Yeah, it makes friends for the person . . . Except when people, as they often do, ignore the person and go straight for the dog, talk to the dog, and pet the dog without asking the owner even though it is clearly wearing a sign that says "working dog" . . .

Please note, this actually looks like an OK charity, they're probably totally worth your time and money, and I'm not taking away from what service dogs do for their owners. But, from the perspective of someone who has lots of experience with people with disabilities, this is a bad argument.

The National MS Society had a good article in their publication recently on looking for service dogs.

I always encourage people to investigate their disability-related charities throughly before giving, and really think about the message the charity is trying to send. It's because people don't that we end up with tons of money going to charities that are just plain insulting to us or exploitative, like "Jerry's Kids" which uses us as spectacle/freakshow, or Cure Autism Now which is putting its money towards something most of us adult autistics don't want and reinforcing the idea that non-neurotypicality is always bad and not just different.

I *thought* I just posted a long comment about service dogs. Did that not come through? (in other words, this is a test)