PS-02.B.15 - Animals on Campus
EFFECTIVE DATE: June 14, 2019
ISSUE#: 3
PRESIDENT: Juan Sánchez Muñoz
PURPOSE
This policy defines efforts to control and minimize the potential risks of animals on campus as required by SAM 01.C.12, Animals on University Campuses (Interim), SAM 01.D.11,Emotional Support Animals, and SAM 01.D.12, Service Animals.
DEFINITIONS
2.1 Service Animal: The Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) defines Service Animals as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties. Service Animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as Service Animals under the ADAAA.
2.2 Service Animal in Training: A dog that is undergoing training to become a Service Animal.
2.3 Emotional Support Animal: Emotional Support Animals are a category of animals which provide necessary emotional support to an individual with a mental or psychiatric disability that alleviates one or more identified symptoms of an individual’s disability, but which are not considered Service Animals under the ADAAA and the System policy on Service Animals. Some Emotional Support Animals are professionally trained, but in other cases, Emotional Support Animals provide the necessary support to individuals with disabilities without any formal training or certification. Dogs are commonly used as Emotional Support Animals, but any animal may serve a person with a disability as an Emotional Support Animal. System-wide, Emotional Support Animals are limited to University housing and residential areas for students who live on campus, as outlined in SAM 01.D.11.
POLICY
3.1 The presence of animals at the University may pose a safety concern, which places the University at risk of a potential liability.
3.2 Dogs, cats and other pets are not permitted in campus buildings, grounds or parking lots.
3.3 Animals may be authorized to be on campus on a temporary basis for a university-sponsored event. Requests should be directed to the Office of the Provost.
3.4 Animals used for research purposes at UHD are not governed by this policy. Inquiries about policies related to animals used for research purposes should be directed to the Office of the Provost.
3.5 Emotional Support Animals are not permitted in UHD campus buildings, grounds or parking lots.
3.6 Police dogs and Service Animals used by individuals with disabilities are permitted in campus buildings, grounds and/or parking lots.
3.7 Service Animals may be restricted from certain areas on campus in order to maintain health and safety requirements. Restricted areas may include, but are not limited to, the following: custodial closets, boiler rooms, facility equipment rooms, research laboratories maintaining sterile conditions, classrooms with research/demonstration animals, areas where protective clothing is necessary, sterile environments, and areas outlined in state law as being inaccessible to animals.
3.8 Owners of Service Animals are required to exercise reasonable control over their dogs in order to minimize risksto others and property by keeping the animal harnessed, leashed or tethered. If these devices prohibit the animal from performance of work associated with the owner’s disability, voice, signal, or other effective control methods are permitted.
3.9 Service Animal owners must have a valid dog license as evidence of the dog’s current rabies vaccinations. The Service Animal owner is responsible for knowledge of all current city, county, and state ordinances, laws, and/or regulations related to vaccinations and other requirements for animals.
3.10 All Service Animal owners are required to clean up after their animals and properly dispose of the animal’s waste. If unable to physically cleanup after their service animal, the owner is responsible for employing someone who is physically able to cleanup after the animal and is responsible for all costs associated with the person hired.
3.11 Owners of Service Animals are financially responsible for care, maintenance of health, the well-being and actions of the Service Animal. Financial responsibility may include removing the animal during an emergency evacuation and cost of injury and/or property damage caused by the Service Animal.
3.12 A Service Animal in Training is entitled to the same access to University facilities as the Service Animal if the animal in training is accompanied by a certified trainer.
3.13 Sightings of injured, abandoned or wild animals (e.g., rats, snakes, birds) should
be reported to the University Police Department and/or the Office of Environmental
Health and Safety.
PROCEDURES
4.1 The owner of any pet, excluding police and Service Animals, brought to any campus building, grounds or parking lot, will be requested to remove the animal immediately. Failure to comply with this request may result in the animal being impounded and possible disciplinary action taken against the employee or student. See PS 02.B.03, Discipline and Dismissal of Regular Staff Employees Policy and PS 04.A.01, Student Rights and Responsibilities.
4.2 If a department or student group wishes to have an animal on campus on a temporary basis for a university-sponsored event, a request must be filed with the Office of the Provost. If authorized, the animal(s) may only be in a controlled environment while on campus, and only for the approved specified period of time.
4.3 When it is not obvious what service an animal provides, only limited inquiries are allowed. Employees may ask two questions:
A. Is the dog a Service Animal required because of a disability? and
B. What work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Employees cannot ask about the person’s disability, require medical documentation, require a special identification card or training documentation for the dog, or ask that the dog demonstrate its ability to perform the work or task.
4.4 Allergies and fear of dogs are not valid reasons for denying access or refusing service to people using Service Animals. When a person who is allergic to dog dander and a person who uses a Service Animal must spend time in the same room or facility (e.g., a classroom), they both should be accommodated by assigning them, if possible, to different locations within the room or different rooms in the facility.
4.5 The University may find it necessary to remove a Service Animal from the University premises if,
4.5.1 the Service Animal is out of control,
4.5.2 the Service Animal is not housebroken, and/or
4.5.3 the owner does not comply with the responsibilities set form in SAM 01.D.12 and this policy statement.
4.6 If a Service Animal is removed, the University employees and service providers must offer the owner the opportunity to obtain goods and/or services without the animal’s presence.
4.7 Removal of a Service Animal will be based upon the behavior of the animal in question
and not on speculation or fear about the harm or damages a Service Animal may cause.
Removal of the Service Animal will be decided by the ADA/Section 504 Coordinator.
REVIEW PROCESS
Responsible Party: (Reviewer): Vice President for Human Resources and Dean of Students
Review: Every three years on or before May 1st.
Signed original on file in Human Resources
POLICY HISTORY
Issue #1: 05/01/10
Issue #2: 03/09/15
REFERENCES
UH System Administrative Memorandum 01.C.12
UH System Administrative Memorandum 01.D.11