Comments on: Guide dogs for the blind? PETA staffer says forget it

By: anon

anon — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:16:10 +0000

PETA is totaly uneducated about service dogs…worse yet the idea of having a human assistant is uncomprehendable…what about those of us that have Psychiatric Service Dogs? What? Are you going to poke someone while they are having an anxiety attack? Are you going to try to hug and soothe someone while they are having PTSD flashbacks and make it worse by doing that? Are you going to tell someone not to self injure or wake up whem someone has hypersomnia as part of their mental illness? and expect them to listen to you? and expect that it’s that easy to do so? No. You can’t even compare human assistance to Service Dogs, the amount of work that is put into finding the perfect match, giving them the upmost quality care and training is nothing like what you would imagine…it’s a long and detailed process..but if done correctly really benefits both the dog and person. Afterall, if the disabled people took such bad care and mistreated their dogs…how would the service dog be around longer to help? No, the disabled take excellent care of their dogs…not only because of how appreciated and priceless their jobs are but also because if they didn’t take good care of them, they wouldn’t have a service dog around to help them down the road….and all those years of bonding and training would have been down the drain.

PETA is the last and most uneducated org to be trying to tell people about service dogs because the reality is…some people actually listen to them and they are spreading nothing but nonesense. The real people who know are the people who puppy raise and those who need a service dog

By: barbara Godding

barbara Godding — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:09:08 +0000

why doesn’t PETA leave the disabled alone
Service dogs are a good thing PETA can go to hell all I care

By: Lis

Lis — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:46:37 +0000

Roxanne, I’d love to know exactly what is “sad” about seeing a dog in loving, happy partnership with a human being who loves the dog and values the partnership.

Service dogs give their humans something another human never can: the ability to live and act independently, the ability to be functional adults in relation to other humans rather than functional dependent children.

PETA regards that as an outrage, because humans are among the tame animals that PETA would like to see go extinct.

By: roxanne

roxanne — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:29:09 +0000

I had a Bouver Bernois (berner) for 5 years… The dogs are bread for the Blind..

The was MY BEST BUD IN THE CRUEL WORLD. It is very sad to see that the animals are bread for these humans, ears, eyes etc.. When these people need help, and shoud get human help, but unfortunatley, these HUMANS do not eat kibble, and expect to have A HUGE PAY at the end of the week or month. Not to mention, these humans abusing of the people whom are in real need… YOUR BEST BUD IN LIFE, WILL NEVER ASK NOR ABUSE YOU… THEY WILL GIVE YOU UNCONDIONAL LOVE AND HELP…. NO MONEY REQUIRED…. Human beings should take a lesson from animals…

To my best friend and king of my home in the world, Whisky, you are and always be my best friend in the cruel world.

Thks for all you done for us… RIP MY MAN…

ROXANNE

By: Lowell

Lowell — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 21:15:18 +0000

apparently those advocating using people as “assistance people” for the disabled have never bothered to read “First Lady of the Seeing Eye” where Frank clearly described the significant problems with doing that. Do dogs sometimes act lovingly to those who abuse them? certainly. So do some people. Of course, plenty of dogs (and people) act lovingly towards those who do NOT abuse them. Do dogs that fail to make it as service dogs go into pet homes? yes, they do. Do they “take away from shelter dogs”? NO they do not. What makes anyone think a “shelter dog” has a greater right to a loving home than a bred dog? What makes anyone think that somehow having puppies that are the result of lack of planning, care, selection or placement are “better” than puppies that are the careful result of selection for health, trainability, soundness, and who have been carefully raised in loving homes and provided some training as to behavior? Yes, some organizations use shelter dogs for some service roles. But they nowhere come close to the numbers of dogs that are NEEDED for these roles. Maybe PETA ought to get their members to go to shelters and start trying to train some of those dogs they think can fill the service roles. I’d bet that those disabled people who need service dogs and are still waiting for one would be happy to take one.

By: The OTHER Pat

The OTHER Pat — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 16:45:55 +0000

Comment by Sarah — March 7, 2011 @ 5:38 am

“Working dogs, on the whole, are probably happier than those that are just pets.”

No judgmental generalizations THERE!

By: Alexis

Alexis — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:51:40 +0000

This article was very well written. I am a guide dog puppy raiser and my guide puppy gets plenty of time to just be a dog. In addition, he gets attention and praise everywhere he goes. In addition to breeding for certain traits, breeding also assures that a dog will have a chance at a long life which can’t always be so with a shelter dog. When I guide dog does get matched with a person they often are allowed to sleep on the bed and the couch. This is the preference of the new owner. I can say most certainly though that either way these dogs are VERY happy! Just ask Moxie.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 12:38:26 +0000

Wonderful article! You DO know dogs. Working dogs, on the whole, are probably happier than those that are just pets. The psychology of the dog is that he lives to please his alpha. As long as alpha is kind to him, his life is better than most humans’.

By: BARBARA GODDING

BARBARA GODDING — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 22:02:11 +0000

PETA SHOULD BACKOFF SERVICE DOGS ARE WONDERFUL SO THEY BETTER GET THEIR FACTS RIGHT

By: Tim Kilgore

Tim Kilgore — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:35:26 +0000

Hello. there are a couple of points I’d like to make as a guide handler on my third dog. Firstly, even though my current dog is developing arthritis in both his hips and spine — and is on a two week vacation — by the way to try to rest, He still loves to work. A couple of days ago before he had his x-rays to determine the extent of his problem, he stopped at a particular down-curb and when I praised him, he wagged his tail vigorously. He loves to work and I’m going to be really sad if I have to retire him early.