Different Rules In Indiana, Virginia
and Maryland
But What About Service Animals In
Training?
by Steven John Fellman
and Adam Smallow
NATO Washington Counsel
Several weeks ago NATO received an inquiry
from the owner of a company that trained service animals.
The letter stated
that the company had sent one of their trainers together
with a dog that was being trained as a seeing-eye dog to
a movie theatre. The theatre staff recognized that the
trainer was not a person with a disability and indicated
that the theatre had a policy for admitting service animals
to assist persons with disabilities but that in this case
it appeared that the person with the service animal was
not disabled.
The trainer explained that in fact he was
not disabled. Further, the dog in question was not a registered
service
animal but was a dog that was being trained to be a service
animal. He claimed that under the law of the state in question,
a movie theatre had to admit service animals in training.
The theatre staff responded that the theatre
was not a training facility. The theatre was a place of
public accommodation,
but only had to admit service animals that were in fact
assisting persons with disabilities.
Who was right?
Under the ADA there is no specific requirement
that the operator of a public accommodation, such as the
motion
picture theatre, permit the theatre to be used as a training
grounds for service animals. There is no specific language
in the ADA or the regulations that permits a trainer of
a service animal to take a dog that is in training into
the theatre. In fact, the Department of Justice wrote a
letter to a member of Congress confirming that the ADA
has no statutory language that requires service animals
in training to be admitted into public facilities. But
that is not the end of this story.
Several states have passed specific legislation
that deals with the service animal in training issue. As
an example,
in Indiana, Virginia, and Maryland, theatre operators are
now required by state statute to admit service animals
in training. The service animal does not have to be accompanied
by a disabled person. If a trainer brings a service animal
to a theatre in one of these states, the theatre staff
is required to admit the trainer and the service animal,
provided the trainer buys a ticket. In some state statutes,
there are provisions that protect the theatre operator
by obligating the trainer to pay for any damages or cleaning
expenses caused by a misbehaving animal in training. However,
if the states in which your company operates have statutes
which require that you admit a service animal in training
into your theatre, you must obey the statute or face a
substantial fine.
Although the requirements of the federal
Americans With Disabilities Act apply in all of the United
States, each
state has the right to enact disability protection legislation
broader in scope than the federal statute. As an example,
the ADA may only require that you have four wheelchair
spaces in a theatre auditorium with 300 seats or under.
A state’s statute could require double that number
of wheelchair spaces. We recommend that every theatre owner
review the disability rights legislation in each of the
states in which it does business. 
