Service Animal Policy

Service Animal

Service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting, and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service animals are working animals, not pets.

Under Title ll and lll of the ADA, service animals are limited to dogs. In addition to the provisions about service dogs, the revised ADA regulations have a new, separate provision about miniature horses that have been individually trained to do work or perfrom tasks for people with disabilities.

Allergies and fear of dogs are not valid reasons for denying access or refusing service to people using service animals. When a person who is allergic to dog dander and a person who uses a service animal must spend time in the same room or facility, they both should be accommodated by assigning them, if possible, to separate locations within the room or different rooms in the library.

Emotional Support Animal (ESA)

While Emotional Support Animals (sometimes called Comfort Animals or Therapy Animals) are often used as a part of a medical treatment plan as therapy animals, they are not considered service animals under the ADA and are not allowed at the Forrest City Public Library. It does not matter if a library user has a note from a doctor that states that the person has a disabilithy and needs to have the animal for emotional support. A doctor's letter does not turn an ESA into a service animal.

Rules Related to Service Animals:

When it is not obvious what service an animal provides, only limited inquiries are allowed. Staff may ask two questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability, and (2) what work, or task has the dog been trained to perform. Staff cannot ask about the person's disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task.

Visitors Responsibility for Service Animals

1. The service animal must be vaccinated and licensed as required by state law and/or local ordinance
2. Under the ADA, service animals must be harnessed, leashed, or tethered, unless these devices interfere with the service animal's work or the individual's disability prevents using these devices. In that case, the individual must maintain control of the animal through voice, signal, or other effective controls.
3. The service animal should be under the full control of the library user and always in close proximity.
4. A person will only be asked to remove their service animal from the premises if: (1) the dog is out of control (uncontrolled barking, jumping on other people, running away) and the handler does not take effective action to control it or (2) the dog is not housebroken.
5. Patrons must manage the animal's need to urinate and defecate by taking the animal to an appropriate area; feces must be cleaned immediately and disposed of properly (not the responsibility of FCPL).
6. Staff are not required to provide care or food for a service animal.

Failure to meet these responsibilities may result in the handler and the animal being asked to leave the library.

Source: ada.gov/service_animals