City bus drivers are barking up the wrong tree by allegedly harassing a Manhattan woman and her service dog.
Hannah Josiah has filed a notice of claim to sue the city for at least seven incidents since May in which bus drivers have passed her by, turned her away, called the police and jeered or berated her when she and the dog, named Jasper, boarded various buses in the Bronx.
Josiah, 41, suffers from depression, a disability which may not be visible or apparent to the bullying bus drivers who have challenged her right to travel with the Jack Russell terrier-Corgi mix.
“Jasper is her guardian angel, protects her, serves to remind her to calm down, knows the routine when she gets forgetful and reminds her to take her medications,” said lawyer Michael Redenburg.
“Her service dog is there to quell her anxiety, but instead, the bus drivers cause her anxiety and bring on the panic attacks that her service dog is there to help alleviate her of,” Redenburg added.
The lawyer said Josiah also suffers from vision problems so the dog helps guide her, too.
A New York City Transit spokeswoman declined to comment on Josiah’s allegations, but provided the agency’s rules governing service and therapy dogs.
Animals are barred from riding the subways or buses unless they are inside a container, but there is an exception for service dogs, which are specially trained to perform a task for its disabled owner as long as the pooch is harnessed or leashed.
But therapy dogs, which provide the owner with emotional support, are a different kettle of fish and not covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the agency’s website.
Therapy dogs must be transported in a carrier and transit personnel are permitted to inquire what task the animal performs, the site reads.
Josiah, who regularly travels to a doctor in the South Bronx, has meticulously recorded the hostile reception she allegedly received from drivers of the Bx15, Bx21 and Bx6 bus lines, and reported incidents to the 511 complaint hotline.
On Aug. 25 aboard a Bx21 bus, Josiah, “could hear the bus driver loudly saying to other riders, ‘She thinks that’s a service dog,’ as the bus driver and riders jeered and laughed loudly,” according to the court papers.
On May 21, a driver told Josiah to step outside while she called her supervisor, “instead the driver simply drove off, leaving (Josiah) and Jasper stranded.”
The notice does not specify the amount of monetary damages she will seek for emotional distress and humiliation.
The transit agency paid $150,000 to another Manhattan woman in 2013 who claimed in a federal lawsuit she and her service dog were constantly hounded on buses and in subway stations.
Estelle Stamm, who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and partial hearing loss, claimed that she and her 120-pound service dog Wargas, were hassled 32 times by transit employees, according to papers filed in Brooklyn Federal Court
