City's first guide dogs hit trouble at Metro station

By Liang Yiwen and Yang Lifei  |   2008-7-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

THE Metro proved a problem when Shanghai's first two guide dogs for the blind, Fang Ru and Ka Jie, took to the streets with their masters for the first time.

Fang Ru guided her master, Hu Lin, who works at a massage parlor in Jing'an District, to the Metro yesterday. But when they reached the gate of Metro Line 2's Songhong Road, station staff stopped them.

Hu was told the Shanghai Dogs Management Regulation forbids dogs, apart from police dogs, to enter public venues.

However, the revised Law of People's Republic of China on the Protection for Disabled Persons, which took effect on July 1, stipulates that blind people can carry necessary devices or equipment to help them get around. Guide dogs come under the category of auxiliary equipment.

Though the Metro company let them pass finally yesterday in the presence of the media, they said guide dogs would not be allowed through in future unless they received instructions from management.

"The Metro company is acting too rigidly," said Liu Chunquan, of the Guangsheng Lawyer Company.

"The dog-management regulation is directed against pet dogs, preventing them messing up the environment. Guide dogs are not ordinary pets.

"Laws always lag behind reality. People should act flexibly according to different situations," he said.

Another guide dog named Ka Jie took his master to do some shopping and visit a doctor on Thursday. He also aroused great attention wherever he went, with people eager to touch him and even calling out to him.

"Residents can severely endanger the safety of blind people with dogs," said Lai Jie, the dogs' trainer. "They should not distract dogs when they are at work in public."

Traffic lights without warning sounds and cars running red lights also threaten the safety of blind people, Lai said.