At Both Ends of the Leash: Preventing Service-Dog Oppression Through the Practice of Dyadic-Belonging

There is a growing interest in the “use” of service-dogs to enable persons living with disability to navigate the world more independently in North American culture. While this may appear to be progress, the question remains, for whom? Although there is evidence that the presence of a service-dog is beneficial for persons living with a variety of disabilities, this trend is not devoid of embedded assumptions and a related need for caution. How persons living with disability and nonhuman animals, in this case dogs, are treated both matter equally. One set of needs stemming from structural oppression must not eclipse another’s set of needs. The “use” of one party in order to emancipate another, is therefore fraught with necessary cautions. There are shared oppressions and rights at both ends of the service dog leash.