Beaver Dam: Kangaroos Banned As Service Animals
Beaver Dam has banned the use of kangaroos as service animals.
The ban comes after a woman took a young kangaroo, wrapped in a blanket and tucked in an infant car seat, with her to a McDonald’s restaurant in a Wisconsin town. The incident took place in February, 2015, when farmer Diana Moyer brought her baby kangaroo, named Jimmy, into the fast food restaurant with her, shocking the fellow customers. Because Moyer claimed that Jimmy was a “service animal,” used to provide emotional support during her battle with cancer, there was nothing that anyone, including the police, could do about it.
The Daily Mail reports that Beaver Dam’s city council passed a new part of the city code, with a vote of 14 to 0, on Monday, June 15, that states that only dogs and miniature horses can be used as service animals, which is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. If anyone is caught using another animal, the police can now issue citations to them.
According to the ADA, service animals “tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties.”
This kangaroo in a diaper and onesie was asked to leave a McDonald’s in Wisconsin. Monsters. http://t.co/dL1770wyvy pic.twitter.com/8wtpn4ZN0m
— Shawn Reynolds (@ShawnRTV6) February 4, 2015
Moyer doesn’t think the ordinance is fair, and says she feels like she is being targeted and will still take Jimmy out in public.
“They’re definitely targeting me and they’re picking on me because I’m disabled and I don’t think it’s very fair,” she told ABC affiliate WKOW.
Jimmy is one of five kangaroos that Moyer and her husband have on their exotic animals farm. She also has a collection of sheep, goats, emu, deer, horses, and chickens. Moyer told the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen that her farm has a license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and has been inspected.
Beaver Dam considers ordinance change after woman brought kangaroo into restaurant #WKOW http://t.co/HsWnTcq3GR pic.twitter.com/NLDo1r5yW8
— WKOW 27 (@WKOW) May 20, 2015
Do you agree with Beaver Dam’s decision to ban Kangaroos as service animals? Leave your comments below.
[Photo via Shutterstock]
