Stand With Me presents at Binghamton Rotary

BINGHAMTON, NY (WIVT/WBGH) – Binghamton Rotarians were given a presentation about proper etiquette around service animals and their handlers.

Myrph McMahon is the founder of Stand With Me, a non-profit that helps train service dogs for veterans who suffer from anxiety and PTSD.

The Binghamton Noon Rotary Club invited McMahon to be this week’s guest presentation.

She started the presentation with a survey, asking the Rotarians if they knew the difference between a service dog, an emotional support dog, and a therapy dog.

She says the biggest difference is that a service dog is the only one of the three, that’s given public access rights.

She says people should never distract a service dog when they see one in public.

“The general public needs to learn to watch if the dog has a service dog vest on. To respect, maybe smile at the person that’s handling the dog and say “what a nice dog,” as they keep walking by. But, it’s not okay to stop and start conversations and try to pet the dog or even ask to pet the dog,” says McMahon.

McMahon says it’s not actually the dog that has public access rights, it’s the human that has a disability, and the dog is considered medical equipment.

She says there are three veterans in her program right now that are about to graduate, bringing the total who have passed the course up to 29 people.

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