When Anatoliy Varfolomeyev, a blind resident of Kyiv, got his Labrador guide dog Tiger a few months ago, he expected that it would give him more freedom to move about the city independently.
But when on the evening of April 2 he tried to use Kyiv’s underground railway, the metro, he was brought to an unexpected halt.
On entering University station in the city center on his way home to a residential area in the east of the city, the staff of the station stopped him, saying it was forbidden to travel in the metro with dogs.
Varfolomeyev wrote on Facebook that the metro staff had acted rudely, ordering him to use other transport instead of helping him to use the escalator safely with his guide dog.
Kyiv Metro spokesperson Natalka Makogon told the Kyiv Post on April 3 that Varfolomeyev had been refused entry on safety grounds.
“Unfortunately it is forbidden to carry dogs in a metro located deep underground, as that can cause serious injuries (to other passengers),” Makogon said. “Metro workers usually help people with disabilities to use the escalator and safely get to a train. As for their rude behavior – that will be discussed (by metro management).”
Varfolomeyev called police to file a claim about rude behavior. But when they came, he was forced to spend three hours in the local metro police department and, in the end, paid Hr 110 to take a taxi home.
“I got home at 12:30 p.m. It costs Hr 110 for a blind person to use our city metro,” Varfolomeyev wrote in his post on Facebook, adding a photo of the receipt for the taxi fare.
Anatoliy Varfolomeyev’s Facebook post that shows him and his guide dog Tiger sitting in local metro police department got more than a thousand shares in one day.
Varfolomeyev said the behavior of metro workers, who asked him to use other public transport to get home, was outrageous.
“To get home I need to take at least three marshrutkas (taxi buses). That’s a true quest for the blind person in Kyiv, especially at night,” Varfolomeyev wrote, adding that it’s impossible for him to know the number of a bus as it approaches a stop.
For him, Tiger is not just a pet but a helper.
“I can’t travel without him. I don’t even see any light,” Varfolomeyev told the Kyiv Post on April 3.
But Makogon said there are no exceptions in the rules for transporting dogs in Kyiv metro.
“Only small dogs are allowed. And they must be transported in special cages,” said Makogon.
Asked why Kyiv police dogs can sometimes be seen patrolling underground with officers, Makogon said it was wrong to compare them, as these are specially trained dogs who are brought underground not by escalators but via a special staff entrance.
“Police dogs have special certificates. But in Ukraine we have no schools that provide such certificates for guide dogs – that’s why they’re not allowed,” Makogon said.
But Ihor Tytarenko, a dog trainer from the International Police Dog Training Corporation based in Odesa, said Makogon was wrong, and that guide dogs are indeed being trained for use in the metro in Ukraine.
“But it costs at least $6,000 and a year of hard work to train such dog, and blind people in Ukraine usually can’t afford that. Volunteers usually (pay to) train such dogs. All that would be needed for this is approval and state finances from local government,” Tytarenko said.
“Guide dogs are usually well-trained and very stress proof,” added the trainer.
Makogon said metro is not the one to blame for restrictions on guide dogs, as it is the local government that approves the rules for all the state-financed organizations.
Vadym Nosach, a Kyiv City Council spokesperson, confirmed this, but pointed that while Kyiv authorities only approve the rules, it’s the organizations themselves that make them.
“I think this is outrageous discrimination… We will tackle this, and resolve it in the near future,” said Nosach.
Despite regulations or rules that deny access to animals in public places and transport, in many countries, guide and other service dogs are protected by law and therefore may accompany their owners most places that are open to the public places. Such countries as the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, Portugal, Switzerland, South Korea and many others allowed service animals to be present anywhere that the general public is allowed.
