Purpose

• To ensure compliance with the Provincial Accessibility Standards for Customer Service regarding the presence of service, assistance or therapy animals in public facilities.
• To more clearly define various types of service, assistance and therapy animals and to provide guidelines to Library Staff.
• To protect Library patrons, staff, and property from injury/damage. 

Policy

It is the policy of the Greater Sudbury Public Library to prohibit all animals from entering Library facilities, with the exception of service, therapy or assistance animals, assistance animal trainees, and animals featured in programs sponsored by GSPL.

Violators will be asked to leave the Library and/or to remove their animals from the building. 

Definitions

• Service Animals - animals that are individually trained to perform tasks for people with disabilities - such as guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling wheelchairs, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, or performing other special tasks. Service animals are working animals, not "pets."
• Assistance Animals - a newer term being proposed to replace the term "service animals." It is similar to a service animal but instead of limiting the animal to assisting one person with a disability, an assistance animal works either with a specific person with a disability or a group of people with disabilities under the guidance of a trainer or owner. The animal's training is similar to that given service animals.
• Therapy Animals - they provide people with contact to animals, but are not limited to working with people who have disabilities. They are usually the personal pets of their handlers, and work with their handlers to provide services to others.