Watch above: CNIB Saskatchewan has kicked off a new campaign to educate people about the dangers of distracting working guide dogs. Aaron Streck finds out why some legally blind individuals think this will do more harm than good.
SASKATOON – While they are cute enough to stop and pet, they are guide dogs and more often than not are on the job. A new campaign launched this week stresses the importance of allowing a working guide dog to do its work.
“A lot of our guide dog handlers have been distracted when out on the street with their dogs and they really express the need in the community that there’s not enough awareness out there about the actual safety implications of distraction on the handler,” said Christall Beaudry, CNIB Saskatchewan’s provincial manager.
The goal of the CNIB is to prevent guide dog distractions and make it safer for the animals and their handlers. Consultation sessions helped develop the campaign.
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“We had some discussions about various scenarios around distractions, we generated ideas from the group and then our agency went back and really developed those ideas into new scenarios that were presented back to the group for feed back,” said Beaudry.
Robin East, who is currently in-between guide dogs, has had one since 1986.
“They’re the best way to go, they’re the safest and fastest mobility tool out there for people who are blind or partially sighted,” said East.
Over the years, East has experienced instances of guide dog distraction but he feels the message missed the mark.
“I wanted people to see that if you’re going to distract a unit, a guide dog and it’s handler, if you distract them there’s going to be some dire consequences if that guide suddenly veers and the handler gets hurt or if the dog gets hurt,” said East.
“It’s all in a laughing, joking style as opposed to a very serious manner of which this is.”
“We did want to keep it light-hearted. Humour tends to stick with people so we did keep it light-hearted for that reason,” said Beaudry.
Beaudry also acknowledges the seriousness of the message and the fact that distraction of a guide dog can result in a $25,000 fine or two years in jail.
This is the first of a number of campaigns the CNIB wants to roll out about guide dog awareness. The campaign also involves social media and online.
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