Anyone suppose my doctor would certify my 10' Boa Constrictor as an emotional support snake?
<snifff>
On the bonding issue, you are also lacking in understanding of reality. They most definitely bond when they choose to, and it is just as strong of a bond.
I had a cat "bond" to me, best way to fix that is a hose
Nobody has mentioned the pig story so far. It hasn't been that long.
First world problems, IMO.
There is no need to register a dog at all for it to be a service dog. HIPPA ensures that no one can ask what service it provides. We bought a vest with the $50 we didn't pay.
I call them 'self transporting emergency rations'.
This is my Psychiatric Wellness vulture. He is gluten intolerant just like I am.
There is no need to register any dog anywhere. We've done this for years.
It is photoshopped....
Look at the shadow on the ground.... It does NOT match up with the size of the bird...
My friend she does parrot rescue, at least down here once they get their feathers back you can turn them out into the neighborhood flocks. She probably gets 10-12 surrenders a month.
It may not be Photoshopped. While I did just grab it from the internet, it looks like this may be the originating link. That link suggests it is photos from the 1970s Amazon, published in National Geographic.
I'm not sure what type of bird it is but I assume it is in the vulture family. Maybe a condor. Condors have a wingspan of between 8 and 10 feet. They are massive. Here is a condor:
One of my wife's professors in grad school had a siezure dog like that. It's amazing to me how they can detect such things.
Ok, I don’t post much but this thread strikes close to home. To illustrate what it takes to become a *real* service dog…
We, actually my wife, is a volunteer puppy raiser (PR) for Canine Companions for Independence (cci.org). CCI provides service dogs free of charge to those in need. All the pups (goldens, labs and golden / lab crosses) are bred within a 90 mile radius of the CCI headquarters in Santa Rosa, CA then at 8 weeks of age flown around the country to the PR’s. The PR’s then spend the next 16 months raising, providing basic obedience and agility training, teaching them to be good citizens and in general provide a loving home. Then, at about 18 months of age, the pups are turned back over to the CCI regional hq for another six months of advanced training. After that they are paired with an individual with a need and go through another two weeks of training with their new forever owner. Only 40% of the dogs make the cut and go on to be a true service dog. Yes, it is a tear jerker for the PR’s to give them up after so long but we know that going in and there are those with needs greater than ours. Besides, the dogs don't belong to us, they belong to CCI. The pups that don't go on to graduate and be a service dog are offered first to the puppy raiser, then to an individual that had a part in the raising of the dog or to satisfy a long list of fully vetted individuals wanting a wonderful pet.
To show how obedient they are, last Sunday Karen took Knight (our current 16 month old pup in training) to a CCI PR outing at a restaurant in Richmond. Since it is a 1 1/2 hour drive back home they had to leave early and in the parking lot a lady expressed surprise that she didn’t even realize a dog was in the restaurant. Karen smiled at her and said “actually, there are seven dogs in there”.
Meet Knight, our current pup who goes back for advanced training in May. That is actually his food on the floor and his paws. They dare not even try to eat anything off the floor. And he is just a pup yet in training.
Don’t get me started on internet sales of fake service dog vests.
-jeff
As much as I love animals (even dogs), I wouldn't want it to be legal for anyone to take any animal anywhere. There would have to be behavior standards and the standards of trained service animals is a good example.
