Either it’s a service animal or it isn’t. It appears it wasn’t. Out it goes.
My life is not so excruciatingly boring that I need to see a monkey at dinner to have a good time. I have friends and family who are actually pretty fun to be around, and I’d like to know there aren’t animals running around every restaurant because we let anything in thatthe owner claims is “helping.”
If she feeds the monkey from the buffet, I hope she pays for it.
What’s CP, Jess?
Dammit, the anxiety monkey thread grew too fast and now I have to post at the end. I dont have time to read the entire thread, so suffice it to say:
IANA psycologist, but its seems questionable to encourage a dependance on this animal rather than helping the person deal with their problem and become independant.
Plus, if I were a restaurant owner and was forced to allow a monkey into my restaurant, I would be pretty upset if I lost business because of it. I’d also be pretty happy if buisness went up, so it probably depends on the restaurant. Arbys? Great! Le Chateaux de Pretenciousness avec le buffet? Probably not a good thing.
Cerebral palsy.
The way I see it this lady has several options.
Keep the monkey and keep the hell out of restaurants
Exchange the monkey for a stuffed toy/security blanket/pet rock/pet valium/pet Xanax.
Do what many other anxious, neurotic women seeking constant reassurance have done before her and get knocked up. The monkey is basically a baby substitute anyway, why not just exchange the poor creature for an actual baby? We allow them in restaurants, and at least they can grow up and tell her to get a life.
Having an exotic animal which closely resembles a hairy human infant as a living security blanket is not healthy on about a billion levels.
Unless that monkey has a nappy, a leash, a muzzle and has been trained to within an inch of it’s little life it doesn’t belong in a business establishment of any kind, other than a zoo or a research lab.
I wouldn’t mind a well-behaved monkey in a restaurant, and would probably like it ONCE, but as others have suggested, there is a slippery slope.
If there has to be a line drawn (and I’m implying that there should be), it should be with doctors prescribing monkeys for anxiety. Anxiety is fairly common. Imagine if you got monkeys listed as an acceptable treatment for anxiety. Docs could prescribe monkeys under workers compensation and force employers to PAY FOR monkeys to be brought to work with employees, …drug stores would have to keep them in stock…etc.
And I still have a hard time imagining the doc who had the thought–“hmm anxiety…perhaps the best solution would be for you to carry a monkey around.”
Is the monkey/ferret/bear/snake/slime mould/chihuahua a trained and certified service animal? If not, and it causes problems, or the establishment has a ‘no animals’ policy, out it goes. It doesn’t matter what kind of animal it is. Seems simple to me…
I see a lot of people suggesting that if the monkey was a legitimate, “task-trained” service animal, their opinion would be different. Just to play devil’s advocate, what are said people supposing the monkey’s task would be at a buffet? Wouldn’t “loading up a plate with food” be the sort of thing a task-trained monkey would be expected to do at the buffet?
On another note, I also keep seeing suggestions that the monkey might carry diseases humans can catch, and that it’s unsanitary to have him or her present at a buffet.
I would like to introduce you to a manager with whom I share a workplace. This man is important; he’s been in sensitive overseas positions with direct implications for the safety of milions of lives. He’s no one you’d have heard of, but he works just one level down from somone who has been appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. He’s clean-cut, dynamic, and looks trustworthy.
He has never, ever washed his hands in the men’s room since he came here.
No matter what he did in there. He just exits the room – dynamically, no less – and goes off to tilt at Very Important Windmills with God-knows-what contamination on his hands. And while I’ll admit I don’t know exactly what percentage of monkey diseases can make the jump to humans, I’ll bet 100% of what this man might have been touching is communicable-to-humans.
And he no doubt goes out to eat pretty regularly.
There is indeed a danger to the food on your buffet line, but I don’t think helper monkeys are the most prominent source. If that source doesn’t bother you, I think the complaints about monkeys are misplaced.
Sailboat
My doctor did that, but let me tell you, monkeys are damn hard to swallow.
I for one welcome our buffet monkey overlords.
What in the world makes you think that wouldn’t bother the rest of us? I’m bothered.
If the monkey gets the clear, with proper documentation from the ‘proper authorities’… and after looking at the standards noted in the quote above, than I see no problems. Clearly, “disabilities” are not limited to physical disabilities only. By these rules it DOES seem, from the description of her anxiety in the article, that she has a disability which limits major life activities. At a minimum, her disability substantially limits" her ability to work (a major activity), and might very well affect activities like learning, speaking, performing manual tasks, and caring for one’s self.
According to my newspaper the local health department reversed it’s decision. Looks like she’ll have to train the monkey to cook.
Now, if the doctor had prescribed a duck, you’d know he was a quack.
I wouldn’t expect touching food would be a task for the monkey. However, if it was a legitimate service animal, it would be checked for diseases often. We had a letter from the health department, I think, stating that guide dog puppies were allowed in restaurants/supermarkets. I think we used it once for four dogs.