Jim Sak and his dog, Snickers, who now has to live in a kennel outside town (Photo via Chicago Sun-Times)A small Iowa town has forced a retired Chicago cop and Vietnam veteran to part with the service dog who was helping him cope with a profound stroke that left him with no feeling on the right half of his body.
If he hadn’t sent 5-year-old Snickers to a kennel just outside town, the leaders of Aurelia, Iowa could have taken the dog away and destroyed him. The town fathers had reportedly threatened this, and Jim Sak could not take the chance with this dog who is everything to him.
The dog’s crime? He is a pit-bull mix. It seems Aurelia – a town whose motto is “savor the sweet life” – banned the breed in 2008 after a pit bull bit a meter reader.
Sak wasn’t here then. He and his wife recently moved to her home town of 1,100 people so they could be closer to his ailing mother-in-law. But Sak learned that there are no exceptions. Sak even brought his plea to keep his dog before the Aurelia town council, but they turned him down.
“I was a policeman for 32 years. I understand there’s black and white, but there’s also a grey area where you have to use your head. They’re not using their heads…I can’t believe they didn’t even try to talk to us. They just said, ‘No. You’re not having him. He’s outlawed in this town,’ ” Sak said in an article in the Chicago Sun-Times.
Without the dog, Sak’s mother-in-law – the very person Sak moved here to help – has to help him out. Snickers has been of invaluable help to Sak since his stroke. “I have spasms on my right side where the leg gives out whenever I get upset or try to do too much,” he said. “When Snickers sees that my hand is moving, he sits down by me right away and waits for me to tell him what to do. Usually, he goes to get my wife so she can help me get back in the chair. Without him, I feel lost.”
Peggy Sak, Jim Sak’s wife, said the demand to get rid of the dog was sudden, and that it has left them worried sick about the dog. “They called us to a city council meeting Dec. 14 and voted 3 to 2 to make no exceptions. I had to get him out of the house by the next day. That dog has never been away from us a night in his life. He’s the sweetest, most good-natured dog you’d ever want to meet,” Peggy Sak said.
“I left the meeting and threw up on the street outside the place. I can’t stop crying. Jim, being the Chicago cop, is stoic, but very depressed. It’s terrible. I’m afraid to leave him. My mother is now helping take care of Jim because the dog isn’t here to help him.”
She said she is “appalled and embarrassed by the town I grew up in…They have made our lives a living hell since we got here.”
Wow. Is it just me, or if Snickers is a bonafide service dog, doesn’t this fly in the face of the Americans with Disabilities Act bigtime? The ADA says service dogs can be of any breed, from what I know.
The Animal Farm Foundation, whose goal is to secure equal treatment for bully breeds, has hired a lawyer to represent the Saks. The group is also paying for Snickers’ board at the kennel.
“It’s about the injustice of this man having his service dog taken away — this man who is a Vietnam War veteran and a retired Chicago Police officer who has always given back to the community,” said executive director Stacy Coleman.
“This town has taken away this man’s independence, his peace of mind, and his freedom to move about his house, go out in public and keep from having to go to a nursing home with 24-hour care. He’s physically in danger without his dog.”
Aurelia’s website says “Aurelia offers something for everyone!” Apparently everyone but war veterans and retired cops with strokes.
Dogsters, what do you think? Do you have to investigate a town’s rules these days before moving in with a bully breed or bully mix? What would you do if this happened to you? If anyone knows about the ADA in relation to service dog breeds, please give us the facts.
(Sources: Chicago Sun-Times, Animal Farm Foundation, town of Aurelia website)
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