A Short Summary On A Seizure-Detection Dog

PART A. 1a.) You are a school principal and one of your students relies on a seizure-detection dog. One of the other students is very afraid of dogs. What would you do to address this situation in the interest of equity? Your answer should be half a page in length. /5

I would first try and see if there was another class where the two girls could be separated in, to avoid a problem. For argument say if the two girls were together throughout the day, I would speak with the student afraid of dogs and try to explain to her how this service dog is a worker. I would try and let her know the dog is on duty and is needed for health reasons for the student with the seizure. I would explain to her that we can try to make sure she is not sitting
directly beside the dog or maybe in front of it, so she would not have to see it during the class. I would also let her know that we are not pushing her fear of dogs aside, we are trying to get her to understand that the dog is a professional and is needed, and that we will try what we can to make the student feel more comfortable. I think this is the equitable thing to do. Equity is acknowledging that sometimes in order to achieve fairness we need to make specific changes or additions, and in this case allowing the student the seizure-detection dog could be the only reason allowing the student with seizures to attend school. We have to recognize this as well as attempting to make the student who is afraid of dogs feel a bit more comfortable, by also making a few adjustments, such as assigned seating or alternate classes.
People in a number of countries are discussing what standards need to be created for the animals who provide care to people. Begin by outlining what specific standards you would recommend for this country and why. Next, consider the country of Sweden. It is likely that Sweden could move quickly and effectively towards implementing such standards. Why? Your answer should be 1.5-2 pages in length and demonstrate correct understanding of the Swedish model and Swedish welfare society. /15 I believe a number of standards need to be set in place as service animals can help and support a wide range of people and if we are to use them for their labour, we need to set standards so that we do not take advantage of them and ensure they are taken proper care of. To treat them equitably as sentient beings, as it is the right thing to do. I believe the first standard that should be implemented by law is enforcing the idea in the article Welfare Consideration in Therapy and Assistance Animals; the Five Freedoms (Coppinger, Fine., Serpell, 2006). I believe so as the Five Freedoms covers a wide range of issues that service animals face and can ensure the person working with the service animals treats them with respect (Coppinger, Fine., Serpell, 2006). The Freedoms ensures the animals are given basic survival things; such as enough food and given rest, to complex situations that the animal must face, including avoid mental suffering and providing the service animal with time to play with its own species (Coppinger, Fine., Serpell, 2006). This could make sure off duty the animals are having a proper life of their own. Other standards I think need to be set is that if the service animal have never or no longer shows the specific qualities need to perform their work, they should be retired.
An example of this is a court house dog. I believe if the service animal no longer shows the personality traits to be able to perform their work, the animal should either try another career or to retire. I think this way as without this, is not taking the animal into consideration or treating it humanly. Other standards should include; stoping work if an animal has become depressed, giving them vacations, more education and training to owners of service pets, only using non domesticated pets as service animals ex training dogs and not monkeys, assigning one caretaker or owner of the animal and change equipment if need be (Coppinger, Fine., Serpell, 2006). An example of this is to change the harness’ used by service dogs if they are digging in, or causing bruising. Applying these standards would make sure that service animals all over Canada have a safe and happy life while supporting humans, in a various and diverse range of jobs. Applying these standards could also help to increase interspecies solidarity and show society that animals are living, breathing emotive creatures that differ in personality and abilities, just as human beings do, and by providing laws and standards to ensure their wellbeing can further confirm that service animals and all animals in general are alike humans in many ways and have lives of their own. As well as understand that if we are to use their labour the least we can do is respect animals working conditions just as we fight and respect peoples working
conditions. I would argue that Sweden could be the country that could quickly and effectively move towards implementing these standards as Sweden and its Nordic Model and use of the Swedish Welfare Society is far ahead of the rest of the world and Canada, regarding regulations on labour and workers in general. Sweden has created an effective social democracy, or a more equal form of capitalism as the people and those in power have collaborated together to minimize inequalities between its citizens. Sweden’s model looks at its people and workers more broadly and are genially interested in their work lives and their rights as workers. The model also demonstrates the proper use of the word welfare, and refers to the actual wellbeing of its citizens and how it can be approved. This differs from the Canada negative stereotype of the word, of referring to impoverished citizens and used in a negative way. This is proven through the large percentage of unionization in the country. Over 70% of Swedish workers are in a union, there are numerous national laws and policies and collective agreements to fight for human rights. Overall I think these practices and strong beliefs could be easily extended to service animals. I think the solidarity within the country could be expanded to interspecies solidarity and include animals rights and welfare. Sweden is far ahead of their time both socially and politically then the rest of the world, that is why I believe that this country could easily incorporate service animals into their system if they choose to do so.