Boo Boo Bear, my second service dog, a                       Newfoundland.
        
    

from Baywoof Magazine, Oakland, CA,

November 2007:

My real name is Héro La Lumiére, and my first owner sold meth. He tried to starve me into being mean enough to guard his meth lab.

When the fool went to prison, a man who knew him rescued me but could not afford to feed me. So his girlfriend put an ad on Craig's List to find me a home, and Kari Ann adopted me.

The drug dealer had made me really sick. I was twenty pounds underweight, with eye and ear infections. Kari Ann took me to veterinarians (animal doctors) and to a world-renowned hospital, and two surgeries and lots of medication cured me. Then Kari Ann trained me to be a service dog, which means I can help her walk up steps without losing her balance. Kari Ann also can lean on me when her leg hurts. I am an official State of California service dog!

My name, Héro La Lumiére, means "champion of light".  And I can see the light really well now, and run and play with my kitty friend, Squeak. Kari Ann and I even dance together (“the doggie bump”), even though I am bigger than her and have to be careful not to knock her down. And I go with Kari Ann to the library, where she teaches kids to read and do math. I read as much as Clifford!

Kari Ann loves me very much, and I love her. I also love you, because, like me, you are gentle and smart and can do many wonderful things.

A drug abuser almost killed me.

Don't let drugs kill you.

Would you like Héro to speak at your school or church about how to live a great life without drugs? E/mail Kari Ann and Héro at penomee@yahoo.com

Service Dogs: a Different Way

of Walking through the World

Incredible thanks is owed the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners, http://www.iaadp.org, whose Veterinary Care Partnership Program has aided all three of my companions over the last fifteen years; and the Delta Society National Service Dog Center
289 Perimeter Rd. East Renton, WA 98055, Tele: (800) 869-6898.

In 1993, I was unable to walk because of crippling sciatica. After a brief period in a wheelchair, my rehabilitation was considerably aided by Mischa, my golden retriever, whom I trained to assist me with walking, particularly up steps; as well as carrying books in a backpack and helping me balance when the sciatica necessitated favoring my other leg.

Sciatica has recurred, retreated into remission and returned again several times. Since flare-ups can occur unpredictably, I have trained three service dogs over the years: Mischa; Boo Boo Bear, a Newfoundland; and Héro La Lumière, a Saint Bernard. Owners training service dogs is allowed under the Americans with Disabilities Act; please see http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/svcanimb.htm for further information.

Mischa, Boo Boo Bear and Héro have accompanied me to countless libraries, supermarkets, professional meetings for the arts and my own dance and theatre performances; a demonstration against the CIA’s probable involvement in the distribution of crack cocaine in America and the “mainstream” press’ ignoring of this almost certain truth; opera and dance performances (Héro really liked Aida, and also the Miami City and Berkeley City Ballets). Mischa was present for Silas’ and my wedding and honeymoon.

All three dogs have accompanied me to sobriety meetings, and Boo Boo Bear and Héro have helped me teach therapeutic horseback riding by playing a cow during arena games, where the rider, assisted by volunteers walking alongside the horse, brings the horse alongside the “cow” and safely edges him into a “pen” made of ground poles in the center of the arena. Mischa inspired a country western song; Boo Boo Bear invented the Boo Boo Bop while attending the Berkeley Jazz School with me and thumping his tail in time to the music. Héro knows his commands in French.

One constant during the fifteen years I have been privileged to train and own my beloved assistance dogs has been discrimination. The provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act are not known to everyone, or understood; some people don’t care. Fortunately, the U.S. Department of Justice has a mediation program for violations of the A.D.A. I have used this mediation program in disputes with restaurants, which were settled amicably, and I obtained two other settlements through direct negotiation and also through an attorney.

Surprisingly, the most troublesome experiences of discrimination and harassment have occurred in a well-known sobriety support program. To remain blessed with 32 years of sobriety, I am “abstaining” from membership in this particular program.

The following account of physical intimidation and harassment and the mediation that followed will clearly illustrate why.

A mediation took place at the Oakland, CA Federal Building almost one year after the December 31, 2006 incident, and was facilitated by an excellent and experienced mediation agency to deal with conflicts
rising out of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I wish I could have done what my service dog did: sleep through the mediation.

The issue was horribly abusive behavior at a sobriety group’s New Year's Eve party on December 31, 2006. The behavior consisted of physical and verbal intimidation which resulted in my leaving this event. Neither I nor my service dog Héro did anything to merit such behavior.

I had contacted the fellowship and Intergroup of which this group is a part immediately after the event, but did not know until today that my letter had been considered "crazy" and tossed aside. The man from the fellowship who came to the mediation also said my letter contained no way to reply to its contents, and that he had probably not noticed the email I had provided, and was in any case "computer illiterate".

This business manager from the fellowship which hosted the party had not been present, and totally believed the accounts he was given, which were lies. He was told that Héro swished his tail in the food
at the party (I would never have allowed this in a
million years); that the dog was not identified as a
service dog (totally not true; Héro was wearing his
State of CA medallion/service dog tag); that I was not
treated abusively or harmfully, which was simply not
true as I was physically and verbally intimidated by
three members.

When I mentioned that I had chest pains following the
incident, the man from the fellowship asked why I went to parties or "stressful" social gatherings at all. It didn't seem to occur to him that I have the right to
go where I want, when I want and to be treated with
decency.

He said I attended meetings at "his" fellowship
"maybe once a year", when he had never met me before.

However, by the end of the mediation, and upon written examination of the Federal law pertaining to service dogs, he suggested that I come to a business meeting at his fellowship where a speaker would be present from the disability community to explain the law.

He even offered an apology for the abuse he had
previously stated did not take place.

And amazingly he committed to spreading information about service dogs and the law to the Intergroup and World Service.

This was an incredible victory for disabled people
with service dogs who choose to attend this group.

I have found more support and sanity in Lifering, and
will not be returning to that fellowship, and probably
not to that group of which it is a part.

One thing that horrified me was this man saying that
his fellowship permitted all kinds of drunkenness, cursing, and tolerated its angry members. He said that it was astonishing that a particular member he identified as having an anger problem had actually apologized to me at a meeting (not the New Year's Eve event) for rudeness and confrontational behavior.

I said that I was very sad that the drunken sobriety group endorses or permits aggression while it is threatened by vulnerability… for example, a 132 pound disabled woman with a service dog. This
was a reference to the fact that he and his fellowship
colleagues considered me a threat. I began to believe that the aggression expressed toward me that New Year's Eve might not have had anything to do with my assistance dog, but with aggressive power types having ALREADY felt threatened by the type of person I am... reflective and thoughtful, not conforming to doctrine, mannerly and gentle.

I am especially horrified that the support needs of
vulnerable people in a so-called support group
can be so easily ignored, even jeopardized, while cruel and aggressive behavior can be permitted.

Apparently, the church whose space was rented by this group for that New Year's Eve party feels the same way I do:they have been barred from church rentals.