Disabled Pennsylvania man's service dog not eligible for food stamp benefits, court rules. . . .

Food stamps won't be helping a disabled man fill his service dog's food bowl.

James Douris lost a key court decision Tuesday in his yearlong effort to qualify his male boxer, who is fed everything Douris eats, as a dependent member of his household in calculating food stamp benefits.

A three-judge Commonwealth Court panel upheld an earlier Department of Public Welfare's determination that the dog was ineligible because he is not human.

"This court is sympathetic to [Douris'] argument that his service dog is a necessity for him due to his disability, and that he lacks the funds to properly feed his service dog," wrote Judge Renee Cohn Jubelirer. "We hope that there is some other state or federal program that might provide for the maintenance and upkeep of [the] dog."

Douris, 55, a resident of Newtown in the Philadelphia suburbs, is a disabled and unemployed veteran who lives alone and relies on the dog to pull his wheelchair and fetch items. . . .

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Only in America. . . .If the dog had a couple of litters of puppies (by different mutts), laid around all day and didn't assist his master he would have probably qualified for food stamps and free vet care too. . . . .

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