It’s helper DOG now, not helper animal

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. When the  ADA was born, the law defined a service animal as

… any guide dog, signal dog or other animal individually trained to provide assistance for the benefit of an individual with a disability. …

In other words, a trained helper monkey had the same legal recognition (and right to accompany a disabled person in public) as a guide dog. According to The Bark, revised regulations are narrowed to dogs only (italics are mine).

… any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability. ..

The new regulations will go into effect six months from the date they’re published in the Federal Register.

Rabbits taking a long flight: The University of Victoria, way up in Vancouver Island, is being overrun by feral rabbits.  When they sent out an urgent plea for someone, anyone, to help them out by agreeing to take the little guys (and girls) off their hands, they got no takers — until they were put in touch with The Wild Rose Rescue Ranch of Whitehouse, Texas. From The Vancouver Sun:

“We called virtually every sanctuary we could find around North America, and we got to Texas and they said, ‘Okay, send them down,’ ” said Laura-Leah Shaw, a federal and provincial Green party candidate, who has been working to find places for the animals. “If we can get something locally, that’s fine. But if it’s a choice to go to Texas or die, that’s an easy choice,” she added.

Once the paperwork is sorted out, a thousand bunnies will be heading to the Lone Star State. I know there’s a joke in there somewhere…

Conference weekend: Three of our staff will be road warriors this weekend, reporting from the eastern time zone. Gina will be in Atlanta for the 147th annual American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Convention, being held at the Georgia World Congress Center.  Meanwhile, Christie and Kim will be reporting from equally steamy Washington, D.C., for the No Kill Conference, co-sponsored by Maddie’s Fund, the No Kill Advocacy Center, the Animal Law Program at the George Washington University Law School, and Friends of Animals. Everybody who is anybody in the no kill movement should be in DC this weekend. Safe travels, you three.  We’re looking forward to hearing from both conferences!

Two essays on facing the end: I was told after last week’s post that I should give fair notice when tissues are called for. Consider yourself warned, although these two posts aren’t sad so much as they’re beautiful.  Ok, they’re sad, too. From John Burns of The New York Times‘ Week in Review, a lovely story of Scuzzi, an alley cat who lived in Delhi. Back in the US, Dr. V from PawCurious gives us the best blog post I read this week.  It’s called “Passage.“  Hankies ready, please.

Turtle Ninja: If it weren’t for Liz Palika and her delightful updates on her hard-shelled pals, I wouldn’t have my turtle radar tuned as finely as it is now, and as a result I might have missed this outstanding blog post from FrogDog Blog on a turtle with a definite attitude.

Coming home from Paula’s on the weekend, I encountered a mammoth turtle about 3/4 of the way across the road. “Mammoth” is the appropriate term – this thing had to weigh at least 27 pounds, and was the size of a hubcap. It was covered in green slime, and so far as I could tell, it wasn’t moving.

Read on. You’ll find out it moved. Oh yes, definitely moved.

I always like to hear from readers, especially if you have tips, and links for interesting stories.  Give me a shout in the comments, or better yet, send me an e-mail.

Photo credits:  Guide dog, healthyeyes.org. Painted turtle, bullmarketfrogs.