Frog Applause by Teresa Burritt for November 05, 2017

A close friend recently bought a small lap dog, and passes her off as his guard dog

I’ve seen those vests and such online. People are always ready to make a buck even if it’s not on the up and up.

Is that his therapy turtle? Is there a difference between an animal used for emotional support vs one used to help a disabled person perform specific tasks? Any animal can be used for emotional support, but one trained to perform certain tasks can cost thousands of dollars.

My state is one of the states without any laws. I’m embarrassed for my fellow citizenry.

Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.”

A task list for psychiatric dogs:

https://www.psychdogpartners.org/resources/work-tasks/work-task-list

Another good explanation:

https://www.anythingpawsable.com/service-dog-tasks-must-be-trained/

Personally, I think it only matters if one is attempting to pass an untrained animal as a service animal in selling it. If you want to pretend your dog is a service animal, have at it. Just don’t try to sell your untrained animal to somebody who needs a trained animal to assist them. But that is already fraud, isn’t it?

While we were not particularly close, Jeremy always insisted on giving me a big hug whenever chance forced us into proximity at any gathering, which made my shell crawl.

Paying for the sins of the masters, as always.

Turtles make slow service animals. I have to go walk my lobster.

There was a time, before Disney wised up, when people were hiring themselves out as a “rent-a-cripple” to help others get to the front of the line first. Note: yes, that’s a very non-PC term, but it’s the most accurate one I could think of.

So, according to the research cited by alert reader @ғʟʏɪɴɢғʟᴏᴡᴇʀᴘᴏᴛ, these mere “pets” decried by the, ahem, “cartoonist” may be natural service animals without any specific service animal training whatsoever?

What’s the real issue here? Fake service animals or fake service animal regulation experts?

P.S. (and apropos of nothing in particular):

Arkansas: Motto – Literacy Ain’t Everything!

This turtle was the result of a whim that had suddenly occurred to Des Esseintes a short while before his leaving Paris. Looking one day at an Oriental carpet with iridescent gleams of colour and following with his eyes the silvery glints that ran across the web of the wool, the colours of which were an opaque yellow and a plum violet, he had told himself: it would be a fine experiment to set on this carpet something that would move about and the deep tint of which would bring out and accentuate these tones.

Finally he settled on stones whose hues would supplement each other,—the hyacinth of Compostella, mahogany red; the aquamarine, sea green; the balass ruby, vinegar rose; the Sudermania ruby, pale slate-colour. Their comparatively feeble play of colours would suffice to light up the deadness of the dull, grey shell, while leaving its full value to the brilliant bouquet of jewelled blossoms which they framed in a slender garland of uncertain splendours.

Des Esseintes stood gazing at the turtle where it lay huddled together in one corner of the dining-room, flashing fire in the dim half light.

From Against the Grain (A Rebours), by J.-K. Huysmans, 1884

http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/jkh/r04.html

The double crucifix on the back of the tortoise represents that The Tortoise is our savior, saviour..

Turtles need love too. Please hug a turtle today.

1. I miss the turtles on Frog Blog. I used to feed them every day. I used to try feeding Vlad, too, but I kept running out of raw meat.

2. Why doesn’t “Frog Applause” have a Wikipedia page? I smell a conspiracy on the outskirts of Froglandia. And it smells like double-crucifix scat.

So, which is the other state without service animal regulation, and how much did they pay to have their identity concealed?

I recently discovered that my cats had filed for service status for me! AND, it was accepted!

I do not have a service turtle. I do not even have a service servant! But if I did have a pet Giant Turtle, I would hug him and squeeze him and call him…. WAIT! The immediate preceding has been an erroneous sidetrack. You are now lost in the deepest and darkest dank depths of my mind mine![RESET] But if I did have a pet Giant Turtle, I would not exploit him for my political screed. I would simply condemn the misuse of “service dog” rights and privileges. A noble cause needs no support from turtles when it has the mighty and righteous wrath of Froglandia’s finest on its side!

Hip! Hip! Huzzah!

T., FWIW, “…a pet as as a service…” Hope you’re well.