Military veterans - and their service dogs - would get new protections under Michigan bills

http://goo.gl/SSfjPU

When Tom Jones took his family on a summer vacation to Higgins Lake, the hotel nearly turned him away when he tried to check in with a service dog. Staff tried to switch his room, he said, and told him he couldn't take the animal outside.

Jones, a U.S. Army veteran from Livonia who served in Iraq with a field artillery unit, doesn't have any physical disabilities that visibly explain his need for a service dog.

But like many vets who have "seen the worst that man has to offer," Jones said he has a hidden injury: post-traumatic stress disorder.

Baxter, a service dog he was paired with through a non-profit in February of 2014, has played an important role in Jones' re-integration upon return from Iraq, but he explained that observers do not always understand the animal's role.