Blind men verbally abused by 'animal rights activist' who screams it is cruel to use guide dogs
A blind disability activist has said that he and a blind friend were verbally abused by an "animal rights activist" who is said to have become angry that they were using guide dogs.
Dr. Amit Patel was enjoying a drink with his friend at the Portsmouth Mariott when an "aggressive" woman approached them and started screaming at them because she was not happy they had guide dogs with them.
"Last night: two blind guys & our dogs at a bar, having a quiet drink", he tweeted. "We then get accosted by an aggressive woman screaming that we’re cruel for having Guide Dogs. Not only was she in our faces but at one point I thought she‘d get physical. Not a comfortable position to be in [sic]."
Social media users immediately came to his support, with one user writing, "Disgraceful. I’m so sorry you both had to go through that. People really can be awful."
Another commented, "A speciest - I didn't realize that they were taking it this far. So sorry that you are on the receiving end of their dogma - which would, no doubt, evaporate if they needed an assistance dog [sic]."
Speaking to Unilad, Dr. Patel detailed the incident further and said the woman declared herself as an animal rights activist and told them they were "absolutely cruel" for having the dogs with them. He said the woman went as far as to suggest that he and Jonathan were as bad as the people who organized dog fights.
Ironically enough, just earlier the same night, Dr. Patel had spoken at the Animal Star Awards, an awards evening dedicated to service animals and humans within the animal industry, and described the problems faced by those who used such animals in their everyday lives.
"It's ironic that earlier in the eve I was on stage & gave an anecdote about the grief assistance dog owners get from some people about our working dogs", he wrote. "Our dogs are so loved, well cared for & love their jobs. If they didn't, they wouldn't work."
Dr. Patel explained that there was a misconception that these animals were "forced to work" and that, over the past few months, guide dog owners, medical detection dog owners, hearing dog owners, and such had been receiving grief about owning the animals because of this.
"Can you imagine having someone shout at you when you can’t hear them?" he said. "And it’s people with hearing loss, you know. It’s crazy. Imagine shouting at someone who is deaf, who has a hearing dog, and telling them they are cruel. It’s not on."
He also cleared the air around the claims that these dogs were somehow being abused because they were made to work. "These dogs don’t make it through their training if they don’t want to work", he said. "A lot of dogs don’t make it through their training because they don’t want to work because they’re not interested or they’re too sniffy."
"You know, to be able to trust your life to a guide dog, that dog has to be concentrated 24/7", he added. "I can’t go through central London at peak time and have a dog that has a kind of 'I don’t really want to work but I’ll do it anyway' attitude. My guide dog has to be on it all the time."