Stand up to the Department of Veterans Affairs: instead of allowing them to use only TWO International nonprofits, with less than 100 members in the United States, for validation of service dogs, change the policy to accept community based, Certified Professional Trainers, for testing and verification of qualified Service Animals that will be recognized for VA Veterinary Health Coverage benefits.
Why is this important?
I am in the process of having my dog Molly, trained by a Certified Professional Trainer to become my Service Animal. In September the Department of Veterans Affairs set a policy that will affect me and thousands of Veterans who will be obtaining Service Animals to help them with their disabilities. The VA has chosen just two non profits, one of which is based in the UK, and is primary for Seeing Eye Animals, as the benchmark/certifiers of these animal to become eligible for insurance coverage benefits. By this standard you MUST qualify your animal with a less-than-100-member organization to be eligible for this benefit. These "qualified" organizations are proprietary to their animals and most will not "test" animals from non member trainers.
