Service dog law has dark side

There is an especially vicious, dark side to the new law intended to nab so-called “fake service dogs.” My husband is a 100 percent service-connected disabled veteran, as is his brother, whom we help.

I am a 100 percent disabled civilian who has advocated for disabled veterans and others who have been denied their civil/human rights, because someone, often supposedly pillars of our community, sometimes law enforcement, did not believe we looked disabled (my spouse lost one-fourth of his brain in the military; I have frequent violent seizures from TBI caused by my neo-natal brain injury that strong medication doesn’t prevent). We have been shamed, taunted, intimidated, beaten, threatened, knocked to the ground, falsely jailed (to prevail in court) because someone here in our lovely city secretly didn’t like disabled people or dogs. (All of this is documented.)

Of course we don’t want healthy people running bluffs by lying about their dogs, but this is a completely different matter. The public needs to know about it and there will be legal consequences for treating us, a minority covered by strict laws in the U.S., like African-Americans were treated in the early 1960s.

Catherine A. Swann-Humberg

Spokane