Therapy Pig for boy with DS (child, old, people, teaching)

[no kudzu]

hope they get to keep the pig

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs...n-florida.html

[passwithoutatrace]

I don't know if the article is poorly written or the family hasn't done much research, but therapy animals have no legal protections under the ADA. SERVICE animals are the ones with ADA protection. A therapy animal provides emotional comfort (like the ones that visit hospitals) whereas a service animal is one that performs tasks specific to a disability (like seeing eye, PTSD, seizure alert, etc).

Pigs are extremely intelligent. In addition to providing emotional comfort, the family should be focused on teaching the pig actual commands/skills for their son so they have better legal justification for having it.

[BirdieBelle]

I have no tolerance for people who do something that is against the law, then prey on sympathy and try all kinds of ridiculous methods to get around the law, including talking the the Dept. of Justice in an attempt to be allowed to break the law.

It doesn't matter if the county and all kinds of cities around theirs allow pigs. If their city does not allow pigs, then they should not have bought the pig. It's easy to check. They just assumed they'd be allowed to have "Twinkie" because they are "a special case."

Now city officials will look like the bad guys when they have to enforce their own ordinance when, in reality, making an exception in Twinkie's case could open the door for who knows what. I wonder what this mom would say if her neighbor applied for an exception for their "therapy rooster" that crows every morning at 4 am?

Poor decision-making skills at work.

[AnywhereElse]

Originally Posted by Wmsn4Life

I have no tolerance for people who do something that is against the law, then prey on sympathy and try all kinds of ridiculous methods to get around the law, including talking the the Dept. of Justice in an attempt to be allowed to break the law.

It doesn't matter if the county and all kinds of cities around theirs allow pigs. If their city does not allow pigs, then they should not have bought the pig. It's easy to check. They just assumed they'd be allowed to have "Twinkie" because they are "a special case."

Now city officials will look like the bad guys when they have to enforce their own ordinance when, in reality, making an exception in Twinkie's case could open the door for who knows what. I wonder what this mom would say if her neighbor applied for an exception for their "therapy rooster" that crows every morning at 4 am?

Poor decision-making skills at work.

I read your response before reading the article but going back to read it, I agree with you. I have a son with DS who is 26 years old and functions at the 4 year old level and I would not have done this at any point. If I wanted the pig so badly, I would have approached the city prior to getting the pig to see if changes could be made to the law, you know, doing research too on how the other cities came to allow it. I would never introduce a "family member" into our group that might have to be sent away. I would seriously question having a pig that most likely will be 40 lbs, you know they always come in high, around a child with DS since children with DS can be pretty rough (I worked in the school as an aide in addition to experience with my own child). Truly, I don't know what this family was thinking. My son has a guinea pig, Sparky and we do have two dogs. I do wonder about the allergies because I know with dogs, there are at least a couple that are non-allergic. Being a parent of a child with DS, I hate it when others try to get over and make the rest of us look bad.