Are guide dogs allowed in a Church?

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I was wondering that if a person’s blind could they be allowed to take their guide dog inside with them?.Thank you for your time.
 
Guide dogs are allowed in my parish. I suspect they would be allowed in churches since they help people, but it would be best to contact the parish and ask about this.
 
They are allowed in my parish. We had a member that trained leader dogs so they were in Mass until they were ready to be turned over.
 
sidetrack said:
I was wondering that if a person’s blind could they be allowed to take their guide dog inside with them?.Thank you for your time.
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Yes.
We have 2 parishioners who come with the guide dogs for Mass.
 
I think any church that did not, Catholic or otherwise, would find themselves with a discrimination suit on their hands if they didn’t allow assistance dogs. According to the law in the UK, a person registered blind can take their dog pretty much ANYWHERE (including a place of worship).
 
Yes, guide dogs and service dogs are allowed anywhere. We have 2 parishioners who regularly are assisted by their dogs.
 
I couldn’t believe this question – of course, guide dogs are allowed in Church. In fact, we have a young man who attends the 9:00 A.M. Mass every day with his guide dog – how could he come to Mass without the dog???
 
In the US, the law requires that appropriately trained and liveried assistance animals be permitted anywhere that is open to the public.

Note that the assisted person is responsible for any damage or mess created by their assistance animal.

And it applies to paraplegics’ monkeys or dogs; blind persons dogs or horses; deaf persons’ dogs; and epileptics’ alert dogs.

And yes, the courts have said the guy with the seeing-eye pony (due to his allergy to dogs) gets to take it anywhere, so long as it has the appropriate catch-bag…
 
Kouyate42 said:
I think any church that did not, Catholic or otherwise, would find themselves with a discrimination suit on their hands if they didn’t allow assistance dogs. According to the law in the UK, a person registered blind can take their dog pretty much ANYWHERE (including a place of worship).
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You’re wrong on that here in the United States, as freedom of religion is part of our law, and if a religious organization has a religious problem with dogs, they could ban them from the building if they like.

However, that being said, Catholicism has no problems at all with guide dogs, so it still wouldn’t be a problem in a Catholic church.
 
Yes. I have even seen one at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.

Guide dogs are trained to behave in situations like church and other crowded places. There is no reason why they wouldn’t be allowed. The person who uses a guide dog may need some assistance finding the best place to sit so that the dog has room to lie or sit also, but other than that, I can’t think of any problems.
 
sidetrack said:
I was wondering that if a person’s blind could they be allowed to take their guide dog inside with them?.Thank you for your time.
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Yes there allowed. However its customarily expected that the person bringing their Guide Dog inform the Parish Office/Rectory so that they can inform Ushers and the Church Custodian so there’s no conflict or embarrassments. I’ve seen this happen before and the Ushers refused the person entrance because nobody in the Parish Church administration was informed.
 
centurionguard said:
Yes there allowed. However its customarily expected that the person bringing their Guide Dog inform the Parish Office/Rectory so that they can inform Ushers and the Church Custodian so there’s no conflict or embarrassments. I’ve seen this happen before and the Ushers refused the person entrance because nobody in the Parish Church administration was informed.
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That’s awful and surprising, Surely it’s obvious when a dog is a service dog of some kind, because they wear a coloured harness or even a jacket? Why does the office need to be informed?
 
paperwight66 said:
That’s awful and surprising, Surely it’s obvious when a dog is a service dog of some kind, because they wear a coloured harness or even a jacket? Why does the office need to be informed?
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I know of one priest who needed to know so he could take his benedryl - he is that allergic to dogs. He always had to take it prior to priest meetings, too, as several other priests were dog owners, and that put him in close proximity to them long enough to trigger his allergy. He had a note in the bulletin that dog owners needed to let him know prior to scheduling a meeting with him, too.
 
paperweight 66 said:
That’s awful and surprising, Surely it’s obvious when a dog is a service dog of some kind, because they wear a coloured harness or even a jacket? Why does the office need to be informed?
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What you so easily claim as obvious is not always the situation at hand.

And really how often do you see (“any”) dog normally at a Mass service?
It’s not traditionally a common occurrence. Whether it’s one or five blind persons bringing their Guide Dog to Mass, a customary courtesy call to the Parish Office is all that’s needed to ask permission so the Church administration staff can make comfortable accommodations for all involved. Some people in the parish do have phobias for whatever reason with dogs. Don’t think I have any bias against blind persons. My beloved mother now 76 is blind. When she is well I bring her to Mass in a wheelchair.
 
The Oct. 2011 issue of the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic, the monthly magazine of the Diocese of Tulsa, has a cover story about two high school juniors training service dogs. One of the accompanying photos is of the two girls, with their dogs, taking up the collection at Mass at Christ the King parish in Tulsa.
 
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