Conner Prairie also has a No Pets Allowed policy. Of course, service
dogs are allowed, and for certain programming participants are allowed
to bring their dog(s) with restrictions to specific areas. But they
must have institutional permission and provide up-do-date health info.
on the animal.
We do it not for allergy reasons but for safety reasons. All dogs are
capable of biting. They have the potential of brining in diseases (i.e.
distemper, rabies, parvo virus, guiardia, etc.) which can be transmitted
to humans and livestock either through contact, saliva or excrement.
And they have the potential of attacking our livestock (we have horses,
cows, sheep, hogs, chickens and a small cadre of cats for rodent
duties). Some of our livestock are rare, too, so their health and
safety is paramount to us.
And then there are the members of the public who are just plain afraid
of dogs. No institution/business has the right to expose someone afraid
of dogs to dogs. It's a form of intimidation and those visitors will
stop coming to your institution/business and will tell all their friends
and family why they quit coming.
Lana Newhart-Kellen
Registrar
Conner Prairie Living History Museum (and outdoors)
13400 Allisonville Road
Fisher IN 46038
317-776-6000 ext. 251
317-776-6014 fax
>>> [log in to unmask] 08/06/04 12:48PM >>>
We have a strict no-dog policy in the offices, galleries and
classrooms
(except for service dogs). We do this for everyone's health and
safety
(including the artworks). This policy was instituted about a year ago
and
some of our instructors who had been accustomed to bringing their dogs
to
class grumbled, but we cited the allergy reasoning (the dander and
saliva
allergens circulate through the building through the air handling
system and
affect people in other areas of the building too) and they ceased.
Nobody has tried to bring in other pets, although sometimes a
neighborhood
cat will wander into one of the classrooms--we just shoo it out. I'm
fairly
sure one of our students brought in a caged iguana to use as a
reference for
a piece she was making, and we were OK with that as long as it
remained
caged and in the classroom, and as long as the other class members were
fine
with it.
The analogy between pets and children is spurious. Pets are animals.
If we
didn't bring children into public places, they'd turn out like animals.
It
is up to the parents to instill proper behavior and cleanliness in
their
children, and if the child is causing a problem we shouldn't feel
reluctant
to ask the parents to leave and remove the child as well. There is no
excuse for slimy hands, loose and unruly toddlers or open food
containers in
a museum. If the parent doesn't know enough to teach the child to
restrict
these behaviors (or remove the child themselves if they spontaneously
occur)
then we need to explain the reasoning behind the rules and ask them to
leave. When my kids were tiny I didn't visit museums for a long time,
and I
was known to abandon grocery carts in the aisle in order to deal with
tantrums and excess energy on their part.
We owe it to ourselves to perpetuate behavior appropriate to a
specific
location. Just because you can do it in a park doesn't mean you can do
it
in a museum. (this applies to everything people do in parks...wink
wink...)
Julia Muney Moore
Director of Exhibitions and Artist Services
Indianapolis Art Center
820 E. 67th St.
Indianapolis, IN 46220
(317) 255-2464 x233
FAX (317) 254-0486
email <[log in to unmask]>
website < http://www.indplsartcenter.org
<http://www.indplsartcenter.org/> >
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