i202 Fall 2010 School of Information, UC Berkeley

Most of us have heard of service dogs — but what about service horses, chimpanzees, or parrots? Should they be treated the same way under the Americans with Disabilities Act that more "typical" or "expected" service animals are? Or should there be different categories within the designation of "service animal" to determine which companions are allowed in which public places? That's the subject of this December 31, 2008 New York Times Magazine story.

The story explores the current definition of "service animal" and how it's now being applied to a whole menagerie of creatures who help owners with various conditions. Not everybody is happy with this "veritable Noah's Ark" of helpful animals: "Increasingly, business owners, landlords and city officials are challenging the legitimacy of noncanine service animals and refusing to accommodate them," Rebecca Skloot writes. "Animal owners are responding with lawsuits and complaints to the Department of Justice."

I found a couple of lines from this article particularly fascinating for 202-world, especially in terms of the precision of the words we use to define and classify things: The major questions at this point are "What qualifies as a service animal?" and "Can any species be eligible?" Within that, there's a debate about the definition of "service animal" vs. "therapy animal." And, on a even more basic level, Skloot writes that resolving these questions depends on the definitions of the words "task" and "work," which seem like such basic words but could make all the difference in terms of deciding whether an animal meets the requirements (both stated and tacit) of bringing it into a public place. "If you say 'comfort,' 'need' or 'emotional support,' you’re out the door," says one expert quoted in the story. "If you talk about what your animal does in terms of 'tasks' and 'work,' then you stand a chance." I also found it interesting that the owner of one "service parrot" only started referring to his bird with that term after looking up "service animal" online. I wonder what definition he looked at!

Author: Kimra McPherson