So while we’re on the subject of dogs… Did you realize that anyone — not just a legitimate handler — can get one of those dog harness vests that distinguishes the animal as a service dog? With one of those on cute little Fang, you can take your dog in a restaurant, grocery store, or just about any other establishment, and you can take your dog on a plane in the passenger compartment, for free.
Think how handy and dandy that would be.
Convenient, indeed. During a good five or six months of every year, you can’t safely leave your dog in the car here in Arizona, not even long enough to run into the supermarket and grab a few salad ingredients. In fact, you can be arrested for doing so.
Often when I would take the German shepherd for a walk in one of the desert parks, I’d have liked to drop by a store on the way home. That the dog couldn’t stay in the car meant I had to schlep her all the way home and then go back out for the errand — adding miles to the day’s driving. People used to take their pet dogs into the Home Depot on hot days, but after awhile the management issued a “No Dawgs” edict.
It actually occurred to me to try to trick out a standard harness to make it look like a service dog vest. I assumed that these highly trained dogs had to be certified and registered, and that you could only obtain gear like this from organizations that did that kind of training.
Wrong. It’s all over the Web. Amazon sells them in all sizes, shapes and colors, some with free patches and ID cards claiming the wearer is a service animal.
You can get an ID card with the dog’s picture on it.
You can get a card outlining the rights of disabled persons to use service dogs and informing people that they can ask you only two questions — “Is this a service animal?” and “What does it do to help you?”
Businesses cannot deny access to a service dog unless it behaves disruptively — and they have to take your word for it that the animal is a service dog. Fear of dogs or allergies on the part of employees or customers is not a reason to refuse entrance. Owners are not required to have the dog certified or registered as a service animal. Airlines have special policies on how they fulfill the federal law requiring them to let you take your service dog on board, but other businesses are not allowed to demand proof that the animal is trained and registered; they have to accept your word for it.
Landlords also have to rent to people with service dogs and HOAs must allow them in condo communities — whether or not they have a “no pets” policy.
To take an “emotional service animal” — a dog meant to comfort you if you have a psychological issue — on a plane, you have to provide a letter from a psychologist or other qualified mental health worker saying you need the critter. But guess what? You can get those online, too! For $164 and a minimal amount of hassle, at least one outfit will provide a prescription letter! Turnaround time is 24 hours after you’ve jumped through the online hoops.
To take your service animal on a plane, you need a letter of verification. You can buy one online for $75. The vendor wants to charge you $75 for an annual renewal, but obviously, once you have one of these things, it would be easy to reproduce it on a computer. “Test scores, raw data, test questions/answers, and subjective results of interview questions, and counseling session notes,” they say, “are not available to clients or other inquirers. Only the specific services purchased will be provided.” That is, no one can verify it! Airlines have to take this outfit’s word for it.
Not surprisingly, we are far from the first to realize that it’s pretty easy to faze Poochie past just about anyone you please by claiming she’s a service dog. Any dog, including a chihuahua or a poodle, can qualify, especially if you claim it’s there to alert you of a pending seizure or to head off a nervous breakdown. People with real disabilities are rightfully irked at fakers and their phony service dogs.
In general, asking the dog owner much about the need for the animal violates the ADA. To take the dog into a business or get it into a no-pets-allowed rental or condo community, you’re not required to prove you’re disabled. Skeptics are prohibited from asking just what ailment you have that requires you to bring your dog into their restaurant or lodge it in their apartment building. You can order a card, also online, that outlines your legal rights, which you can then shove in the face of anyone who dares to challenge you.
Three federal laws give service dogs special privileges:
The Americans with Disabilities Act grants service dogs access to public places, such as restaurants, stores and offices. The owner may not be questioned about disability but may be asked about the tasks the dog performs. A harness or leash must be worn unless it interferes with the dog’s work — but there’s no requirement that this gear mark the dog as a service animal.
The Air Carrier Act allows service dogs to fly in cabin of airplane. Passengers with emotional support or psychiatric service dogs may be asked to provide proof of disability and treatment from mental health professional.
The Fair Housing Act allows people with disabilities to keep emotional-support animals, even when landlord or homeowner’s association prohibits pets. It allows some limited questioning about disability and animal support.
Some of this has gone beyond the pale. For example, a while back we had the guy who claimed his parrot was a service animal. Miniature horses, monkeys, ferrets, and even an iguana have been declared to be service animals..
Over the past couple of years, the government has made some efforts to curb the silliness. Just now, we’re told, “Only dogs and miniature horses may qualify as service animals; other species are now excluded.” But it doesn’t apply in all contexts: the Fair Housing Act,which applies to most permanent and semipermanent homes, retains the old, broader definition.
What if you’re allergic to horses or dogs and might get seriously ill being exposed to them in, say, a restaurant? Whose disability trumps whose?
What do you think? Should owners of all service animals be required to prove they really are disabled? And should service animals be licensed and registered — through a government agency, not through some Internet enterprise selling questionable paperwork?
It’s a d@mn shame that all that fakery is readily available. I hate that the abusers of the system require such questions to be asked and I do have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about this.
I’m familiar with the trials that disabled friends encounter in their daily lives, caused by governmental red tape and nonsense, like constantly being ticketed for parking in disabled parking spaces when they clearly have their placard displayed and having no recourse to the point of having their car towed for unpaid tickets b/c they cannot get ANYONE to sort it out with them. Friends who have legitimate service animals and friends who need wheelchairs when they’re out and about for more than 20 minutes are harassed and prevented from patronizing businesses because people seem to feel they have the right to question whether they are “legitimately” disabled and give them grief over whether their disability fits that person’s notion of disability. And this is WITH the protections afforded by the ADA. I’ve just seen too much harassment in lives already made more complicated due to lack of accommodations whether or not it’s legal.
As the owner of an invisible chronic disease, having gone through dozens of doctors, dozens of medications and treatments, there are plenty of times I’ve been incapable of moving under my own power after running errands for 30 minutes. When I stop to rest, I’m looked at askance, and questioned. And my “disability” isn’t as bad as it could be, nor does it currently disfigure me in such a way that I’m ostracized or treated poorly for it. I don’t claim a disability or the “benefits” thereof because I can still mostly function in some small way, but it’s a real possibility that I will become definitely so in the not so distant future and I’m not looking forward to living that life or living among people when that happens. People are quite judgmental and rude about such things, both when they can and can’t see the issue. Either way, I’m entitled to my privacy and to not have to wave a doctor’s note wherever I go.
So no, I don’t think people should have to *prove* they’re really disabled to have a service animal. There’s something quite dehumanizing about having to prove your disability, frankly. I don’t want the damn thing, why would I want to go around proving that I’ve got it?
I empathize with people who have allergies and such but frankly my vote is going to be for making it possible for the person who can’t function without the service animal have what they need to live as “normal” a life as they can. You can presumably, inconvenient as it is, relocate further away, leave and/or come back later to avoid aggravating allergies. My mom was hugely allergic, so is PiC, but we wouldn’t dream of forcing a disabled person to leave on our account; we’d find another way to conduct our business w/a minimum of discomfort to all.
I don’t know what the answer is to the fakery, it’s deplorable, and makes life even harder for people who already deal with daily pain, illness and complications. There are probably better arguments for and against it but I just have a gut feeling that it wouldn’t be a Net Good to force that.
Well said.
There’s another element to the “let’s have you prove it’s really a service dog” issue that I failed to mention in the post:
Some folks are concerned that if providing papers that prove the dog is certified as a real service dog becomes law, the government will foist the job onto private enterprises (like the one mentioned above), which will charge people through the wazoo for the paperwork. We can already see that in the $164 for a prescription letter. Now, presumably if you have a legitimate emotional illness, you can get your doctor to produce said letter on the insurance company’s dime (assuming you have insurance that covers a shrink). If you can’t, or if your insurance doesn’t cover psychological care — or if you want fake papers — it’s going to cost you.
LOL! I’ve had a cop ticket my car wrongly, even with the stupid placard hanging right under the guy’s nose. It was in one of our far-flung suburbs — essentially another city. To get it undone, I would have to set a court date, drive all the way to this other town, and convince a judge that the idiot didn’t see a placard that was right in front of him. This would have consumed at least half a day, so I decided to just cut my losses and pay the stupid ticket.
Once, too, I had some officious woman come barging up to me as I was climbing into my car, demanding to know if my crip-space hanger was real. She actually demanded that I hand it over so she could inspect it. I was so nonplussed I did so, though by the time I was driving away I was so angry I would have slugged her if I could’ve had at her.
That’s when you NEED the pit bull, I guess. Service dog. 😉
Last bit: I have a relative with CP who cannot walk or speak or in any way take care of herself. On a recent trip out of the country for medical care, she was held with family at the airport for over 18 hours, forcing them to miss the original flight, because airline workers could/would not give the family a straight answer about checking her special transportation and nutrients luggage. It was JUST luggage, not an animal, and they couldn’t get their shit together. They weren’t asked to do anything but check the d@mn luggage and that was apparently impossible. I shudder to think how much more officious incompetents will be if they’re allowed to play adjudicating doctor.
That is just inexcusable.
This country is sliding into tyranny on a skateboard. The TSA is the most obvious and insistent manifestation of it.
What?! More government getting into our business?! We don’t want the government telling us what we can or cannot do! 😉
Yeah, this situation stinks. Like so many other things, a few bad apples spoil things for the folks who really, really need the service animals.
I read about this somewhere else recently (maybe it was on the Consumerist?) and was flummoxed then, too. I don’t see many service animals around these parts, but I understand that in places like New York City the “fakers” are increasing.