[NAGDU] Fake Service Dogs Redux (Cross Posted)

[Marion Gwizdala]

David,

	I am not sure if I shared with you when we met during convention
that the NFB has a class action law suit against Uber for access denials of
guide dog users. I regularly send our attorney additional denials to add to
the body of evidence that Uber is engaging in a pervasive pattern of
discrimination. I would greatly appreciate any messages between Uber and you
to send to our attorney. Please send them to me at

president at nagdu.org

	I would also strongly urge you to file an official police report
about the incidents you face and keep us in the loop about these. The only
way we have to put pressure where it needs to be is to have a body of
evidence that this is an issue.

Fraternally yours,
Marion



-----Original Message-----
From: NAGDU [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of David via NAGDU
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2016 6:21 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List, the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Cc: David
Subject: [NAGDU] Fake Service Dogs Redux (Cross Posted)

Unfortunately, I think all this fake service dog news is stirring up a lot
of stuff right now.

For the record, I have been, and I am, a big Costco fan and have had
incredible service from their employees.  I am also impressed with the
quality of their products.  However, I had an incident at Costco yesterday
where I was told by the person at the door that if Claire Rose was a service
animal I needed to fill out a form.  I told the person that I did not need
to fill out a form, which two questions I was willing to answer, and that I
had already answered one of them.  He did not ask what Claire Rose did for
me, and told me that it was corporate policy and that I had to fill out the
form.  I was in a hurry so I walked past him.  After my denial of service
from Uber earlier in the day, I probably was bit grumpy.

I called and left a message for the store manager.  He returned my call
today and said that there was no form for anyone to fill out, but that
people at the door were told to ask customers with service animals to read a
memo informing them that Costco could not allow service animals to ride in
carts.  This sounds entirely reasonable to me from a health standpoint.  We
talked for quite a while and I think the guy at the door is going to get
some retraining.  We had a long discussion about the problem stores are
having with fake service animals and how they feel that they are stuck once
the person says that Fluffy is a service animal.  I explained that animals
that misbehave are very likely not service animals.  He said he also
understood that people with legitimate service animals would likely not put
them in carts, or would their animals bark and snarl at customers.

This problem is not going to go away, folks.  Companies obviously believe
that their hands are tied.  When so many people increasingly feel entitled
to bring their pets anywhere they wish, it is lawsuit-suicide for stores and
restaurants to call the police in the event that it turns out that the dog
that appears to be untrained is actually a trained epilepsy, insulin, or
whatever, alerter, even in states where fake service animal legislation is
in place. after all, how are police going to determine whether the dog is a
fake, or not. The criminal statutes for faking it simply have no reliable
method for enforcement and we will increasingly become the targets of
suspicion and accusation. I don't think that there are any easy answers, but
we're seeing a surge of reactions from airline passengers and news
organizations and we need a unified solution, not a state by state dribble
of ineffective patches.

The public is becoming angry.  Store and restaurant owners are becoming
frustrated.  We are getting angry.

In my opinion, because of the free-for-all attitude among those who want pet
privileges equal to ours, I think the time has come to try to address a
federal certificate, or ID, that perhaps is training school triggered in the
case of program trained animals, or maybe regulations legitimizing training
school IDs. We are also going to have to bite the bullet and figure out how
to get self-trained animals certified without 
creating yet another bureaucracy.   The turmoil is not going to calm and 
I think we need to be proactive.  With so many having worked so hard to win
our protected status, it is a bit of a disappointment to think that it could
be eroded.  There is no doubt in my mind, however, that the fake dog issue
will erode that status if we don't collectively figure out how best to
effectively deal with it.

David and Claire Rose in Clearwater, FL

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