm of the belief that if we're really going to make this better and making it better, everyone seems to have a different viewpoint on it. Mine is there has to be some sort of standardization, but in order for it to, or things to be quote unquote better, it can't just be people with guide dogs are seeing eye dogs. It has to consist, the advocacy has to consist of people who have various types of service animals. Seizure alert, diabetic alert. I've heard of heart murmur alert dogs, all that stuff. But your emotional support peacocks. No thank you. Keep submitting those pictures to NBC. Eventually they'll want to update their peacock, um, things of that nature, like the emotional support duck that I read about in Florida a couple of months ago. Now, obviously, those are not service animals, and we certainly don't want those folks helping with our advocacy because, frankly, there is, they're the reason why this crap is happening in the first place. Blazing shows@gmail.com blaisin shows@gmail.com follow the Blaze and access podcast wherever you get your podcast and on Facebook and X at Blaze and shows. And if you have a minute or two, I'd be grateful if you left a rating and a review that helps other people find the show as well. Transcripts are AI generated and are not perfect, but they do give you a baseline sense as to what I'm talking about here on the show. Tune in for more disability perspective, maybe even some trivia tomorrow. I'm blaze Bryant. Thank you for listening to the Blaze and access podcast amplifying disability perspective one story at a time. Have a great day.