• Photo courtesy Dani Moore
• "My tiny little rats are certainly much less disruptive than a miniature horse would be," said Dani Moore, who uses the rats to alert her to when she is having spasms.

Bethany Barnes of Arizona-Sonora News Service looks at a proposal to limit what kinds of service animals will be allowed in Arizona restaurants:

The Arizona Restaurant Association is aiming to take some of the guesswork out of who’s coming to dinner.

While it hasn’t quite been “lions, tigers and bears,” it has been “parrots, ferrets and squirrels,” according to restaurant owners, who say Arizona’s loose definition of service animal is resulting in service animal shams all over the state.

So the restaurant association is backing HB 2401, which passed out of the House Health Committee on Wednesday. The bill would align the definition more closely with the federal definition, which was narrowed in 2011.

The designation of service animal would go to the dogs—and a few miniature horses—that can perform a task to help someone with a disability. This would exclude comfort animals, which aren’t allowed at the federal level either, though people are allowed to have an animal that helps with psychiatric conditions, if the animal is trained to perform a task.

As it stands now, any animal in Arizona can be claimed as a service animal and there’s very little anyone can say about it.

For whatever reason, said Roxane Nielsen, co-owner of the Prescott Brewing Company, more people seem to believe their dogs have the right to go anywhere.

It can be disturbing for patrons, said Louis J. Basile, Jr. of Wildflower Bread Company, which has several locations in the Phoenix area. People don’t like to know that animals are eating off plates that are washed and then given to other diners.

Wildflower Bread Company uses fine china and can’t be expected to throw it out, Basile said.

The awkward conversations can get ugly, from loud threats about taking business elsewhere to instructing pets to do their business in the restaurant.

Under the American Disabilities Act, businesses may only ask if the animal is a service animal and what tasks the animal is trained to perform.

Prescott Brewing Company had these questions printed on cards for all of its employees because of the uptick in animal pals coming into the restaurant.

Only being able to ask these questions will still tie business owners’ hands even if the bill passes. People can still lie after all. With this bill though, they can only lie about dogs and miniature horses. The hope is that the narrow definition will cut back on the people coming in claiming pets like comfort ferrets. (Which does happen. While researching the bill, this reporter ran into a man with a therapy ferret he’d taken to dinner smuggled in his sweatshirt.)

No one testified against the bill, but similar laws in other states have raised sparked concern from people with more obscure service animals.

Dani Moore, 57, a resident of Hesperia, Calif. convinced her city council to pass an ordinance allowing her two rats to be considered service animals. Hesperia allows any animal to be considered a service animal if they have a doctor’s note.

Moore said she looked into getting a service dog, but couldn’t find one small enough to sit on her shoulder like her rats do. She said that she thinks requiring a dog or a miniature horse could be too costly for many.

"My tiny little rats are certainly much less disruptive than a miniature horse would be," Moore said.

Moore’s rats, Milo and Otis, are trained to lick her neck to notify her when she has spasms. This lets her stop the spasms by either stretching or taking medicine. The spasms are so intense, she said, that they’ve caused her to break a vertebrae in the past.

Rats have been helping Moore with her spasms for 12 years. Moore’s daughter was training therapy rats for a school project and noticed that they were sensitive to her mother’s spasms. It dawned on her that she could train them and Moore has been using pudding and frosting to teach the rats to lick her when the spasms occur ever since. The rats don’t like how the spasms feel and figure out that if they lick her neck they will stop.

While no one spoke out against the bill, Moore said she thinks people who have service animals that don’t meet the federal definition will stay silent for fear of having their animal become a target.

As Moore was leaving the council meeting that won her the ordinance, some people heckled her, shouting that they hoped her rats died.

Moore has no patience for those that are abusing the system and making it hard for people like herself. She agrees it is a problem, but doesn’t think tightening the law is the solution.

"I think it's just a knee-jerk reaction,” Moore said. "The lack of education has caused this adversarial relationship that doesn't need to be there.”

Rep. Victoria Steele, D-Tucson, voted for the bill, though she said she did believe it should include other animals since she’s a cat person.

Joking aside Steele reminded everyone that while the discussion could easily be considered amusing, service animals perform crucial tasks for many.

While a lot of the buzz has been focused on the idea of a miniature horse as a service animal, they are already specified in the federal definition, said Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek. Miniature horses are up-and-coming service animals, she said. They can be an appealing option for people because they live longer. They’re also housebroken, range in height from 24 to 34 inches and weigh between 70 and 100 pounds.