Service-dogs-in-training

have rights, too
While I truly applaud the feature article on puppy-raising and placement of assistance dogs, “Getting help from human’s best friend” (ODE, 10/05), you have presented an unfortunate misunderstanding with regards to public access in Oregon and any service-dog-in-training. I am referring to: “The Americans with Disabilities Act ensures that working teams have access everywhere the public is allowed. However, puppies in training do not have these privileges because they are not yet assisting a disabled person. Even though Castle and other puppies in training wear green jackets to alert the public about their careers, not all businesses are accommodating.”
While it is quite true that the ADA does not address service-dogs-in-training, (their specialists advise that the ADA itself does not cover a service dog until it is fully trained) many states have far more comprehensive and just as legally binding laws with regards to service dogs and service-dogs-in-training.
We always encourage our clients, puppy-raisers and puppy-trainers to become fully familiar with the statutes and to carry copies of the appropriate Oregon Statute (along with their official ID) to present to restaurants and other establishments when the question of access rights arises. We also offer sessions for businesses, organizations, etc. in order to educate them on the laws regarding service and access rights.

Rand Stamm

Canine Assistance Partners, Inc.

Humanitarian aid feeds enemies
Providing “humanitarian” aid to our enemies is a moral outrage. The cowards in Washington, D.C. need to take a lesson from the heroes of Flight 93. These men did not altruistically serve in-flight snacks to their hijackers. They did something much more humane: They selfishly fought 100 percent — for the lives of innocent Americans.

Jennifer Kral

Mayfield Heights, Ohio

Boo reminds us of joys in life
The meaning of contemporary life goes beyond the WTC bombing and the war in Afghanistan. Your article “A room with a Boo” (ODE, 10/11) brings to mind the little joys in life that we often overlook.
I pay homage to Boo the cat each time I attend a movie at the Bijou. Several weeks ago, before “The Closet” (an excellent French language film), I dutifully petted Boo as she relaxed, seated on her lobby throne. Like a familiar friend, Boo is a metaphor for the good things in life during these troubled times.
Thank you.

Mike E. Walsh

Eugene

Full page ad was shocking
About the full-page advertisement titled, “End states who sponsor terrorism” (ODE, 10/15): I don’t know what anybody else thinks about this incredibly offensive and shocking ad, but here’s an interesting question that I have, and maybe someone can answer it for me.
If “a proper war in self-defense is one fought without crippling restrictions. … And it must be fought in a manner that secures victory as quickly as possible … regardless of the countless innocents caught in the line of fire,” then what does that make us?
To me, that makes us terrorists ourselves (ironically, the very thing that we’re trying to destroy) because that description seems fits the very act of terrorism itself, which is something that I, one of those intellectual “friends of peace,” don’t want to have any part in.

Sarah Hatstat

junior

English