He was equally happy distinguishing between legitimate entrepreneurial "animal spirits" and pernicious greed.
"Even if Richard is a legitimate service animal," he told me, "if he poses a public-health risk, the A.D.A. says he can be excluded.
In September 2006, after receiving complaints that Richard was sitting in highchairs in restaurants, touching silverware and going through a buffet line with Rose, the Health Department sent a letter to all local restaurants announcing that Richard was a risk to public health and not a legitimate service animal.
According to Jennifer Mathis, an attorney at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, "A lot of times when people with legitimate service animals lose these cases, it has to do with the fact that they don't explain their service animals well".
He frets that travelers taking advantage of the situation are "doing a grave injustice to those who truly rely on legitimate service animals".
My colleagues were right -- often dogs that appear to be service or emotional-support animals obtained certification through accessible but illegal means, and they didn't deserve the rights and benefits allowed to legitimate service animals.
But this one, in business since 1985, is a legitimate destination for animal lovers that has established a considerable reputation as a conserver and breeder of endangered species, especially cheetahs.
However, the RBCT was conducted by one core-set in order to supersede another as legitimate experts in animal disease policy, who in turn have contested its findings by pointing out flaws in the design and implementation of the experiment in the field.
Nevertheless, the owners of rare-breed animals have a legitimate need to improve their animals for a number of reasons: economic, cultural, survival, moral and historical.
Ms. Wei said the differences had arisen from legitimate "technical debates" over animal care.
