Service animals, such as seeing eye dogs, emotional support animals, and therapy dogs, are often treated unfairly by the public, and many people will disregard the importance of their roles and break rules that have, and should be in place (i.e., not petting working support animals, stepping on them when they are present on public transportation with their human, etc.). These animals, while not pets, are very important to society, and especially to people with disabilities and chronic illnesses that prevent them from functioning normally without assistance (e.g., the blind, people with autism that need support animals, people with gluten allergies, etc.).
My goal with this petition is to bring to the light the injustice that service animals endure on a daily basis, and to make others aware of how important this is to people who require assistance from a service animal. My target group is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which I believe requires a new addition to their policy to require service animals to be treated as persons (like K9 officers and fire dogs, in which any harm caused to these dogs is treated with the same punishment as if it were done to a human being), and the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, Inc., which works to bring to focus the importance of therapy dogs to people who have endured extreme trauma.
I believe it is important that more people see the importance of these animals, and that they are given the same rights as any human being, especially as an employee of a government agency.
