Regular dogs do not belong everywhere. I was riding an incredibly crowded subway this weekend, and a pug was sitting in one of the seats. While the dog’s presence amused some subway riders, I was slightly annoyed. Why the owner couldn’t put the pug on her lap so somebody else could sit down, I don’t know.
There is a clear exception to this rule, and that is service animals. Service animals are essential to the people they serve and are allowed in any business or public place by law. The importance of service animals far outweighs any individual’s discomfort with them. To deny a person access to their service dog in a public or private place is discriminatory and extremely dangerous. One woman with epilepsy dealt with such ignorance firsthand when her “friend” insisted she didn’t need to bring her service dog everywhere she went. This “friend” would quickly learn that this is untrue.
