What is a Service Animal? A Careful Rethinking
Main Article Content
Keywords
service animal, ethics of care, spacetime
Abstract
I argue that the discursive tactics used to maintain a clear boundary between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” service animals rely on a set of assumptions that perpetuate unequal relations of power, and ultimately harm others (human and nonhuman alike). In support of this argument, I outline my theory of crip spacetime, which draws upon the material feminist notion that disability is an intersectional and emergent phenomenon, becoming (rather than being) through intra-active environments. Thinking through the ontology of service animals and their human companions in terms of crip spacetime demands that we apply what Christine Kelly (2016) has called accessible care in relationships.
References
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Ferguson, K. (2013). What was politics to the Denisovan? Political Theory, 42(3), 167-187.
Garland-Thomson, R. (2011). Misfits: A feminist materialist disability concept. Hypatia 26(3), 591-609.
Gibson, B. E. (2006). Disability, connectivity and transgressing the autonomous body. Journal of Medical Humanities, 27(3), 187-196.
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Huss, R. J. (2010). Why context matters: Defining service animals under federal law. Pepperdine Law Review, 37(4), 1163-1216.
Kafer, A. (2013). Feminist, queer, crip. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana UP.
Kelly, C. (2016). Disability politics and care: The challenge of direct funding. Vancouver/Toronto: U of British Columbia P.
Kim, E. (2015). Unbecoming human: An ethics of objects. GLQ, 21(2-3), 295-320.
Kim, E. (2016). Curative violence: Rehabilitating disability, gender, and sexuality in modern Korea. Durham: Duke UP.
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Lipka, S. (2011, Oct. 11). Federal case over banning a student’s therapy dog illustrates thicket of disability rules. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/article/Federal-Case-Over-Banning-a/129349/
Marx, P. (2014, Oct. 20). Pets allowed. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/20/pets-allowed
McCormack, T. (2015). Why natural behaviors aren’t trained service dog tasks. Anything Pawsable: News & More for Service & Working Dogs. Retrieved from http://www.anythingpawsable.com/service-dog-tasks-must-be-trained/#.WLi9nxiZOu4
Michael, E. K. (2016, May). Working resonance: Concerto for guide dog, handler, and world. The Hopper. http://www.hoppermag.org/working-resonance/
Michalko, R. (1999). The two in one: Walking with Smokie, walking with blindness. Philadelphia: Temple UP.
Misrepresenting pets as service dogs. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://pleasedontpetme.com/pets.php
Oliver, K. (2016). Service dogs: Between animal studies and disability studies. PhiloSOPHIA, 6(2), 241-258.
Understanding the difference between tasks and work. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://pleasedontpetme.com/taskwork.php
Samuels, E. (2014). Fantasies of identification: Disability, gender, race. New York: NYUP.
Siler, W. (2017, Aug. 29). Stop faking service dogs. Outside Magazine.
Skloot, R. (2008, Dec. 31). Creature comforts. New York Times Magazine.
Taylor, S. (2017). Beasts of burden: Animal and disability liberation. New York: The New Press.
TallBear, K. (2011, April 24). “Why interspecies thinking needs Indigenous standpoints.” Theorizing the Contemporary. Cultural Anthropology. Retrieved from https://culanth.org/fieldsights/260-why-interspecies-thinking-needs-indigenous-standpoints
Teitell, B. (2013, Sept. 18). Service dogs barred, doubted, and deeply treasured. The Boston Globe. Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2013/09/18/the-growing-number-dogs-assisting-people-with-invisible-conditions-causing-conflict-and-some-cases-confrontation/igPnUBYHa97K07ccBGJJVJ/story.html
The hidden complications of fake service dogs. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.anythingpawsable.com/fake-service-dog-complications
Weaver, H. (2015). Pit bull promises: Inhuman intimacies and queer kinships in an animal shelter. GLQ, 21(2-3), 343-363.
Wenthold, N. & Savage, T. (2007). Ethical issues with service animals. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, 14(2), 68-74.
Yardley, W. (2009, Sept. 3). Oregon wants ‘dog friendly’ to be less so. New York Times, pp. xx
Adams, D. & Erevelles, N. (2015). Shadow play: DISCRIT, Dis/respectability and carceral logics. In A. S. Annamma, D. Connor, & B. Ferri (Eds.), DisCrit: Disability studies and critical race theory in education (pp. xx). New York: Teachers College Press.
Assistance dogs. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.assistancedogsinternational.org/standards/assistance-dogs
Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist performativity: Toward an understanding of how matter comes to matter. Signs, 28(3), 801-831.
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham & London: Duke UP.
Belser, J.W. (2016). Vital wheels: Disability, relationality, and the queer animacy of vibrant things. Hypatia, 31(1), 5-21.
Brennan, J. & Nguyen, V. (2014). Service animals and emotional support animals. ADA National Network. Retrieved from https://adata.org/publication/service-animals-booklet
Chen, M. (2012). Animacies: Biopolitics, racial mattering, and queer affect. Durham: Duke UP.
Chen, M. (2014). Brain fog: The race for cripistemology. Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, 8(2), 171-184.
Eames, E. & Eames, T. (2001). Bridging differences within the disability community: The assistance dog movement. Disability Studies Quarterly, 21(3). Retrieved from http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/293/335
Erevelles, N. (2011). Disability and difference in global contexts: Enabling a transformative body politic. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Erevelles, N. (2014). Crippin’ Jim Crow: Disability, dis-location, and the school-to-prison pipeline. In Ben-Moshe, L., C. Chapman & A.C. Carey. Disability incarcerated: Imprisonment and disability in the United States and Canada (pp. 83-99). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Eustis, D.H. (1927, Nov. 5). The seeing eye. The Saturday Evening Post. Retrieved from http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2016/04/14/history/post-perspective/post-article-launched-seeing-eye-program.html
Ferguson, K. (2004). I ♥ my dog. Political Theory, 32(3), 373-395.
Ferguson, K. (2013). What was politics to the Denisovan? Political Theory, 42(3), 167-187.
Garland-Thomson, R. (2011). Misfits: A feminist materialist disability concept. Hypatia 26(3), 591-609.
Gibson, B. E. (2006). Disability, connectivity and transgressing the autonomous body. Journal of Medical Humanities, 27(3), 187-196.
Grace, K. (2016a, Jan. 22). 10 things that make a dog unsuitable for service dog work. Anything Pawsable: News & More for Service & Working Dogs. Retrieved from http://www.anythingpawsable.com/10-things-make-dog-unsuitable-service-dog-work/#.WLi48hiZMdV
Grace, K. (2016b, Oct. 1). Things service dogs in public should and should not do. Anything Pawsable: News & More for Service & Working Dogs. Retrieved from http://www.anythingpawsable.com/things-service-dogs-public/#.WLi4iBiZMdU
Haraway, D. (1991). Simians, cyborgs, and women: The reinvention of nature. New York: Routledge.
Haraway, D. (2008). When species meet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
How can I tell if a service dog is legitimate?. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.anythingpawsable.com/service-animals/how-can-i-tell-if-a-service-dog-is-legitimate/#.WLiz_xiZMdU
Huss, R. J. (2010). Why context matters: Defining service animals under federal law. Pepperdine Law Review, 37(4), 1163-1216.
Kafer, A. (2013). Feminist, queer, crip. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana UP.
Kelly, C. (2016). Disability politics and care: The challenge of direct funding. Vancouver/Toronto: U of British Columbia P.
Kim, E. (2015). Unbecoming human: An ethics of objects. GLQ, 21(2-3), 295-320.
Kim, E. (2016). Curative violence: Rehabilitating disability, gender, and sexuality in modern Korea. Durham: Duke UP.
Kogan, L. R., Schaefer, K., Erdman, P., & Schoenfelt-Tacher, R. (2016). University counseling centers’ perceptions and experiences pertaining to emotional support animals. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy. 30(4), 268-283.
Kuusisto, S. (1998). Planet of the blind: A memoir. Crystal Lake, IL: Delta.
Kuusisto, S. (2016). Denied a cab ride, grieving for who we are….Retrieved from https://stephenkuusisto.com/2016/12/03/denied-a-cab-ride-grieving-for-who-we-are/
Kuusisto, S. (forthcoming). Have dog, will travel: A poet’s journey with an exceptional Labrador. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Lipka, S. (2011, Oct. 11). Federal case over banning a student’s therapy dog illustrates thicket of disability rules. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.chronicle.com/article/Federal-Case-Over-Banning-a/129349/
Marx, P. (2014, Oct. 20). Pets allowed. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/20/pets-allowed
McCormack, T. (2015). Why natural behaviors aren’t trained service dog tasks. Anything Pawsable: News & More for Service & Working Dogs. Retrieved from http://www.anythingpawsable.com/service-dog-tasks-must-be-trained/#.WLi9nxiZOu4
Michael, E. K. (2016, May). Working resonance: Concerto for guide dog, handler, and world. The Hopper. http://www.hoppermag.org/working-resonance/
Michalko, R. (1999). The two in one: Walking with Smokie, walking with blindness. Philadelphia: Temple UP.
Misrepresenting pets as service dogs. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://pleasedontpetme.com/pets.php
Oliver, K. (2016). Service dogs: Between animal studies and disability studies. PhiloSOPHIA, 6(2), 241-258.
Understanding the difference between tasks and work. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://pleasedontpetme.com/taskwork.php
Samuels, E. (2014). Fantasies of identification: Disability, gender, race. New York: NYUP.
Siler, W. (2017, Aug. 29). Stop faking service dogs. Outside Magazine.
Skloot, R. (2008, Dec. 31). Creature comforts. New York Times Magazine.
Taylor, S. (2017). Beasts of burden: Animal and disability liberation. New York: The New Press.
TallBear, K. (2011, April 24). “Why interspecies thinking needs Indigenous standpoints.” Theorizing the Contemporary. Cultural Anthropology. Retrieved from https://culanth.org/fieldsights/260-why-interspecies-thinking-needs-indigenous-standpoints
Teitell, B. (2013, Sept. 18). Service dogs barred, doubted, and deeply treasured. The Boston Globe. Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/2013/09/18/the-growing-number-dogs-assisting-people-with-invisible-conditions-causing-conflict-and-some-cases-confrontation/igPnUBYHa97K07ccBGJJVJ/story.html
The hidden complications of fake service dogs. (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.anythingpawsable.com/fake-service-dog-complications
Weaver, H. (2015). Pit bull promises: Inhuman intimacies and queer kinships in an animal shelter. GLQ, 21(2-3), 343-363.
Wenthold, N. & Savage, T. (2007). Ethical issues with service animals. Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation, 14(2), 68-74.
Yardley, W. (2009, Sept. 3). Oregon wants ‘dog friendly’ to be less so. New York Times, pp. xx
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Published
Dec 1, 2017
Article Details
Section
Cripping Care: Care Pedagogies and Practices Special Forum
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Author Biography
Margaret Price, The Ohio State University
Margaret Price, Ph.D. teaches rhetoric, composition, and disability studies at The Ohio State University, where she also serves as the Director of the Disability Studies Program. Her book Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life (University of Michigan, 2011) won the Outstanding Book Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication. Her scholarly and creative essays have appeared in Ms. magazine, Disability Studies Quarterly, the Journal of Literary and Cultural Disability Studies, Profession, Bitch magazine, Kairos, enculturation, Composition Studies, the Disability Studies Reader, and others. She is at work on a book titled Crip Spacetime.