Frightened Customer Sprays Service Dog in the Eyes with Bleach

I read this story this morning and was horrified.

A customer in a Florida grocery store was alarmed to see another customer, who is blind, with her guide dog.  She says she has schizoaffective disorder and that makes her paranoid (which very well may be true) and thought the dog was vicious (although she admits it was not behaving in an aggressive manner at all) and might attack other customers or children in the store.  She asked the woman with the guide dog to leave the store, but the woman declined to do so.  Apparently she wanted to complete her shopping and of course she has every right to have her trained service dog in the store with her.

The woman the grabbed a spray bottle of Clorox cleaner off the shelf and sprayed the service dog in its eyes.  The police were called, thank goodness, and they cited the woman for animal cruelty.  Perhaps that was the only local law they could use to cite her, but I think she should be charged with something more.  Yes, what she did was certainly animal cruelty, and she should be charged with that as well.  But she didn't only do something cruel to the dog.  She endangered the dog's owner, a blind woman that depends on her dog.

The article states that the dog appeared to be uninjured, which is surprising to me but I hope that's true.  Even if the dog is physically OK, though, it could be emotionally traumatized by the experience.  Something like that can cause a service dog to be unable to work for a while, or even unable to work ever again.  From the article, it appears the dog's owner was shopping alone.  How would she get home if her dog was temporarily unable to see clearly?  It seems to me that in addition to committing a crime against the dog (animal cruelty), the woman also committed a crime against the dog's owner, much like if she had damaged a disabled woman's wheelchair so that the woman could not safely use it. 

Only it is much more expensive and takes a lot longer to replace a service dog than a wheelchair.  Especially a guide dog for the blind.  While it costs about $20,000 to train most service dogs, it costs about $40,000 to $50,000 to train a guide dog.  While many service dogs can be trained in just 18 months, it usually takes at least two years to train a guide dog.  And while many service dog programs have one to two year waiting lists, the waiting list for a guide dog is often two to three years.

I read the comments on the article and one commenter said he thought the woman should be involuntarily hospitalized as she is clearly a danger to herself and/or others.  I agree that she is a danger to others, if indeed it was her mental illness that caused her to behave this way, which seems to be what she is saying.  What will she do the next time she sees a service dog in the grocery store?  In the article, she is quoted as saying she guesses she overreacted but she still doesn't think the dog should have been in the store.  I hope the court orders her to be evaluated to determine if she is still a danger to others. 

She could get up to a year in jail and/or a $5,000 fine for the animal cruelty charge.  I hope, if the court determines she is not "not guilty due to insanity," that she at least gets the maximum fine.