The Kokito Standard
A tiny black French bulldog puppy, named Kokito, may
finally be the turning point of how businesses handle support animals in public
places. I think it is clear there are a
number of competing interests around the issue of support dogs in public places. Major stakeholders in this issue are businesses' bottom line and
the public’s safety. Although customer
service drives businesses and is a primary concern, first and foremost businesses
who serve the public have to comply with the law. As noted in prior posts, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the applicable law and the ADA prohibits privately owned
businesses from discriminating against people with disabilities, as well as mandates that
people can bring their service animals into these businesses. The justification for having such animals is not clearly defined in
the ADA, other than it can’t be a “pet.”
However, the ADA doesn’t require people to carry any kind of proof on them that
their animal is a required service animal, so there is a lot of ambiguous ground
between “pet” and “service animal” that is left to businesses to sort out. This means people who are
working in businesses that cater to the public have to make decisions, often in the moment, about
what animals are appropriate and how to accommodate them to stay in compliance with the law. Should the ADA require some sort of proof for support dog owners to help take the burden off business owners and their employees?
This whole issue
seems to have come to a head with the death of Kokito a few weeks ago. The French bulldog puppy suffocated to death in an overhead compartment of a United flight
when a frazzled mom with a teen, baby and puppy on her hands, and a flight attendant with a strict schedule and full plane
of impatient passengers, failed to reach
an understanding about where the dog could safely travel. Did Kokito have to die? I don't think so. Simply training airline employees in proper care of animals could have headed that off. Belated, as a result of this tragic event, and other
less extreme but no less telling blunders, United Airlines, has completely suspended its animal cargo service with it reviews its animal transport program.
In addition, for in-cabin animals, United is instituting the use of brightly colored animal bag tags to distinguish pet carriers from other types of carry-on bags for animals carried onto planes by their owners. Will something as simply as colorful tags help? It might make people take the designation of support animals more seriously. United is also going to require people to more clearly document that their animal is more than a mere pet, such as detailed vaccination records and documentation that the animal is trained, including it won't go to the bathroom in the terminal or on the plane. Again, will that help? I think so because it might cause animal owners to take responsibility for their support animals as something more than pets on planes.
In addition, for in-cabin animals, United is instituting the use of brightly colored animal bag tags to distinguish pet carriers from other types of carry-on bags for animals carried onto planes by their owners. Will something as simply as colorful tags help? It might make people take the designation of support animals more seriously. United is also going to require people to more clearly document that their animal is more than a mere pet, such as detailed vaccination records and documentation that the animal is trained, including it won't go to the bathroom in the terminal or on the plane. Again, will that help? I think so because it might cause animal owners to take responsibility for their support animals as something more than pets on planes.
I think despite United’s
well-earned reputation as the airline NOT to use if you have to transport or travel with an
animal, it has a chance to be the leader in the business-world about how to
find ways to safely accommodate support animals in public. But, what I think it will all come down to
for any business is simple: education. Take a cue from the restaurant industry, and provide adequate training to employees in
privately owned companies that cater to the public so they know what to do when
they encounter a support animal. Make sure employees know how to recognize such an
animal, how to enforce their industry’s standards with respect to the animal,
and to at the same time comply with all laws.
Yes, it might be time consuming to conduct training, but such training
might protect the public and the Kokito’s of the future.
Works Cited
CBSPhiladelphia1. “Dog Bound for Kansas Mistakenly
Shipped to Japan via United Airlines.”YouTube, YouTube, 14 Mar. 2018,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDmB5Oz46jo.
Commonly
Asked Questions About Service Animals in Places of Business, www.ada.gov/archive/gasrvc.htm.
“Include Service Animal Protocol in Restaurant
Employee Training.” National Restaurant Association,
www.restaurant.org/Manage-My-Restaurant/Workforce-Management/Training/Include-service-animal-protocol-in-employee-traini.
It
will stop accepting new reservations for its PetSafe program. “United Suspends
Pet Cargo Flights.” CNNMoney, Cable News Network,
money.cnn.com/2018/03/20/news/companies/united-airlines-pets/index.html.
Press,
Associated. “United Airlines to Issue Special Pet Carrier Tags after Dog's
Death.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 15 Mar. 2018, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/united-airlines-to-issue-special-pet-carrier-tags-after-dogs-death.
Stack, Liam. “United Airlines Apologizes After
Dog Dies in Overhead Compartment.”The New York Times, The New York
Times, 13 Mar. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/business/united-dead-dog.html.
Grace,
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting when you mention that business can make the decision about what animals are aloud. I figured maybe there was a law already that decided the types of animals aloud, if a business aloud service animals. It makes sense though. Usually you see the same dog breeds that are specialized in being service animals (like German Shepherds, Golden Retrievers, Labs, etc.), but I am curious if there are certain breeds that are not aloud to be service animals? Or, how the whole process of getting a service animal works? I agree that education is the key to gaining more knowledge about service animals, or anything really. The more you are out in the world and learning about certain things always creates growth.
Grace,
ReplyDeleteThis actually broke my heart into peices. I can't believe that lack of guidelines led to a tiny french bulldog to be killed in the chaos. I don't understand though why people aren't required to bring their documentation. I feel like maybe implementing some kind of dog, or maybe an add on to a dogs tag could be a really good way to fix this. That way people can't abuse the program but all the patients who truly need the companions can have this easy fix that won't take too much space or inconvience them too much to ease businesses minds. I also agree that education is going to be very important. Letting employees who could come in contact with these sort of animals, and the owners themselves learning more about the situation they are in. I think this could make it easier to not get these "misunderstandings" like what happened to the french bulldog.
I find it very controversial that the ADA doesn't require people to require proof that their animal is a service animal, yet these business cannot turn them away. If there is nothing to distinguish between a service animal and a pet than how is the business ultimately going to make the right decision regarding the animal. I find it heartbreaking what happened to those dogs on the airline and agree that proper training and official procedures need to be put in place.
ReplyDeleteI worked for years as a home health care giver, and was around a huge amount of "service" animals. I always understood the difference between pet, and service animal, but my patients often did not. I saw this conflict with public transportation, for disabled clients, and their support animals.Apparently, the line has been blurred lately to include animals who are barely trained . I think this has caused a huge up surge in animals on flights- where as before it was more limited. It is awful for the families that have suffered losses of pets, due to uneducated flight personnel. Although I must think that the flight attendant feel horrible when something goes wrong as well. Hopefully going forward, the airlines can put into practice better safeguards for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI heard about this incident a week or so ago and it broke my heart and had me wondering if you were going to be mentioning it in your blog or not. I completely agree that United has the chance to be a leader in safely accommodating support animals and I wonder how they will continue to follow up on the issue. This has me wondering how time consuming and potentially expensive it might be to start training employees at restaurants to handle support animal situations. It's interesting to think that so much might change all from this one heart breaking incident if only something so tragic didn't need to happen in order to cause change.
ReplyDelete