People abuse regulations regarding pets all the time, everywhere, every day, all day. Every real service dog I've seen has been kept incredibly close--like inches--and within hands reach from its handler. This was likely a pet or an "emotional support animal." |
Wmata statement said “the dog, which does not appear to be a service animal, is in police care.” |
gosh but haven't you been on a packed train and the doors will. not. close because someone is breathing on it, and they try over and over and the operator threatens us all to step away from the doors or they will unload the train? They seem sensitive to me. |
It’s local news. The title included “death.” If that wasn’t enough to keep you from opening the thread, knowing your own delicate sensibilities, I don’t know what to tell you. |
This is how people with a legit medical need move in the world with a service animal. This was a pet. Tragic, but it could have been prevented if the owner was responsible with their pet. And please let's not pretend like this isn't a growing problem. ![]() |
OMG do you have your priorities mixed up!! |
??? Silver lining? The man is dead. |
Nope. there is no one way of what it is supposed to look like if you are speaking about a service dog. |
I heard those sirens today as my office is right across the street. How tragic. |
NP I can absolutely guarantee that a service dog shouldn’t be 450 feet away from its owner. |
By law? No, but any person with a legitimate medical need knows that their service animal should be very close to them to perform the medical task that it is required, by law, to do. It's to the benefit of the person with the medical need to have their animal right beside them at all times. Now there are people who don't really need animals for a viable medical need and will abuse the circumstances for a want, not a need. I know it, you know it. If you don't need your animal to perform a real medical task, you take greater liberties with it being further away from you. Again--I know it, and you know it. |
Or 6ft, or 10ft, or tethered to someone's leg. |
I have to think 450 feet is a typo. That's the height of a tall building. Even 45 feet is an unusually long leash. I wonder if they meant 4-5 feet (which would be plenty far from the train for a safety check to miss).
It's sad no matter who it is, but somebody traveling at midday with a dog lagging on the end of a long leash may not have been fully aware of what was going on. |
This is true. My neighbors wanted to avoid the rules at our old condo in Arlington, which limited dogs to a reasonable 25 lbs (and just one dog). So they found some quack psychologist to write a note claiming they "needed emotional support animals". They then bought 2 very large Rhodesian Ridgebacks. The whole system is mostly fraud now. |
It doesn’t say the man was 450 ft from the train, it says the incident happened 450 feet from the operator’s booth, so basically toward the back of the train. At that distance, the operator is not going to see a thin leash in a door so the train would have looked clear to depart from his perspective. |