According to the Canadian Registry of Therapy Animals and Service Animals (CRTASA) define a service animals as, "any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal officially trained to provide assistance to an individual with a visible of non-visible disability."
Service animals are well known to provide assistance for those who may need to be alerted to certain medical issues, hearing/seeing assistance, or children with disabilities. The most heard of service animal, in my opinion, would most likely be a guide dog. Although dogs are not the only ones, as you can see, miniature horses (or minis as I call them) do the job just as well for those who may have allergies to dogs or religious beliefs that will not permit dogs in the household.
One aspect of having a service animal that I find interesting is, what happens when they must travel (plane, bus etc), or go to public places where animals would normally not be accommodated (restaurants, schools etc). According to Air Transportation Regulations, ( Transport Canada) under the section that reads, 'Flying with Animals,' it says, "You may bring your service animals on an aircraft with 30 or more passenger seats if a professional service animal institution trained the animal. The animal must remain properly harnessed and under your control and will not have to be muzzled." The passenger is not charged for having brought aboard an animal, (most likely because a service animal is not a pet). One thing that is not clear however is, in the regulations, they acknowledge that there are other service animals (other than dogs), yet all rules are based on dogs, i.e. they ask for the size of the dog so it may fit comfortably at the passengers feat. As for other modes of public transportation and public venues, no one is allowed to discriminate against someone and their service animal, and as long as the area is open to the public, service animals MUST be permitted access. (Public places and transportation)
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