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Both Ohio and federal law offer protections for the use of service animals in public places. Ohio also has both common law and statute which address the owner's liability if someone else is harmed by the animal. This memorandum summarizes those Ohio and federal laws.
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This statute generally gives a person with a disability the right to have a service dog accompany that person in all places "to which the general public is invited." The statute is written specifically to cover people who are blind, deaf or mobility impaired, and only refers to dogs, not service animals in general. The dog must either be serving as, or be in training to be, a guide, leader, listener, or support dog. The owner must have proof that the dog has been or is being trained as a service dog.
If these criteria are met, then the person, accompanied by the dog, is entitled to full and equal access, advantages, facilities, and privileges of all public accommodations, includes educational institutions, as would any other member of the public, with only the following limits:
A person accompanied by a service dog cannot be charged extra for having the dog.
The owner or keeper of a dog can be liable for injury by the dog under either common law or a statute. There is no exemption for a dog acting as a service animal. The statute imposes strict liability for any injury caused by a dog, but only allows for recovery of actual damages. Strict liability means that the person injured does not have to prove that the owner was negligent. There are just two exceptions in the statute to the owner's liability:
An injured person may be able to sue the owner of a dog under the common law in a negligence action. The person would have to show that the owner was negligent in failing to properly control the dog so that it would not injure anyone. This action requires that the injured person show that the owner knew that the dog was dangerous and did not properly restrain it. This is often called the "One-Bite Rule," because until the dog has bitten someone the owner cannot generally be held to know the dog was dangerous. In this common law action, the injured person may be able to collect both actual and punitive damages.
Under Title I of the ADA, dealing with employment, employers must make "reasonable accommodations" for qualified individuals with disabilities. The Interpretive Guidance to the definition of "reasonable accommodations," at 29 C.F.R. Section 1630.2(o) of the regulations for Title I, notes that while an employer would not be required to provide a guide dog for an employee as a reasonable accommodation, it might well be a reasonable accommodation to permit that employee to use his or her own guide dog at work.
Title II of the ADA, concerning public entities, has no explicit language in the act, the regulations, or their Interpretive Guidance, concerning service animals. However, the general prohibitions of 42 U.S.C. Section 12132 against discrimination would certainly apply to require a public entity to allow a "qualified individual with a disability" to use a service animal.
The regulations for Title III of the ADA explicitly require public accommodations to permit the use of service animals. 28 C.F.R. Section 36.302(c)(1). Note that this ADA regulation is not limited to dogs. Also, the regulation does not limit the kind of disability which the person must have to be covered, as does the Ohio law. This regulation also makes clear that the public accommodation cannot be required to supervise or care for the animal.
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