Families sue Yuba City nonprofit for allegedly providing untrained dogs as service animals
Emily and Joseph James of Wilton paid $14,000 for a “service dog” that a Yuba County nonprofit group assured them would be highly trained to help their autistic son Sammy with his anxiety and his tendency to wander into dangerous situations.
What they got in return for their investment in Bolt, a boxer mix, was a “very sweet” family pet incapable of performing the tasks needed to assist their 4-year-old son, they said.
“Bolt is a very good boy,” said Emily James. “He will always have a home with us. But he’s not a service dog by any means.”
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In one case, a dog named Curly dragged a family’s young daughter “through the house by the arm and leg, as if the child were a toy,” it says. The dog, supposedly trained to prevent a teenager with Down syndrome from bolting away and getting lost, is skittish, fails to come when called and “could not care less” about where the teen goes, according to the court document.
Another Pawsitive dog, named Cooper, was supposed to accompany a young autistic girl to school to keep her calm. But Cooper was “unable to apply pressure to her without walking all over her” and making her cry. He grabbed food out of the hands of schoolchildren, and failed a basic “canine good citizenship” training program.
A third Pawsitive dog, Java, matched with a 6-year-old autistic boy, tried to climb into a primate exhibit and dive into a flamingo pond during a school trip, and did not respond to basic commands, the suit says.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/08/02/6601334/families-sue-yuba-city-nonprofit.html
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