Is it a dog
with a job or simply a dupe trying to pass their pooch off as a legitimate service dog?
A disturbing proliferation of some trying to pose as
people with service dogs is leaving those legitimately relying on the canines
frustrated and threatening the believability of those truly needing the tool.
And, according to the Associated Press (AP,) it has
prompted lawmakers in several U.S. states to look to legislation to restore the
animals' credibility.
A 2010 amendment to United States law states “service
animals are defined as dogs that are trained to do work or perform tasks for
people with disabilities,” stating “service dogs are working
animals, not pets.”
Dogs' tasks include everything from guiding the blind
to alerting people who are deaf, pulling a wheelchair, protecting a person who
is having a seizure, reminding people with mental illness to take medications
and calming people with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The definition does not include dogs recruited to offer
comfort or emotional support and certainly doesn't include a
Wisconsin woman who last year tried to claim she could bring her kangaroo into
McDonald's.
Cases like those and others where people falsely claim
their canine is a service dog have prompted legislatures in some states to
consider bills that would either establish a service-dog program or penalize
people who fraudulently claim to have one, AP reports.
A task force in Maine recently reported that
“well-meaning federal laws designed to protect people with disabilities have
instead opened the door to fraud.”
And dishonest dog owners dole out consequences for
those who legitimately need four-legged friends to navigate life – leading to
encounters with sceptics and confrontations everywhere from restaurants to
businesses.
Cases lacking credibility, however, are happening in
part because there are no requirements for people to have papers to prove a
canine cohort is indeed a service dog. That means a dude can take his dachshund
to dinner, for instance, and dare anyone to dispute his claim the dog is
helping him cope with a disability.
Because the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits
discrimination and there are no requirements for licensing, certification or
identification of service dogs, it is not only bad form to discriminate but
potentiality has legal consequences.
Business are only allowed to ask – is a dog needed
because of a disability and what task are they trained to do – and answers must
be taken at face value, regardless of whether the dog's service status is legitimate, or there could be charges, fines or lawsuits.
In the year ending June 30, 2014, there were 1,939
lawsuits in the U.S. for ADA violations, up 55% from the previous year –
including a case where a condominium association paid a resident $300,000 for
not allowing them to keep a service dog.
“People have also asserted service animal status for
pigs, cats, rabbits, turkeys, llamas, snakes and turtles,” Jeanine Konopelski,
spokeswoman for Canine Companions for Independence, a California-based non-profit
that supplies disabled people with trained service dogs, told AP. “In many of
those cases, people aren’t lying but misunderstand the difference between a
service animal and an emotional support animal.”
To that end, some states are looking at launching
public information campaigns or introduce state-issued cards to verify service dogs. Florida last year passed a law that makes
misrepresenting a service animal a crime punishable by up to 60 days in jail.
By
Nadia Moharib
Nadia Moharib is an animal lover who has adopted
everything from birds to hamsters, salamanders, rabbits, fish and felines. She
has written about all-things-pets for years and was a long-time editor of a pet
magazine in a daily newspaper which featured a Q & A column, Ask Whit,
penned by her pooch (ghost written, of course.) The serial dog owner lives in
Calgary, Alberta and most days can be found at a dog park picking up after her
rescue pooch, Scoots.
