Thread by @MadLibrarySci

Had a librarian first today, and wouldn't mind some feedback from the #librarytwitter hivemind.

So a regular patron comes to me today. I know her better than a lot of my patrons--she's in the book club I run and I've heard some of her life story. 1/

She's not good with computers, and wants my help getting her dog certified as a service animal. She says that a man told her that she coud pay $59 online and get it certified, then she could take him to hotels and such. 2/

Her big concern is during hurricane season--last year when we evacuated she got turned away from several motels because of her dog.

So I ask if her dog is really a service dog. As in, gone through training. She says yes, that it is very well behaved. 3/

I know from just a few moments of conversation that this is in no way a service animal. She pretty much tells me straight up that this is solely for the purpose of not getting turned away from motels in the future. 3/

I start off by pulling up information from the National Service Animal Registry. Showing her the difference between the types of support animals, asking more questions to trying and figure out the best path to send her on. 4/

Because obviously I don't want to say "I think you're trying to cheat the system."

She says she wants to register it as an emotional support animal, so I go over the resources for getting a doctor to sign off on that. 5/

She's not liking the idea of how much work will need to be put into doing this properly.

Because she knows that there are sites that she can throw her money at that will let her slap a vest on her dog and claim that he's protected. 6/

So I try another tactic. I say that if her real concern is hurricane evacuation, maybe we can come up with a list of pet friendly hotels she can contact in the future. That way she can plan her route and reserve a room as soon as she plans to leave. 7/

She doesn't really love the idea of that either, especially when I say that it will take me a couple of minutes to research. But I keep her interest long enough to find a resource for locating pet friendly travel. 8/

And they even have a phone number she can use for a search, since she doesn't do internet.

So she gives me a horror story about getting scammed by one of these third party sites before. She's basically hemming and hawing at every turn, trying to get me to do what she wants. 9/

I finally have to put my foot down, and explain that I am not comfortable doing as she asks. That there is a lot of abuse in the service animal industry, and it hurts people who genuinely need service animals. 10/

Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter how "well behaved" she claims her dog is. If it is not a service animal, it should not be treated as such.

Service animals are not pets. 11/

She can talk all she wants about how it "might as well be" because she loves it so much she's not going to leave it behind in an evacuation. And I'm just like "well, of course not. I would hope everyone would love their pets enough not to want to evacuate without them." 12/

So...I basically refused to secure her the information she was asking for. I said that if she wanted to ask someone else for it, that was up to her.

She asked me about my coworker (who wasn't there) and if I thought he'd do it for her. I said that it would be up to him. 13/

In the past, when a patron has asked me about something morally dubious, my policy has been "give them the information. what they do with it is up to them." 14/

But this felt different. I guess because I would have been saying, yes, give these people your money, they will let you say that your animal is a service dog. 15/

I couldn't do it. I've heard too many stories from the disabled community about how hard it is to get a properly trained animal. About the struggles, discrimination, and difficulties they have.

I couldn't help someone take advantage of that system. 16/

At the same time, there's that voice of doubt in my head. Is it really my place to make that call? Even after our conversation, when it was made so very clear what she was doing? I mean, she literally said "really, I just want to do this so I can take him to hotels with me." 17/

Maybe it would have been different if this wasn't someone I'm on friendly terms with. Maybe I wouldn't mind so much. Maybe I'm just wondering "if this comes back on me, how am I going to defend what I did?" 18/

So, here's your question: what is our responsibility, as librarians, as providers of information, when we are asked to provide information on morally gray areas? Fin/