 Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for another episode of Kondo Insider. My name is Jane Sugimura, and I'm a co-host of this show with Richard Emory. Today's show is about service animals, and I have with me, as my guest, Jim Kennedy, and he is the executive director of Hawaii Fido. Thank you very much for joining us, Jim. Thank you for including us in this. OK, well, tell us about Hawaii Fido. OK, Hawaii Fido was founded formally as a 501C3 in the year 2000. It actually had its beginnings in a couple of years before. The founder is Susan Lures. She was a special education teacher at Kahuku, and she also, all these years, has also been a professional breeder of really quality dogs, Labradors and Labradoodles. She found out that in her special ed classes, she got permission from her principal to bring a dog for a read to the dog program, that her special ed students suddenly were very attentive and were motivated to get involved, to be able to be next to read to the dog. And that was a big aha moment for her, and she decided that when she was going to retire, she would like to be trained to be a service dog trainer and get back to the community, and literally she gives us the dogs that we need for our program, and yes. Explain to the viewers, what is a service dog? OK, a service dog is, and this is basically as defined by ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act. What it is is that the animal, and it has to be a dog, there's one little exception, it could be a miniature pony, but we won't go there, it has to be a dog, and the dog has to be specifically trained to perform meaningful tasks to assist an individual who is disabled. Not someone who's lonely, but someone who is truly disabled, medically documented as disabled. The dogs that we train are for people that have disabilities other than blindness. That's a different level and different kind of service animal. But what we do is we provide training for dogs to help people who have pretty serious muscle control or balance issues. And our dogs are either Labradors or Labradoodles, and it takes about two years from puppy birth to graduation, if you will. Sometimes it lasts as long as two and a half, almost three years. The first year and a half, it has spent training the dog about 90 different either commands or behaviors, and they get that, the puppy raisers do that. We look for volunteer puppy raisers, by the way, all the time. So get in touch with us if you want to talk about it. The puppy raisers, this is a 24-7 job. They have this little puppy from eight weeks old, and they get that dog just perfect, and then they have to give it back to Fido. And then Fido works with the person the dog is going to be assigned to, to its partner. And for the next six months to a year, they work in training that dog for very specific tasks that that person needs. I should note that during that first year and a half, the puppy raisers don't have to be professional puppy raisers. They don't have to be AKC trainers. And the reason is, is we have four trainers who are working with them every week to walk them through the steps. Okay, what's the next thing they have to teach this little puppy? So it's not like here's the puppy, make them good and bring them back to us in a year and a half. They're part of our ohana, and we work with them every week. We go out to different venues, a windward mall, different malls, different strip malls, stores, and we, that welcome us with our dogs, and we spend hours and hours each week in that training process. So anyway, the service dog is one that provides services for one with true disability, and they have to be trained to do specific tasks. I should note that it is not required by law that these service dogs come from a professional school or a professional service dog organization. The law actually allows an individual with disabilities to train their own dog to become a service dog. And that basically is they have to be disabled, and the dog has to perform meaningful assistant tasks. So it's not required that the dogs come from an organization that trains service dogs. So what's the difference between a service dog and a pet? Okay, a pet, well first off, let's just say the service dog becomes a family member, and while it is not a pet, it gives us much love and comfort and reassurance that any pet will. Okay? We want that dog to have a life. A pet is, you know, your favorite four paw furry canine that many people wish they had the opportunity to take with them wherever they went. Now there are different kinds of assistance dogs, and you've got service dogs, therapy dogs, and emotional support dogs, and there is an excellent comparison sheet out there on the Internet. And it's now appearing on the screen. Yeah, it's appearing on the screen. I wish I knew who to attribute this to, but we don't know, but it is so good that we share it readily. If you take a look at this, you'll see where the service dog, what the benefits are, access and purpose of the service dog is compared to therapy and emotional support. Basically emotional support are animals that is more than a pet that gives you warm and fuzzies, but it's an animal where the individual physician has said, you know, I think this person needs this emotional support animal, and that gets them certain access rights under the Fair Housing Act and actually gets them some access rights on airlines under the Air Carrier Act, but it does not give them the access rights that service dogs have. I see. Now, right now, I mean, you're here, you know, talking to me because there's some legislation pending. There is. And what is this, and the legislation Senate bill 2461, which we're going to talk about after the break. Right. But what is, why is this bill being introduced? What is the problem? What's the problem that this bill is trying to address? Well, Senator Ruderman from the Big Island sponsored this bill and it started off in the Senate and it passed there. What it's all about is, is he's a businessman and he grew tired of animals being brought into his business with their handler saying, oh, this is a service dog, and you look at it and say, yeah, I don't know, I don't think so. But if you challenge, and it happens to be a service dog, you know, there could be a potential liability factor there. So they err on allowing the dogs in. But, you know, what is the problem with having, you know, the animals, you know, come into a business? OK. We have no problem with the business being animal friendly. We're not trying to stop businesses from allowing animals, but what we're trying to do is cut back, see a cut back on, we love to see a total curtailment of people who are not disabled with their fee fees, that's what they ordered on the Internet, and ID tags, walking into a business and declaring, yep, this is a service animal. But it's really not. And it's not. And the reason we have a problem with that is, is that it does create, it has a rollover effect. It does create concern and confusion and frustration on the part of the business that we walk into. Even our very legitimate well-trained service dogs may not be so obvious what they do, because if they're not, they may not have a harness on it. On them, they may just have their vests and their IDs. And so they look at it and say, is that a service dog? I see so many of them that obviously aren't, but now I wonder is that. And that's unfair for legitimate service dogs. And I've heard stories where some service animals are attacked by animals, that fake service animals. Yeah, we have one of our graduates, Patrick Hamelow, with his Mr. Umi adorable, apricot colored Labrador, they have an experience where he was attacked. And Mr. Umi jumped to the other side of his scooter and Patrick was able to ward the attack off. And I can tell you, my wife is blind and has had guide dogs for 18 years. And we've had three attacks. And in all three cases, I interceded and stopped it from getting out of control. And that's— And those are by other animals. And with real service animals, they will not be—they're not aggressive, right? That is correct. Now, a big question we are often asked, how do you—how can you tell if it's a service animal? Okay. Well— You know, before you go on, because we're going to talk about that, right now, we're going to—we're almost at our break. I want to run the PSA program that you gave me. So why don't we run the PSA now and take our break and come back and we'll talk about the legislation. Okay. He gets to go in. He's a service dog. Well, I could get a vest, too. You're not even a service dog. He's trained to assist his owner. Well, I can do whatever he can do. Wow. Did he just open the door? Yep. Oh. I can't do that. I can't do that, either. He's trained for over two years to become a service dog. Man, I wish I could be a service dog. Hey, Aloha. I'm the Energy Man here on Think Tech, Hawaii, where community matters. This is the place to come to think about all things energy. We talk about energy for the grid, energy for vehicles, energy and transportation, energy and maritime, energy and aviation. We have all kinds of things on our show, but we always focus on hydrogen here in Hawaii because it's my favorite thing. That's what I like to do. But we talk about things that make a difference here in Hawaii, things that should be a big changer for Hawaii, and we hope that you'll join us every Friday at noon on Stand the Energy Man, and take a look with us at new technologies and new thoughts on how we can get clean and green in Hawaii. Aloha. Hi. I'm Ethan Allen, host on Think Tech, Hawaii, of Pacific Partnerships in Education. Every other Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m., I hope you'll join us as we explore the value, the accomplishments and the challenges of education here in the Pacific Islands. Welcome back. My name is Jane Sugimura, and this is a continuing episode of Condo Insider. We're talking about service animals, and we have Jim Kennedy from Hawaii Fido. So we were talking before the break about how do you tell if it's a fake service animal? There are no exacting ways, but there are some pretty good high probability ways. Service dog is behavior, absolute behavior. If they bark, growl, nip at, lunge at another dog or animal or person, odds are it's not a service dog. Even if it was a service dog, that dog could be asked to leave if it had that kind of behavior. So generally, well-trained service dog won't do any of that. The other thing is what we refer to as four on the floor. That means their feet are on the floor. They're not carried in a Gucci bag, or they're not pushed in a grocery cart or a baby stroller. That's not to say that they couldn't be. The ADA specifically allows for a situation where someone who has a medical alert need and they allow you to wear a smaller dog that's been trained in a body bag so that the dog can be a body pouch so the dog can be close to you to pick up on that scent. But generally it's four on the floor in behavior. Grooming is really important too. If it's filthy, you see fleas, ratty looking, that's generally not a service dog. So those are the three criteria we recommend in terms of trying to assess it. And so let's talk about Senate Bill 2461. What exactly is this bill supposed to do? The bill is trying to make a law. The bill is to make a law that says if you falsely portray your dog as a service animal when it is not, that is a misdemeanor. Initially it was going to be a criminal offense and we said, you know, that's kind of tough and so did a lot of other people. So it's a misdemeanor. The fines are pretty modest, like $100 for the first one and a little more for second or third offense. And what the bill is trying to do is, in a way, is take the rug out from under the argument that's where a person says, well, it's not illegal, no, you can't stop me. Well, if it becomes illegal, then that takes that argument away. And we think that a lot of people will adhere to that law just out of the fact that it, because of the fact that it is law. One of the questions that we talked about is the enforceability issue. I testified. Yes, the bill does have different penalties. It has the fining and the misdemeanor, which means that somebody could be taken to court. Yes. Written, I mean, cited by a police officer and taken to court. That is correct. Now, the probability of that though happening is pretty small because the ADA limits the two questions to ask if you're a business person, as a person comes in with a dog and you're not sure if it's a service dog. First question is, is this a service animal required because of a disability? You can't say, are you disabled? What is your disability? Is it required because of a disability? And the second one is, what specific tasks has this dog been trained to perform, meaningful tests has this dog been trained to perform for you? You can't ask for demonstrations. You cannot ask for IDs, although most service dog organizations put their vests on there and issue IDs, the businessman can't ask for that. So law enforcement says, how do we enforce this? There will be some times when it will be enforceable because people are going to be obstinate and say, you know, it's not fair, I'm coming in anyway. And then they could be cited. What we see, the main benefit of this bill being is, is we're putting a stake in the ground and we're saying enough is enough. What is the ADA law act was put into place to accommodate people with real serious disabilities in a way that allows them to have greater mobility with a service dog. Everybody who's trying to portray their fifi as a service animal, whether it is not, is doing a gross abuse, is a gross abuse of what ADA law is all about. We would like to educate the people here in Hawaii and other states are struggling with the same thing about how wrong that is. Up until now, when we appeal to individuals one-on-one or in groups, some that might object to it, say, you know, it's not illegal. What's a big deal? And we'd like to turn around and say, it is now illegal and what the big deal is, is the adiata. And we think that they'll listen more earnestly and be more responsive if a law is passed. We're not naive about this. This isn't going to make all the confusion and frustration for businesses go away. We wish it would. But we hope it will reduce it because people will be more aware of it and less inclined to abuse the law. And you know, the presence of all these fake animals, fake services, do they hurt people who have real disabilities? I'm not aware of where a fake service dog has attacked someone with disabilities. No, I mean, the fact that there are these fake service animals, I mean, how does—does that have any kind of a negative impact on people who have real disabilities? It does. And that's another reason why we're behind the bill. And that is, it has a rollover effect. A person walks in to a store or grocery store or restaurant with an animal that they—that is a legitimate service dog, and it may not be so obvious, OK? I don't know what's going on. I don't see a guy and I on us on this thing. You know, I wonder, is this a real dog, a real service dog? And our dogs from Hawaii 5-0 help people with physical disabilities and balance issues. And so what they assist them in, you don't see until you see them getting in our chairs or if they drop something, and that's legitimate. But now it causes questioning of legitimate service animals. And that really causes a lot of confusion and upset individuals who do have the disability with their dog, because now they're being challenged sometimes when they really shouldn't be. But you can't blame businesses because they really don't know how to believe anymore. Right. And so what is the status of the bill? The bill is a Senate bill. So somehow—so it started in the Senate. It started in the Senate. It passed the Senate. I think it was February 22nd, 21st or 22nd. It was then moved to the House. And so now it is set for hearing before the House judiciary. The hearing hasn't been set yet, and that's important. It's gone to the House, and what—and you're going to get put on the screen here. Yeah, we have—we have a—a contact—we have information on the screen for Representative Scott Nishimoto. Right. He was ahead of the Judiciary. He was ahead of the Judiciary Committee, and now it's up to him to schedule a hearing on this bill. It made the first reading in the House. I think that's more technical than anything else. But now, if it's going to go forward, it has to have a hearing in the Judiciary Committee. And that hasn't been scheduled yet, and time is urgent here. And so if the viewers are in support of this, they can email Scott Nishimoto and his email address is on the screen, or they can call him at the phone number. That's right. And they can ask him to schedule this for hearing and to pass it. And so that's what you would—that's your message that you would like the viewers to hear. Absolutely. We would really—and call up your friends and neighbors that you think would support it too and ask them to get in touch with him. If you go online to state legislator and you go to committees, you'll see the names of the members of all the House members of the Judiciary Committee. And I'm personally writing letters to all eight members. And they may want to—your viewing audience may want to consider doing that as well. And we talked briefly about it. When I first contacted you, I said, you know, although the bill doesn't have a direct impact on condominiums, who is—and that's basically our viewership is condominium owners and people who work in condos. But we do have an issue with service—not with service animals, but people who claim to have animals that they need to accommodate their disability, right, emotional support animals. And so we have a lot of buildings that have voted not to allow pets, and, you know, so basically there are no pet buildings. And so it's very frustrating when they have to deal with what they believe are fake animals, fake, you know, service animals. And so because of that frustration, you know, we would like to see this bill pass so that maybe after it passes, we can then, you know, look at the bill and try to figure out a way where it can help associations deal with the issues that they have to deal with when requests for reasonable accommodations are made for people who want animals, you know. And it may be that some new bill will be written next year, the next session, and that will address your concern. Right. But, you know, so, you know, we do share your concern. We believe, you know—and we agree totally with what you've said, that people with disability have the right—they should have the right to have animals that will support their disability, to help their mobility, to help them access their unit and enjoy their home. You know, I don't think—I don't think associations have, you know, a problem with that. But, you know, what we need to do is address the abuse. And I'm being told that we are almost out of time, so thank you for being with us. Thank you for inviting me. And join us next week for another episode of Kondo Insider. And thank you very much for joining us today. And remember to call Scott Nishimoto. It's Senate Bill 2461. And we want you to contact him and ask him to give it a hearing and to pass it out. Thank you very much for joining us today. Thank you.