Jan 2nd, 2009 at 9:28 am
The Choice
Via Tyler Cowen, a New York Times article on service animals for the disabled by Rebecca Skloot observes that “Some people enjoy running into an occasional primate or farm animal while shopping. Many others don’t.”
Tyler says he “would enjoy running into an occasional primate or farm animal while shopping” but never has. I like to think I would enjoy it, too. How does the blog-reading public feel about this?
39 Responses to “The Choice”
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January 2nd, 2009 at 9:33 am
Stores around here are packed with primates. They seem to be there of their own accord, however. I wouldn’t describe many of them as particularly ‘helpful.’
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:34 am
I was walking along a street in Seattle some years ago, in the middle of a delicate conversation with my boss at the time, when she looked up and observed: “It’s a … goat,” which somehow distracted me from the very fine point I was making.
And so it was. Someone was walking their goat, and we had all stopped at the same corner to wait for the walk light. I remember it looked down, saw a bright maple leaf on the sidewalk, and snatched it up, chewing happily until the light changed.
Neither of us recalls the very lucid and seriously important discussion we’d been having, but we remember the goat.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:40 am
I wouldn’t mind, but I like animals.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:44 am
I ran into a woman sporting a “McCain-Palin” shirt at the super market a few days before the election. Does that count?
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:49 am
Not a huge animal person, but so long as they were reasonably well behaved, count me as someone that would enjoy it.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:51 am
I hadn’t realized (non-human) primates were being used that way. I think we all know where that will lead.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:54 am
ANTISEMITE JUICEBOX MAFIA SELFHATING
Oh, wait, sorry, wrong post.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:55 am
I think that most people are very differential toward people who need animals to assist them. I am at least.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:56 am
I’ve never encountered a non-canine service animal. And it’s not like I’m some reculse who never leaves the house.
January 2nd, 2009 at 9:58 am
Eh, I think most people who say they would enjoy it should really add the caveat “… once” to their sentence. Primates and farm animals are really smelly. Once is novelty, every day would be annoying to the extreme.
But then, I hate dogs. My tortoise doesn’t bark at people or bite!
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:01 am
I love animals, as long as they keep those smelly tortoises away from public spaces.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:03 am
I don’t know if I would enjoy seeing one in first class, which is where the horse rides when traveling by air. Unless I was seeing it from coach, which is where I would probably be riding…
… OK, I would love it.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:04 am
I see lots of farm animals when I shop. I don’t think they are very useful, bein’ all butchered an’ all.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:28 am
I should think it depends more on what I’m shopping for than the type of animal I’m confronted with. Snakes in a shoe store? Hmmm. But Orangutans in a Walmart’s–Not sure I’d notice….
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:32 am
I don’t know what I think.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:32 am
The problem with primates and farm animals as helper animals is that you, as the non-helped, are not supposed to interact with them and thereby distract the animal from its helping duties.
And seriously, what’s the point of seeing a primate in public without being able to play hilarious games with it?
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:46 am
my question is, why stop there? if i required that kind of assistance i’d go straight for the seeing-eye liger.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:50 am
I’m very accommodating of all kinds of non-humans, but I draw the line at demonic familiars.
Photograph the animal helper. If the picture shows red eyes, then cast the animal into a lake. If it doesn’t sink, it’s demonic.
If the animal doesn’t have eyes, definitely throw it into a lake.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:50 am
Good news for W; monkey boys can find work.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:00 am
There would be something simultaneously sublime AND ridiculous about seeing that little horse. Enough to make up for the, um, droppings.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:20 am
I’m Peter — I live in a medium-sized city, am not home-bound, and have never seen a non-canine service animal. Even the number of canine service animals that I see on a regular basis is limited. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that this is some out-of-control problem that requires the banning of non-canine service animals. Perhaps some sort of card issued by a doctor is the best way to handle questions of service animal versus fraudulant use of the title to sneak a pet on the bus, etc. But really, a ban seems a bit extreme to me.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:23 am
A credential authority would solve most of the problems that the article cites. If you are pressed about your animal, you show its credentials. Hash out all other issues within the authority.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:43 am
Those objecting to non-canine service animals in the linked article really struck me as petty.
There’s a particular kind of narrow-minded conformist that looks upon anyone doing something out of the ordinary as a chiseler who’s trying to get away with something or to put one over on everyone else, though they’re not sure quite how.
When pressed, they usually cite some more or less transparently ridiculous “public safety” concern. That guy’s parrot could distract someone and cause an accident!
January 2nd, 2009 at 12:42 pm
I live in L.A. and I too have never seen a non-canine service animal, although the city did have some success last year in using goats to keep the weeds trimmed at a new park.
I really dig non-human primates, too, but you have to remember that despite them looking cute on TV or cuddling up to Michael Jackson or whatnot, chimpanzees are really strong and will try to rip off your face and/or nuts if they get angry.
Come to think of it, maybe that’s what happened to Michael Jackson.
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
The little horse is cute. The non-human primates I’m not so sure about, but I guess it’s better than a lot of what happens to them.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:38 pm
The disabled and elderly can get prescription for pets for companionship. In Portland, Oregon people have been boarding buses with rabbits, ferrets, and other animals that get into altercations with dogs.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Heh, the problem is to GODDAMN MANY PRIMATES while shopping!
Get rid of the primates, let the “service animals” do what they want – like restocking the shelves properly.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:22 pm
Actually, my mother works for the state blind school, and so has gotten to know a few of the people around that community. One of them raises seeing-eye horses.
The only big problem I see is one mentioned above: people might be too tempted to play with them. I know I always want to pet the dogs.
January 2nd, 2009 at 10:52 pm
Not a service animal per se….at least I don’t think so.
But last year I was out shopping at the grocery store with my 2 year old daughter in the produce section of my local HEB (Texas grocery chain). I have my back turned away from the cart when suddenly I hear my daughter shriek
“Look Pa….A MOUSE!!!!”
I turn around and my daughter is jumping up and down in the cart pointing at this older, coifed up woman in the next aisle who happened to have a chihuahua tucked in her purse with its head poking out.
I say “no honey, that’s not a mouse, that’s a puppy”
And then my daughter leans out of the cart staring intently at the chihuahua and shouts again “No Pa, IT’S A MOUSE!”
Meanwhile customers all around us are doubling over with laughter while the produce manager is scurrying over with a broom to find this “mouse”. And the woman just turns, leaves her cart full of groceries behind, and flees the store.
Nothing like a 2 year old to put things is perspective. Heh.
January 5th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Until we assign midgets to all the blind people, I honestly think that the authorities should be paying more attention to people who complain about service animals. Seriously. In this corner: you have a guy whose daily routine is disturbed purely because he lets himself get in a tizzy over the sight of an animal that he wasn’t expecting to see. And in the other corner: a freaking BLIND GUY. Not. Even. Close.
January 5th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
I for one welcome our robotic overlords and even helper-non-primate creatures.
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