While Service Animals are welcome throughout Fenway Park, space is very cramped for Service Animals in most normal seating locations. The Red Sox have modified their ticket procedures to make a limited number unsold wheelchair locations available to Guide Dog Users 72 hours prior to each game. These spaces provide ample space for you and your Guide Dog. Call the Red Sox Box Office at 1-877-733-7699 and follow the prompts for accessible seating 72 hours prior to the game you wish to attend. Please identify yourself as a Guide Dog user interested in purchasing wheelchair seating locations to accommodate you and your Guide Dog. You are allowed one adjacent companion, subject to availability.
The State of Maine's Sales and Use Tax Law provides an exemption for sales of goods and services which are essential for the care and maintenance of seeing eye dogs which are used to aid any blind person.
According to Title 36, Part 3, Chapter 211,
§1760 of the Maine Revised Statutes:
"Seeing eye dogs. Sales of tangible personal property and taxable services essential for the care and
maintenance of seeing eye dogs used to aid any blind person. [1993, c. 670, §2 (amd).]"
The California Hotel & Lodging Association (CH&LA) posted its award-winning We Welcome Service Animals training video and related material on its web site. To view or download any of two different videos (in either Quicktime or Windows Media Viewer formats) or three different brochures (in PDF format), see the CH&LA "We Welcome Service Animals" web page.
Although the use of dogs for assistance with mobility by people who are blind has been around for hundreds of years, the dog guide
movement in this country is just over 75 years old. In 1927 Dorothy Eustis, an American living in Switzerland, visited a school in Potsdam,
Germany at which German Shepherd dogs were being trained to guide veterans who had been blinded in World War I. Mrs. Eustis wrote an article
about what she saw there which was published in the November, 1927
If you are thinking of training with a dog guide, there are many guide dog schools throughout the country from which to choose.
Both Title II and Title III of the ADA contain protections for persons with disabilities who rely on dog guides and other qualified service animals. The U.S. Department of Justice has produced at least two publications which apply to the rights of dog guide users to access public facilities as well as private businesses that are places of public accommodation.
In the "ADA Business BRIEF: Service Animals", the USDOJ summarizes your rights to access public accommodations with your dog guide. These rights as well as the rights of the private business are explained in a question and answer format in the document titled "COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT SERVICE ANIMALS IN PLACES OF BUSINESS".
The Air Carrier Access Act prohibits discrimination in air transportation by domestic and foreign air carriers against qualified persons with disabilities including dog guide users. In their publication "New Horizons: Information for the Air Traveler with a Disability", the U.S. Department of Transportation explains the provisions of the Air Carrier Access Act including those provisions that affect dog guides.
Assistance Dogs International (ADI) offers an updated booklet of state laws that includes the most up to date information about access laws and dog guide protection laws. The ADI booklet which can be viewed at: http://adionline.org/LegalGuideHandbook/GuideHome.htm
While there are no federal laws designed specifically to protect dog guide teams from loose or uncontrolled dogs, more than half the states have enacted such laws. The Guide Dog Users of Arizona maintains a comprehensive listing of state dog guide protection laws.