BELLE FOURCHE—Understanding service animals and how their rights work in coordination with the rights of business owners took center-stage when Workplace Disabilities Network of the Black Hills and the Belle Fourche Chamber of Commerce partnered to present a training session covering the topic. Over lunch hour on May 12 several community members gathered at Bowman Hall to eat Domino’s pizza and learn about service animals in the workplace and in public spaces.
The information session was led by Tony Russell, President of Lion Heart LLC. He shared his personal story about how he came to have a service dog. After being in the Air Force for ten years, Russell was injured in 2018 and spent a lot of time recovering at Walter Reed. During his recovery when a therapy dog was involved in his care, the doctors saw significant improvements in his recovery and quickly suggested that he get a service dog.
However, that task was harder than expected. “When I applied for a service dog, we were on a two year waiting list and we were going to be charged $20,000 for that,” explained Russell.
With a little bit of luck, a special dog came through for him. “I ended up being the recipient of the Rush puppy! The Rapid City Rush hockey team—during the 2020 season—raised a dog for a veteran, and I received Rush,” shared Russell. “Who is this dog right here! Rush and I went through some training together and this dog has literally saved my life!”
Through his experiences with his service animal, Russell has learned so much. Russell said, “What I’ve realized is that there is a lot of misinformation out there on service animals and some of the good information that we have, gets twisted. So we want to make sure that we are giving you the best information, the correct information, and in a way that you can apply it to your business organization.”
Russell is passionate about helping people. “I want to educate and advocate for people with disabilities, as well as, business owners to make sure that people in my city, my town are going to have direct information so that we can work together,” he said.
The Americans with Disability Act (ADA) is what governs the laws on service animals. “Only a dog that is individually trained to perform a task for any person with a disability—the handler itself has to have a disability as defined by the ADA— and then the dog has to be trained in some type of task that is going to help that disability,” explained Russell.
The only animal, with the exception of a mini horse, that is allowed to be a service animal, by law is a dog. Any other animal would be considered an emotional support animal. “There is no national standard that says your dog has to be trained this way or has to be trained for so many hours,” explained Russell. “You can train your own animal, as long as you can make sure that it’s able to do a medical task for you.”
As for the business owners, Russell suggests they write policies for their business so all of the employees know how to handle and respond to different scenarios regarding service animals. When it comes to service animals, if a business person can’t see the obvious disability, they are allowed to ask two questions. First, is this a service animal? And second, what task has the animal been trained to perform? He said, “They’re not required to respond to anything else, especially with our HIPAA laws. They’re not required to tell you what medical conditions that they have and you may not ask for documentation or ask to see the animal perform the task.”
Russell also explained when and how you can ask for a service dog to leave your establishment.
He said, “The laws are written so that you have the ability to remove a dog from your business, to protect your business and protect your customers, but that person with disabilities has the right to be able to come back in, with the dog, as long as the dog is under control.”
A service dog has a job to do for his person. Russell summed it up by saying that a service dog is a medical device and all customers are allowed in, anyone who comes in with a medical device is allowed. One can’t discriminate against someone who has a wheelchair because it squeaks, or against someone who has a pacemaker because we don’t like metallic devices.
There is so much to learn about the ADA and service animals. Russell is happy to share his knowledge with anyone wanting to learn more and navigate different situations. “We love sitting down with folks and just trying to explain to them what a service dog truly should be doing and how it should be interacting and what everyones rights are as well,” he said. More information can also be obtained at Rocky Mountain ADA Center at RockyMountainADA.org
Read the full issue of the Belle Fourche Beacon by clicking here.
