Correspondence from a Yankee and His Guide Dog, Langer

by Gary C. Norman, Esq.
Gary C. Norman is an attorney, a member of the Fullbright Senior Specialist Candidate Roster
and is the principle of Norman Access and Conflict Resolution Consultants Group (available at gnormanlaw.com)

My travels to the European Union, and to one of its associate members, Serbia, through the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship, has accomplished a
final goal of international adventure, which was quietly promised to Langer, my dog guide, some myriad years ago at our “leashing ceremony.”

In the words of the author, diplomat and public servant, President John Adams, [letter writing is one of my great amusements.] “Thusly, this will employ the instrument of the pen to provide impressions of experiences garnered during extensive travels of a Yankee and his dog guide
during October, 2008.

Note that, as part of the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship, 15 to 16 emerging leaders travel in one of a total of three different sessions that are conducted during the year (i.e., winter, summer, and fall). Traveling to a beginning and an ending city as a large group, the participants subdivide into several and sundry smaller groups of five to seven individuals, and visit a myriad of differing cities during the middle of the experience.

Preparing for the Trip
While, as my personal experience enlightened, fretting about completing a series of steps and actions required for a service animal to enter into the European Union were more anxiety laden, than the actual steps and actions themselves; they must be completed. As Langer and I prepared to embark on our travel to the European Union, our planning was aided by a talented, young accredited veterinarian in Baltimore and by the counsel of a long-time friend who is a veterinarian to Langer when I visit Ohio.

The non-commercial travel of pets or service animals into the European Union, and even into some of its associate members, such as Serbia, falls under the jurisdiction of a regulation numbered as - EC No. 998/2003. The European equivalent or counterpart of our extensive agency and department structure in the United States, the European Commission, is tasked to implement its requirements. In summary, with the exception of Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Norway, requirements for the non-commercial travel of pets or service animals are:

Microchip
Each pet or service animal must be identified by means of a microchip compliant with ISO Standard 11784 or Annex A to ISO standard 11785.

Vaccinations
Animals need to have full vaccinations; and for dogs, this includes Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvo, Leptospirosis, (DHLPP) and Rabies within the last year, or within a minimum of four weeks before arrival.

Pet Passport
An international health certificate must be completed by an accredited veterinarian. Although the certificate is technically valid for four months, the European Union recommends that the certificate be completed and endorsed within ten days of departure in order that handlers are in the best possible position to avoid customs issues upon arrival.

Government Endorsement
When departing from the United States, the international health certificate mentioned above must be endorsed by the Plant and Animal Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, an office of which is worth noting, for purposes of handlers in the D.C. Metropolitan Statistical Area is located in Annapolis, Maryland.

And,
All the above referenced papers should be retained and be readily accessible for inspection by customs, especially if handlers are traveling on an extensive basis within the European Union.

The foregoing steps and actions are known as the pet passport. Note: It is recommended that, before traveling to the European Union, a handler commence the planning process well in advance of the scheduled fight. Inquire with the customary veterinarian or animal hospital of the service animal, which has the privilege of traveling to the European Union, if either of the previously mentioned knows about foreign requirements; if not, there is a continuing education seminar online they can complete.

Langer and I were fortunate that our veterinarian matriculated into and completed the online course regarding international requirements for pets and service animals a short while before we departed to the European Union – for purposes of my wonderful guide dog and for a trip for her own dogs. Ironically, European airports through which Langer and I traveled very seldom requested to review the pet passport, or health certificate.

Airports
Our travels to the European Union were aided by a directive, effective fully after summer 2008, which requires assistance for people with limited mobility within airports in the European Union. Langer and I consequently found the staff at the airports to be far friendlier in some respects than in the United States.

The European Union for Assistance Dogs
Equaling the new capital for an innovative confederacy of nation states and also the capital of a nation that is divided in terms of its future status as an unified polity, Brussels is worth visiting, if for nothing else, the fine cuisine. Brussels is a city of myriad hills, and is historically, a city possessing plazas lined with buildings dating to the Renaissance. As such, Brussels demands great caution on the part of a dog guide handler in that its built environment, its elevators and its buildings are not as accessible as their counterparts in the U.S.

Langer adroitly navigated the challenges, if any, imposed during the visit to Brussels, our first city during the trip. To the recollection of this author, the access scene for dog guides in Belgium is positive; this being in general accord with cultures such as France and Italy that enjoy the companionship of dogs.

Our final destination at which all of the 16 fellows converged, that traveled to the European Union in October 2008, comprised of Copenhagen, Denmark. Denmark is a socialist state. Officials, with whom we met, argued that despite its high taxes on income (in the nature of eighty percent), it has one of the best gross domestic product percentages, as among Western nations.

Certainly, while Copenhagen is a beautiful city, similar in many respects to any of the cities in Upper Peninsula, Michigan, there are those who perceive societal exclusion.

One evening while Langer, I and my friend and colleague, a sort of wingman to Langer and me in myriad cities, walked to a dinner meeting we suddenly found ourselves navigating a huge crowd. I was told most of those in the crowd appeared to be persons of the Muslim faith. Congregated on the town plaza of Copenhagen, many of them were chanting, all the while standing around a large conflagration.

Overall, Langer and I encountered few access issues when in Denmark. The significant access issue which we encountered, however, which is worth mentioning, is an unfortunate incident with a taxicab driver. My colleague and I encountered an issue with a taxicab driver from the airport to the hotel. First the driver did not desire to transport us; however, at the airport, I made it clear, in stern but professional language, he would drive us. After arriving at the hotel, he exited, and commenced yelling at us, demanding my colleague to pay him extra compensation for the hair that Langer allegedly shed on the
seats. Both of us were exhausted from the travels, as my colleagues and I had busy, busy schedules when in Europe. We reported the incident to our day-to-day host, who indicated that he was probably a migrant, a group with which the citizens of Denmark are having some range of difficulties of integrating into their legal and social structures. At that time, she indicated a complaint would be fled with the applicable parties.

Referred to as the sexy, but poor, city of Europe, Berlin is fascinating to visit. Berlin, to my recollection, which is based on discussions with staff at the German Marshall Fund, and high-level officials with whom my colleagues and I met, does not have an extensive domestic civil rights framework for the disabled. However, Berlin constitutes, in my experience, one of the more accessible cities for the vision impaired as among the European Union and the U.S. This is because it has:

1. Audible pedestrian signals at both small and large intersections
2. Intersections that have blended curbs with truncated domes
3. Easily identifiable train stations by way of the smell emanating from their sausage vendors, jocular as that may be – often possessing truncated domes and contrast features on stairs and other surfaces to alert those with low vision
4. Regular and clear stop announcements on the trains, even if in German, obviously, and
5. Good dog guide access in most respects.

What can one pen of a magical place, where the women appear as though they are cleaved from a romantic, Italian film, each sidewalk cafe has desserts that are slices of nirvana and where people possess a concern that the hue of purple is last season? A fortunate author, who has the pleasure of traveling to such a wondrous place with his dog guide, calls this place by the appellation - Italy.

Langer and I visited Torino, Italy, which for our travels, represented our city in Southern Europe.

Our day-to-day host comprised a modern super nonprofit, whose origins, as an interest-loaning organization, date to the medieval period of history.

Long since relinquished of most shareholder interests in the financial arm of its origins, our day-to-day host now comprises a well-funded charitable grant-making institution.

Our accommodations at a five star place of lodging provided such an ample amount of space as to permit Langer to run in a large gallop about the room at night.

One evening, Langer and this author, as well as the other fellows who split up to travel to the city, dined during a period of four hours, supping upon ten different dishes. We dined with the two directors of the winter games of 2006, one of whom was the director of the Paralympics and who was also the friend of a blind teacher involved with the equivalent of the NFB of Italy.

Serbia
Meetings with the Belgrade Institute for the Blind revealed that Langer was, in fact, the only dog guide in Serbia in October. When in Serbia, we encountered a dog guide access issue at most every place, the most egregious of which was our hotel. Suffering with maladies, Langer and I were in no mood to confront an access denial. However, unfortunately, as soon as we had arrived in Serbia, my colleagues and I encountered access issues with the
very hotel that was suppose to serve as our kind of headquarters for four or five days.

As soon as I endeavored to exit our vehicle, a thoroughly disagreeable fellow, the manager of the hotel, accosted me, informing me that I would have to accept meals in my room. When at the hotel, I also always perceived that the staff and management were watching me. One can only imagine the extent to which this was a cause of upset.

The manager endeavored to restrict our access to the restaurant, claiming, if correctly, that under Serbian domestic legal provisions, Langer could not be present, as their domestic health regulations do not allow animals to be near food handling. My fellow travelers served as intermediaries between the hotel staff and me. Because of their legal training and acumen, they shuttled between the hotel and me, eventually striking a compromise. After several minutes of dialogue with the hotel on my behalf, and what I am sure were stern telephone calls by the German Marshall Fund staff, the hotel agreed to provide my colleagues and me a VIP, private board room suite on the top floor of the hotel for dining.

Other issues that we encountered, included, an incident at a church, where a clergyperson, evidently, as I learned from my colleague, started to aggressively approach Langer and me in a menacing manner. That colleague was the wingman described above and after some discussion, he graciously relaxed with me outside of the church, describing its gothic architecture.

After I realized that there would be myriad annoying access issues, I eventually became desensitized to Serbia. As such, one afternoon, my colleagues and I walked on the pier, and eventually decided to dine at a cafe, where we encountered yet another issue. But that was easily resolved, when we told them we would not financially benefit them. They quickly acquiesced, as in Serbia, one of the few places these days seemingly, American dollars matter!

Furthermore, either before or during the time we visited, there was newspaper coverage in Serbia that health code regulations might be reformed, as part of the accession process to the European Union, to allow the access of service animals.

Some of the access issues probably stem from the simple fact that there is an entire lack of dog guides in that nation, and also, as dog guides come with some amount of cost, are just too expensive for many disabled Serbians.

Therefore, traveling abroad in a large grouping of individuals can be helpful to a handler, especially, in circumstances that involve the likelihood of serious access issues. I found this especially helpful in the circumstance of Serbia, where I was too ill at the beginning of the trip to be in any kind of condition to advocate for myself.

Traveling to the European Union was one of our more interesting, and fulfilling of our adventures since our frost introduction in August 2001, as perhaps we eroded some stereotypes about the blind all the while learning about Trans-Atlantic relations.