The Baker County Library District board of directors will consider updating the rules allowing service dogs in libraries, with a goal of ensuring the dogs are actually trained to help people with disabilities rather than dogs that provide emotional support but aren’t specifically trained.

The board is slated to consider the revision, the first to the district’s animal policy since 2016, during its meeting March 11.

The update was on the agenda for the board’s meeting Tuesday, Feb. 11, but the board lacked a quorum and couldn’t take any action, library director Perry Stokes said on Thursday, Feb. 13.

In a report to the board recommending it adopt the new rules, Stokes wrote that staff at the Baker City library “have recently encountered a growing number of incidents involving animals in the library.”

The issues have happened only at the Baker City branch, Stokes said.

Incidents include patrons bringing dogs to the library that have growled or lunged at people, Stokes said.

Library employees who talked with the dog owners have in many cases confirmed that the dogs are not trained service dogs but are “companion,” “support” or “emotional therapy” dogs, Stokes said.

In reviewing the district’s current policy, Stokes recognized that the language in places lacked detail. The definition of a service animal, for instance, includes the phrase “any animal that is trained.”

That definition was “outdated and too broad,” Stokes wrote in his report to the board.

The proposed new policy’s definition of service animal matches that in the Americans with Disabilities Act, which defines service animals “strictly as dogs and, in some cases, miniature horses trained to perform tasks for a person with a disability,” Stokes wrote in his report.

Service dogs can help guide people who are blind, alert people who are deaf, notice seizures or severe allergies, interrupt panic attacks, and help people with mobility, such as pulling or guiding a wheelchair.

“Companion” animals, however, which can provide companionship, therapy, comfort or emotional support, do not qualify as service animals under the ADA, Stokes wrote in his report.

Stokes said his goal is not to exclude all companion animals.

Both the current policy and the proposed update allow “small companion animals” in libraries if they are fully enclosed in a carrier or carried by the handler at all times and are not placed directly on library furniture or floors.

The policy also allows non-service animals in libraries for a pre-approved program such as therapy reading dogs or educational events.

Stokes said “toy” dogs — very small breeds — generally don’t cause problems if the owner keeps them in a carrier at all times.

“We have wanted to be lenient, and we want to accommodate” that type of dog, he said.

The proposed new policy also incorporates guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice related to what library workers are allowed to do when meeting with patrons with animals.

Under the proposed new policy, employees can’t request or require that a patron with a service animal show documentation or show the animal’s skill, or ask about the patron’s disability.

However, if it’s not obvious that a dog is a service animal, staff can ask the patron two questions:

• Is this a trained service animal required because of a disability?

• What specific work or task(s) has the animal been trained (or is currently being trained) to perform to assist with a disability?

Stokes concedes that owners of companion dogs could potentially take advantage of the new policy by simply claiming that their dog is a trained service animal even if it’s not.

“It’s still very vulnerable to exploitation,” he said.

He hopes people will choose to be “honest” rather than “selfish.”

Stokes said owners of companion dogs almost certainly know that their dog is not a trained service animal under the ADA definition.

Stokes said people who own companion dogs, rather than service animals, could potentially be liable for significant damages if their dog harms a service animal. At least one library patron who has a trained service dog reported, some time after the incident, that another dog had “menaced” the service dog.

The intense training required before a dog is paired with a person with disabilities is expensive, and it makes service dogs valuable, Stokes said.

Although the proposed new policy allows service animals “in all areas of the library where the public is normally allowed,” employees can request that a service animal leave the library in these situations:

• Poses a direct threat to the health and safety of other people or animals in the library, or district property (e.g., uncontrolled barking, aggression, or property damage).

• A direct threat includes showing signs of poor health (e.g., retching; vomiting; excessive scratching, drooling or fluid discharge).

• Is not housebroken.

• Is not under the handler’s control at all times, and effective action is not taken to control the animal.

The new policy would allow a patron to be accompanied by no more than two service animals.