A Missouri judge didn't monkey around with a woman who claims a Bonnet Macaque monkey is trained to assist her with anxiety and agorophobia, finding the animal was “equivalent to a household pet” and does not qualify as a “service animal” under disability law.

Debby Rose with monkey

Debby Rose's case is the second this year in which a federal court has refused to recognize a primate as a service animal. The Springfield, Mo., woman sued the local health department, Wal-Mart Stores, and a cafeteria operator for denying her access to restaurants and other public facilities while accompanied by Richard, her 10-year-old Bonnet Macaque.

Granting summary judgment to the defendants, U.S. District Judge Richard E. Dorr said Rose did not qualify as disabled under the Americans With Disabilities Act because her mental impairments were at most “mild limitations” and, even if she did, she had failed to show that the tasks for which she had trained Richard related to her disability.

“The vast majority of these 'tasks' involve nothing more than the monkey providing comfort,” Dorr ruled in an Oct. 21 opinion. “An animal that simply provides comfort or reassurance is  equivalent to a household pet, and does not qualify as a service animal under the ADA.”

“For example,” he noted,

while the monkey bringing Plaintiff a toothbrush or the remote to the TV may relate to a disability if Plaintiff needed assistance with fetching items, Plaintiff fails to sufficiently explain how these actions are required for her to cope with her agoraphobia or anxiety disorder other than to provide her comfort or encouragement.

Rose called the decision “devastating” and indicated she would like to appeal. "I won't be able to function," she told the Springfield News-Leader. "I can't say any more. I can't do it without him."

But Dorr followed the template of an Arizona case in which a judge in February said Kristy Pruett, who suffers from diabetes, could not use a chimpanzee as a service animal because it had not been “trained to perform tasks specifically related to Pruett’s disability” such as detecting when her blood glucose level is dropping.

“[H]aving the Chimpanzee in her home to retrieve and administer emergency assistance to Pruett is not only unnecessary, it likely is inadequate,” U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake said in Pruett v. Arizona, 606 F. Supp. 2d 1065.

The two decisions do not categorically reject service animal status for primates -– or any other wild animals, for that matter. The ADA defines a service animal as “any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability.”

Rose acquired her monkey in 2004 and filed her ADA lawsuit in August 2008 after the Springfield-Greene County Health Department sent letters to food service establishments ordering them not to admit her with Richard. Acting on those letters, Wal-Mart and Cox Health Systems denied her access to their premises.

The monkey, Rose claimed, had been trained to perform such tasks as using a “direct look with an open mouth” or a “gentle push” to alert strangers to stay away, and hugging her to bring her anxiety level down. Without Richard, her “condition worsens and [she] can barely function at all, [she] will not leave [her] home, and sometimes will not get out of bed.”

In finding Rose is not disabled, Dorr made some questionable comments. She was not diagnosed with anxiety and agoraphobia until 2006, he said, and that diagnosis “was made by a medical doctor who testified he did not make any objective findings, but based the diagnosis solely on the subjective statements of Plaintiff.”

Rose insists she was diagnosed in 2001 while Dorr's skepticism about the diagnosis ignores the fact that the “subjective statements” of patients are usually all that health professionals have to rely on in diagnosing mood disorders.

But the case for recognizing Richard as a service animal obviously had serious flaws. "While 'tasks' such as using a 'direct look with an open mouth' or a 'gentle push' may relate to Plaintiff’s anxiety disorders by keeping people away, Plaintiff provides no explanation as to the monkey’s training or the specific cues that would trigger the monkey to perform these 'tasks,'” Dorr said.

The Department of Justice was overwhelmed with thousands of comments last year when it announced plans to narrow the definition of service animal to exclude wild animals, including reptiles, rabbits, farm animals, amphibians, ferrets and rodents. President Obama's appointees are reviewing the proposed guidelines.

By Matthew Heller
10/29/09