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‘Seeing-eye Dog’ is a Rat
‘Seeing-eye Dog’ is a Rat (1) Dani Moore uses a rat perched on her shoulder
as a service animal to alert her to spasms from a
disabling condition. Daniel Greene’s service
animal is a snake wrapped around his neck to
help him predict epileptic seizures. But these
creatures and many others are no longer
acceptable as service animals under new federal
law. The new rules limit service animals to dogs
and housebroken miniature horses.(2) When Moore, 55, heard about the new law, she went to the City Council in Hesperia, California, where she lives, and asked lawmakers to change the rules so that she could continue using rats to alert her to spasms she can’t feel because of spinal nerve injuries, fibromyalgia and osteoporosis of the spine. (3) The rats help Moore to take her pills in time. When her rat feels Moore shaking, he starts licking her neck so she can take medication and stop the spasms before they start. She uses pudding to train her rat. (4) Moore has been using rats for 10 years. She keeps a pair, alternating them every 90 minutes. While one is working, the other is kept in a cloth and mesh cage. While working, they wear a soft leather harness and leash, which she clips to her clothing. The leash bears a tag that says ‘Please do not touch, I am working’. (5) Moore says service dogs are not an option because they’re too heavy and restless to sit on her shoulder. She says the rats are non-threatening, are bathed twice a week and never touch the ground. “Some people don’t even notice them,” Moore says. But she understands that some people have rat phobias, and she is happy to talk about their purpose to anyone who will listen. A 20-minute mall trip often turns into a three-hour excursion. (6) Despite opposition from one councilman who cited health concerns, the council now allows Moore to continue using her rats as service animals. (7) Daniel Greene also went to testify against a proposed revision of that state’s law so he could keep his snake as service animal. He wears his 10-pound red tail boa, Red Rock, draped around his neck. Red Rock will alert Greene, who stands 6-foot-6, to an epileptic seizure so he can sit down and reduce the chance of injury. Once down, he uses meditation to try to control his body and eliminate the seizure. He doesn’t know how or why his snake knows what to do. “He’s not a miracle cure, he’s an early warning system,” he says. Greene spent about a year getting the snake used to people. tweentribune.com, 2011 |