Guide Dogs Seek Wider Acceptance

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Owners spotlight discrimination against service animals.

TAUNTON, Mass. — Discrimination shouldn’t happen to a dog — certainly not to a guide dog. Yet Heather Maloney’s trained guide dog Tayah has been shooed away from several Bay State stores where Maloney has tried to shop.

Maloney started working with her 2-year-old German Shepherd on Oct. 1; and since then, three store owners have objected to the dog’s coming inside, she said.

One store owner turned Maloney’s business away when she tried to bring Tayah inside a neighborhood boutique. “No dogs allowed,” she said, according to Maloney.

At two other businesses, employees waited on Maloney but made her feel uncomfortable. One questioned why the dog had come inside. The other told her to leave Tayah outside the next time, Maloney said.

“I was shocked,” Maloney, 41, said. “They might as well have told me to leave my eyes outside.”

Maloney has been legally blind since she was in her 20s, she said. She was born with a condition, retinitis pigmentosa, which caused her eyesight to fail gradually. She has pinned her hopes to lead a normal life on Tayah; and although most stores do put out the welcome mat for guide dogs, Maloney did not expect to pick and choose her destinations based on whether Tayah was welcome.

“I shouldn’t have to ask if I can bring my guide dog,” she said, because state and federal laws protect Americans with disabilities against discrimination.

A fine or mandatory training are among the penalties store owners face if investigators find they broke the public accommodation laws, according to Barbara Green, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Green confirmed the Maloney case is being investigated. She could not say when a ruling is likely.

Green did not have statistics about similar cases, but trouble with store owners is not unusual, according to Jack Hayward, communications director for Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation where Maloney’s dog Tayah was bred and trained.

“It happens all too often,” he said. “People with service dogs face this kind of thing all the time.” Hayward said the individual has to decide whether to fight or “let it slide.” As a first step, he suggested talking to the management. If that approach fails, the next step is to file a discrimination complaint with the state or federal government.

Jane Sheehan, treasurer of Guide Dog Users, Inc. said service dogs are usually accepted in public places because most business owners know about the Americans with Disabilities Act. But her organization still receives some complaints, particularly about restaurants and cab drivers who turn away clients with guide dogs. She also does not have any statistics, but believes the problem tends to happen in small communities, rather than in the big cities. Some shop owners may confuse the guide dog issue with health board regulations, which ban dogs from establishments where food is served, she added.

Maloney has tried to talk to the store owners, she said. Initially, she thought there was just a misunderstanding, but now she believes ignorance is the problem. Some store managers do not know the laws, and some are failing to train employees, she said.

If her experience can help other guide dog users, she’s willing to stand up, she said.

“I’m going to stand up for the rights of all guide dog users,” she said. “I’m just trying to lead a normal life.”

Tayah has provided the security to do things sighted people take for granted, like taking her son for a haircut or a trip to the mall. To go shopping, the dog and Maloney must thread a path through busy traffic along Route 140. As they walked back home recently, the dog led Maloney along a broad sidewalk. All kinds of obstacles lay in their path. Cars took the corners at high speeds and banged over the curb cuts like teens on skateboards, but Tayah kept a steady pace, navigating safely even when a lawnmower operator suddenly decided to shift into reverse and ride his tractor backwards in Maloney’s direction.

For years, Maloney said, she coped by pretending she could still function almost as well as a person with normal eyesight. Except for a few areas, like driving a car, she was leading a normal life, she told herself.

“I was in denial,” she said in a recent interview.

Ultimately, the difficulties became overwhelming and she realized she was afraid to go out to new places.

Determined to live as independently as possible, she applied for a service dog. The dogs are matched to the home environment and the client’s personality, Hayward said.

Tayah, the first dog she has ever owned, trained for six months at Fidelco before Maloney took her home Oct. 1.

The dog and Maloney then spent their first three weeks together working with a trainer who helped introduce the dog to the other family pets — the cats.

“She wants to play with them, but the cats are not so sure,” Maloney said.

Maloney confessed she was a cat lover, and not a dog person until Tayah won her heart.

And despite negative reception from some stores, her guide dog has measured up to everything she had hoped for, she said.

Photo of Heather Maloney and Tayah by Margo Ann Sullivan.

Do you know of a service animal who has faced discrimination? Tell us your stories below!