[Cagdu] FW: Article: Woman with guide dog ordered out of store in Taunton

[Tina Thomas]

Subject: Article: Woman with guide dog ordered out of store in Taunton

 

  

Woman with guide dog ordered out of store in Taunton.Zoom Photos. .Heather
Maloney poses for a photo with her guide dog. 

By Charles Winokoor 
GateHouse News Service 
Posted Oct 15, 2010 @ 12:07 AM

TAUNTON - Heather Maloney said that when she got her guide dog two weeks ago
she expected life to become more manageable, not more complicated.

But after her run-in Tuesday with a Taunton shop owner who refused to let
her specially trained dog through the front door, she's not so sure.

"Is this going to happen to me on a daily basis?" Maloney, 41, asked. "Will
it make my life harder?"
Maloney, who is legally blind and suffers from retinitis pigmenstosa, an
incurable genetic condition that causes blindness, said that she and her dog
were not allowed in and that she was refused service by shop owner Fatima
Noorani.

Noorani, who for the past year and a half has owned and operated Eyebrow
Threading & Heena Tattoo at 537 County St., said she sympathizes with
Maloney's plight, but that she was being truthful when she said she is
extremely fearful of dogs in general.

"Always I've been afraid," Noorani said, explaining that she harbors a
memory from when she was a young girl in India, when a relative had to
undergo a series of painful rabies shots after being bitten by a dog.

That may be true, but it also flies in the face of state and federal laws
protecting the rights of people who rely on trained sight dogs, said Mary
Chapell, a dog trainer/instructor for the nonprofit Fidelco Guide Dog
Foundation.

Chapell, who has spent the past two weeks in Taunton teaching Maloney how to
handle her new dog, said that she's filed a complaint against Noorani with
the New Bedford office of the Massachusetts Commission Against
Discrimination.

MCAD Enforcement Chief Joel Berner on Thursday confirmed that Chapell had
filed a complaint, which falls under the heading of a "public accommodation
case."

Berner said an investigator will be assigned to the case within the next two
weeks, but cautioned that the process of review and final determination
often "takes a long time," anywhere from 12 to 18 months, he said.

Berner said the MCAD reviews more than 4,000 complaints each year.

He said if it's determined by probable cause that a party is at fault, he or
she can be fined or required to attend training sessions.

"But we encourage people to settle it before it gets that far," he said.

Maloney said she is a single mother with a 10-year-old son and, for the time
being, that she depends in part on social security disability payments.

She said she'd occasionally been coming in for Noorani's traditional Indian
eyebrow treatments since June.

Maloney said she and her dog - a small, female German shepherd - on Tuesday
initially walked by themselves to Noorani's salon from Maloney's Hart Street
condominium.

After that initial encounter, during which Noorani asked her to leave the
dog outside, Maloney returned with Chapell. A Taunton police officer
subsequently showed up to investigate a request by Chapell.

The officer, according to his report, warned Noorani that she was violating
state and federal laws, and could face civil action by denying entry to
Maloney and her dog.

Noorani, 40, reiterated to the officer that she's extremely fearful of
canines. She also said she was the only person on the premises qualified to
perform her particular service.

Chapell and Maloney said that Noorani and others may not be malevolent and
intolerant as much as they are uninformed and ignorant of the law, as it
pertains to the rights of blind people and their dogs.

Maloney recounted another recent unpleasant encounter. It at Dunkin' Donuts
at Hart's Four Corners, not far from where she lives.

There were no complaints from employees that day when she and her dog walked
in. But Maloney claims that after she paid for coffee, the female
cashier/server advised her to "next time leave the dog outside."

A message left seeking comment from the owner of the Dunkin' Donuts was not
immediately returned. A message left for the state's Commission for the
Blind was also not returned.

On a positive note, Maloney said, her visits with her dog to Target,
Trucchi's Supermarkets and Starbucks Coffee have proven to be "a wonderful
experience."

"They have trained employees," she said. "I'll definitely be shopping there
more often."

Chapell acknowledges that the general public in smaller cities such as
Taunton is probably unfamiliar with rules and laws regulating the rights of
sight-impaired people and their guide dogs.

Maloney said she's noticed when she rides her GATRA bus that some riders
seem fearful of her dog.

But Chapell emphasizes that guide dogs, although attentive and dedicated to
the well being of their masters, "are not protective."

"If we find that a dog is (physically) protective it will be removed," she
said.

Such gentleness, however, can be hazardous to the guide. Maloney said hers
was nearly bitten on the grounds of her condo complex by a barking, charging
dog that had gotten away from its owner.

As a result, she said, her dog since then has been somewhat skittish.

Maloney said she applied for her dog in June 2009 through the
Connecticut-based Fidelco foundation - which provides dogs and training at
no cost - when she realized her peripheral and night vision capabilities
were degenerating.

"I was ambivalent and nervous; I'd never had a dog before," she said. "But I
like my independence, and it was limiting my life."

Maloney also said she'd begun to feel unsafe walking alone, and that she
would sometimes be propositioned by men driving by.

Chapell said that a guide dog will comply, if ordered, to lie on the floor
so that its master can have his or her hair cut or nails done.

But Noorani said she can't afford to take any chances, not only out of fear
for her own safety, but if something were to happen to the dog.

"Who's responsible if something happens? My two children are totally
(dependent) on me," said Noorani, a single mother with two teenage
daughters, one of whom, she said, suffers extreme epileptic seizures.

The experience at the salon left Maloney feeling dispirited.

"I felt like I was being shunned by my own community. I felt very alone,"
she said.

As for her new guide, Maloney said "there is definitely a bond. I do love
that dog."

Shortly after the police officer had left on Tuesday, Noorani had posted a
sign on her door that reads "No pets allowed."

Copyright 2010 The Herald News. Some rights reserved 
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Hey Noorani! Guide dogs are not 'pets'! They work for a living unlike a lot
of humans around here!
pup000x6 hours agoReport Abuse 
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A bit of expansion, it isn't guide dogs covered by the law, it is service
dogs. Also in this catagory are the assistance dogs that are provided to
wheelchair bound people. All these great service dogs give their owners a
level of independence they otherwise couldn't achieve. Many of the
organizations who train these dogs have puppy raising programs. Families
raise the puppys until about one year old and give them the training and
socialization that is the foundation for them to be ready to be trained for
the particular service they will provide. These puppys in training for
recognised service dog organizations are also covered by the law. They are
usually identified by a service dog vest because they are being managed by a
person who has no disability. Active service dogs shouldn't take anything
but common sense. A person with a disability that has a dog with them, it is
a serv
septembergirl95 at gmail.com <mailto:septembergirl95%40gmail.com> 

A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he
knows that you are slightly cracked. 

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