The Animal Advocate

By Susanne Pettit-Crossman

Advocate (n. ad ve kit) One who pleads for or on behalf of another; one who speaks for a cause.

There was once a young girl who lived beside the Ottawa area’s Experimental Farm, which housed all kinds of animals. This little girl loved to help out on the farm. She adored animals and would do anything to work with them, play with them or just plain be with them. She would often rescue stray dogs or injured animals found near her home. Wherever animals were, there she was!

The girl also had a genuine love for, and interest in, people -- especially people who had disabilities or needed a little extra help or attention.

Years later, in 1991, as an adult, she was working at a day care facility where there was a little boy who wasn’t responding well to the other children or the staff. He was considered "difficult" and "a behaviour problem."

It’s no surprise that this same woman suggested that perhaps a cute, cuddly puppy might solve the boy’s problems. She picked out and purchased, with her own money, an adorable, quiet golden retriever pup.

The good news is that the little boy did respond to the puppy, and was subsequently diagnosed with a hearing loss. Because of the woman, he got the correct help when he needed it.

The bad news is that the puppy itself started to create problems at the school. It became aggressive and unmanageable, and started to bite and attack people. Unfortunately, due to blameless ignorance, it had not been temperament-tested for its assigned role. It was, in fact, what is referred to as an "alpha pup" in temperament. The pup had to be put down, leaving the woman not only devastated, but with a lesson she would never forget.

This is a true story about a woman named Joanne Moss, and it is a classic example of a good idea gone bad when it comes to the human-animal bond. It is also an example of what can and does go wrong on a much larger scale when knowledge, education and training skills are not applied properly, or legislation is not understood or interpreted correctly.

Today, five years later, Joanne’s story is much different.

When you talk to Joanne about her role over the past five years, she describes herself as a service/therapy animal advocate, an educator and a resource person for the general public, governments and private sector.

After her first puppy mistake, Joanne explored the complexities of behaviour, training, selection/suitability, health, socialization and temperament evaluation in canines. She also immersed herself in the Petiquette Program offered through the Humane Society of Ottawa-Carleton. Here she learned the theory of canine behaviour and the concepts of changing behaviours and behaviour modification.

Through the Human Animal Bond Association’s workshops and demonstrations (she became a member of this organization in 1991), Joanne learned more about human/animal-related development and bonding. She also received a beginners-level obedience training scholarship from the Centre for Applied Canine Behaviour.

In 1994, the City of Gloucester attempted to pass a by-law prohibiting dogs in its parks. Joanne got involved in the political process and team effort, resulting in a reversal of this decision. Based on her recommendations, a new by-law incorporated a sub-paragraph that excepted service animals -- dog guides for people who are blind, hearing ear dogs and special skills dogs.

Following this achievement, Joanne was invited to meet with the city’s special needs and access specialist, who asked her to produce a unique Humane Education program for children.

Along with her Belgian malinois, "Star," Joanne continued to accept referrals from various coordinators who wanted to run interactive canine visitations and presentations. The members of these groups all had disabilities. Today, however, now that companion animal visitations have become more formal, Joanne redirects the municipalities or facilities to therapy animal programs.

The Glebe Centre is a senior citizens’ home where Star and Joanne are volunteers. They originally started out visiting one resident who was deaf. Because Joanne had basic training in ASL (American Sign Language), her visits helped the woman to feel less isolated. Before long, Star and Joanne had been adopted into a whole family of seniors.

On April 8, 1995, Star passed her Canine Good Citizen test through the St. John Ambulance therapy dog evaluation. In the meantime, Joanne served with the Lions Foundation of Canada (Canine Vision/Hearing Ear Dogs/Special Skills Dogs) as a volunteer, conducting educational seminars and setting up kiosks, all the while communicating simultaneously in English and ASL.

Joanne continued successively and successfully to extend her horizons and credentials by taking on the role and responsibilities of a volunteer advocate on behalf of consumers with service dogs.

She soon saw that existing laws, policies and standards were inconsistent and vague and lacked continuity. People with disabilities and their service animals were continuing to experience discrimination while attempting to use their animals as intended. Joanne became fundamentally focused on issues relating to transportation, access, food service premises and human rights at municipal, provincial and federal levels of government.

One of Joanne’s earlier cases involved a gentleman named John Hatton and his hearing ear dog, "Sox." John was physically removed from a shopping mall in Prince Edward Island for "public health reasons" because there were food kiosks in the building. The police clearly did not know or understand John’s rights, and the issue heated up to a level where the media got involved. At this point, so did Joanne. Not only was she successful in gaining access for John to the mall with his dog, but she initiated a change in PEI’s Public Health Act, which was officially amended December 4, 1993.

Joanne fought on John Hatton’s behalf a second time. In this instance, it involved a local OC Transpo bus in the Ottawa area. Repeatedly, John and Sox were denied access onto the bus or publicly humiliated by being asked to get off the bus. At first, John tried to fight on his own by making complaints, but to no avail. Once again Joanne got involved.

The key obstacles she had to overcome included sheer ignorance on the part of the transit company. "Dog guides" is actually an umbrella term which includes the three most common types of service animals: those who help people who are blind; hearing ear dogs; and special skills dogs for people with physical disabilities. Transit personnel had the very narrow idea that a dog guide was nothing other than a labrador retriever helping someone with a white cane.

Secondly, OC Transpo had a large staff that constantly changed -- so how do you educate people on an ongoing basis?

Joanne agreed to write two articles for the staff and general public that addressed the various types of service animals now working with people with disabilities. She then designed and implemented an internal ID card for dog guide recipients. The card is bilingual and reads: "This customer is authorized to bring a service animal (dog guide) on board any OC Transpo bus. The dog accompanying this customer is a trained service animal. For verification you may ask to see an ID card issued by the training organization.

These cards, incidentally, were signed by the OC Transpo general manager, who also signed the pay cheques and was known by everyone. Needless to say, there has been a marked improvement in bus service for John and Sox.

Another incident, this one in July, 1995, involved a woman by the name of Patricia Bushby and her special skills dog, "Delta." This time it was a Harvey’s restaurant, and the issue once again revolved around the Health Protection Promotion Act. This incident also drew media coverage, this time in the "Ottawa Citizen." The proprietor had asked Bushby either to tie her dog up outside the premises or to leave.

The problem here seemed to stem from the fact that neither he nor Patricia was clear on the legislation. To add insult to injury, the Health Act wasn’t exactly clear either. Supposedly, the only dog guide recognized in the act was the "seeing eye dog."

By September of that same year, Joanne was successful in having her request for a comprehensive review of the "dog guide" within the Ontario Human Rights Code read in the throne speech, with the promise that it would be considered. She is now working with the Ministry of Health to make revisions to the Health Act, including wording that supports other service and therapy animals.

Currently, Joanne is working on a case in Port Hope, Ontario. This one is with a woman and her seizure alert dog, who were both removed from a mall. Again, ignorance prevailed. No one involved knew these types of dogs existed. In any event, the woman was requested to provide certification for the dog, which she did (supported by Epilepsy Ontario). However, even after this she was denied access again. Now Joanne, with written permission, is acting as an advocate on the woman’s behalf.

Joanne points out that although there are all kinds of laws, acts and guidelines imposed at all levels of government, the Human Rights Code supersedes them and, within this code, each case must be treated individually.

She says that individuals themselves must take responsibility for being familiar with the laws and their rights. Being a non-defensive, productive self-advocate is key to removing the barriers that people with disabilities and their dog guides face. She admits sometimes this can be a difficult task, because we live in an ever-changing world with hit-and-miss policies.

This is particularly true when it comes to the clause, "undue hardship." (People with disabilities have the right to any accommodation that does not impose "undue hardship" on the part of those involved.) How do you deal, for example, with a dog guide on the premises of a restaurant if the person sitting at the next table has asthma or is highly allergic to dogs? Which person, with which disability, takes precedence? This remains a grey area for both the consumer and the general public.

Also disappointing is that there are very few legitimate statistics and case histories to support new cases as they arise. This is because, unfortunately, very few service/therapy animal discrimination cases are actually filed with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Joanne’s achievements are quite impressive considering that she has singlehandedly implemented programs and tackled, changed and won several animal-related human rights issues. Even more remarkable when you consider she has done this on a volunteer basis for several years now.

She is currently attempting to assist an equine therapy organization known as TROtt, located south of Ottawa. This organization has been doing marvellous work with kids who have physical disabilities like cerebral palsy, spina bifida, or those caused by acquired brain injury. Unfortunately, TROtt has a $7,000 deficit. Joanne is so committed that she is willing to muck out stalls if that’s what it takes to keep them afloat.

Clearly, there is much more work to be done in examining, addressing and making changes to existing laws, by-laws, policies and procedures with regards to the use of service animals. But striving for change cannot be accomplished by one individual. All of us who are concerned must work together to achieve this.

If you have questions for Joanne Moss, she can be reached in Ottawa at (613) 830-8107.

(Susanne Pettit-Crossman is a broadcast journalist/freelance writer and former host of CBC’s "Disability Network." She is a committed member of the Human Animal Bond Association of Canada (HABAC). Susanne has cystic fibrosis and diabetes.)