On Sunday, a Raytown woman was kicked out of Lee's Summit's Truman Lakewood Hospital because she showed up to the hospital with her service dog, which happens to be a pit bull. Apparently, hospital security forced her out to her car and threated to arrest the woman and take her service dog to the pound.
The woman, Coreinna Ball, suffers from a condition known as agoraphobia, an anxiety disorder that creates huge fear of being in public. Her service dog Tanner (pictured left) is a certified service dog that was adopted to her by Mid America Bully Breed Rescue.
The hospital's "appology" consisted of a statement about how the dog's breed "caused staff concerns" but that everything is resolved now because the woman was admitted back into the hospital 2 days later (thank goodness she wasn't having a stroke or heart attack).
You can watch the Fox 4 News story here. What is even more annoying is that in the 10pm newscast, they interviewed another woman, Sheila Styron, with Guide Dog Users, Inc, called the hospital staff's irriational fear, and refusing to treat this woman with a trained service dog, "understandable" since pit bulls usually don't contain the temperament for being service dogs. WHAT?!?!?! (I SOOO wish I could find the video clip of it, it was quite the TIVO moment rewinding it trying figure out if I really heard what I thought I heard).
Let's set something straight. Service dogs are very well trained dogs, and have to meet certain standards before they can reach that status. I'd LOVE to see the report of the trained service dog that attacked a young child or hospital worker.
I wrote about the prevelance of pit bulls in service types of positions last week. As a society, we need to stand up to the types of businesses that discriminate against service dogs, regardless of breed -- and media needs to realize that their inaccurate reporting tactic and hysteria creation are leading to situations where this woman was denied medical attention, and others are scared to help someone in need.
This is the second report of a service dog being denied because it was a pit bull already this year. Stop the madness. Please.
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