Theater Policies

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), service animals are defined as dogs that are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. Examples of such work or tasks include guiding people who are blind, alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, reminding a person with mental illness to take prescribed medications, calming a person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during an anxiety attack, or performing other duties.

Service animals are working animals, not pets. The work or task a dog has been trained to provide must be directly related to the person’s disability. Dogs whose sole function is to provide comfort or emotional support do not qualify as service animals under the ADA.  Service dogs provide vital assistance for people with disabilities that are afforded numerous rights under the ADA, but it is the handler’s responsibility to ensure that the dog is properly trained and behaves appropriately in pubic.

*All service dogs must be leashed, harnessed, or tethered.
If, however, these devices interfere with the dog’s work or the handler’s disability makes it impossible to use them, the dog may be kept under control through voice, signal or other controls.

*If a service dog is not under control and the handler fails to act to gain control the Mahaiwe PAC staff is permitted to ask that animal to be removed from the premises. A handler may also be asked to remove a service dog that is not housebroken, is behaving aggressively, or is otherwise posing a threat to human health and safety.