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"Although all dogs offer an emotional connection with their owner, to legally be considered an emotional support dog, the pet needs to be prescribed by a licensed mental health professional to a person with a disabling mental illness. A therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist, for example, must decide that the presence of the animal is needed for the mental health of the patient. For example, owning a pet might ease a person’s anxiety or give him a focus in life."
I wonder if this person's dog is really a true emotional support animal. The dog will be put to sleep, the boy was injured and was emotionally traumatized. Yes, the owner should pay.
These idiots who need to have an animal with them for "emotional support" have bigger problems than a dog , cat, or monkey can fix. I see these nutcases all the time, walking in the grocery store with some dog who is slobbering all over the place.
I love animals deeply, but the day I can't go out without my cat on my shoulder, put me away.
Service animals, welcome anywhere. Emotional support animal, see your therapist and keep your f'n pet at home. JMHO
This. Service animals are trained. Emotional support animals are just someone's pet. The owners do not have the same rights as those with service animals, but for some reason, too many are too scared to enforce that.
It's a fricken pet. That's it.
The owner of that pit bull is an idiot. ANY dog can and will bite - any of them - if put in the wrong situation. Say, like having a small child be right in the face of a dog. Dog doesn't know her, she doesn't know dog, they're at a crowded airport, he's already overloaded, why the hell would anyone allow that?
I have black lab/Border Collie mixes and I never let children pet my dogs.
It's stupid owners like this that give pit bulls a bad name.
Pit bulls are banned in Miami for reasons like this. They are dangerous animals.
I hate to blame the dog......
Buy there is some truth to this, even though much if the blame can be placed on the type of person that gravitates towards this particular breed.
If someone wants a tough dog with a reputation for being a dangerous breed, it begs the question....why?
Take a look at many animal shelters in metropolitan areas and there are more Pit Bulls than any other breed, sometimes making up the majority of dogs in the shelter.
A friend of mine and I both had similar instances in the last year of being bitten by dogs that we were auditioning for adoption.
In my case, the dog was a Weimaraner who was very shy and timid, I made the mistake of grabbing it's collar when he tried to bolt out an open door.....he turned and bit my wrist in a "let me go" bite.
It got infected, and I was out of work for week while it was healing.
In my friend's case, he was visiting a rescue for Pit Bulls and had a great time interacting with the dog, it was very friendly....until it wasn't.
When he was leaving to discuss it with his family, he gave the Pit one last pet and the dog suddenly turned very aggressive and bit his hand and wouldn't let go, shaking and locking down on him.
He actually had to pry his hand out of the dogs mouth with his other hand, which damaged that hand too.
Needless to say, his injuries were much more severe than mine. The dog hit major blood vessels, and tendons. My friend's hands looked like hamburger.
He was rushed to the hospital and underwent hours of surgery and is still recovering now six months later.
So when someone says that Pits are no different than any other breed......I beg to differ.
If this were my child, I would not have allowed her to pet an animal unknown to me.
This right here. Why do parents allow their small children to pet animals that they know nothing about? Stupid, stupid, stupid.
That said, the whole emotional support animal thing needs to stop. It's nothing but a gimmick and scam in order to bring you dog or whatever everywhere you go. If you need the support of an animal to go out in public, either stay home go get professional help.
This does ring true. I think Pitts and their owners share a huge loyalty gene of some sort. And I fell poorly for some of them because they have to be careful for their dogs- one had theirs stolen and another will not let the dog in their fenced yard unattended for this reason. Too many people are attracted to them for the wrong reasons.
Where I live pit bulls are a dime a dozen. The kill shelters are filled with them. People get them as puppies because they want to be part of the "I'm bad" stereotype and then dump the poor dogs when they are no longer cute little pups and difficult to handle. No, it's not the dogs fault but when cities adopt a no pit bull ordinance, they do it for a reason.
Good golly! How about a ban on all animals in the passenger cabin of all airlines. No reason Fido can't ride in a crate in the baggage compartment. Enforce that even on the social elites up in first class too.
Pit bull or not -- travelling like this would be stressful for a dog. Not a good idea for owner/parents to allow kids to interact with any dog.
for the record. Our neighbors had a collie. This dog had been a neighborhood dog for some 7 years....never an issue. On day, one of the kids hugged the dog -- and it bit him in the face....just like this kid's face. Animals are animals and children especially need to be encouraged to handle with care.
Just remembered another story -- friend had a Dalmatian. The family went out of town and had an older teen come in to dog sit. The dog bit the dog sitter. Never had happened before.
Growing up we had a friendly Kerry Blue Terrier, my mother told me if someone asks if the dog bites, always say "I don't know" because the truth (like the stories above) is that you really don't know.
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