[NAGDU] Special Report: Pets pose as service animals

[Ginger Kutsch]

Special Report: Pets pose as service animals

By Jess Doudrick 

May 1, 2018

Source:
http://www.mysuncoast.com/news/watch-pets-pose-as-service-animals/article_ad
10c870-4804-11e8-af13-2f2f6cec30ad.html

Suzy Wilburn from Southeastern Guide Dogs poses with her service dog Carson.

 

SARASOTA, FL (WWSB) - Family pets might be walking through Suncoast malls
and restaurants with their owners' posing them as service animals. You may
not even know it until that pet causes a scene or goes after other animal.

 

It's a struggle that real service animals and their handlers are facing more
often.

 

Suzy Wilburn suffers from a rare vision disease called Stargardt's. Instead
of seeing what you or I would, she just sees sparkles. The diagnosis, nine
years ago, devastated her.

 

She couldn't go anywhere without her husband until she got her guide dog
Carson.

 

"When I put the harness on my dog, I took it off of my husband," Wilburn
said.

 

Wilburn described Carson as her security blanket. He has been specially
trained to help Wilburn do things like cross a busy street and prevent her
from running into anything dangerous.

 

"With Carson I get to do things that I never did when I was fully sighted,"
she says. "He makes me a better person."

 

But it's not always smooth sailing for Carson and Wilburn. On the first day
after Carson graduated from Southeastern Guide Dogs, the pair went to the
mall.

 

"As we are walking through, somebody's dog jumped out of the purse and
barked aggressively at Carson," Wilburn described. "I immediately turned
around and said, 'What kind of service dog is that?!'"

 

She says scenarios like that play out all of the time for her and Carson.

 

According to the National Alliance of Therapy Dogs, Wilburn is not alone.

 

"People are recognizing the value of their pets and wanting to spend more
time with their pets than ever before, which is leading people to take their
pets wherever they go," Pat Coglianese, Alliance of Therapy Dogs president
Pat Cogilanese says.

 

In just five minutes anyone can go online and register their pet as a
service animal or emotional support animal. You don't need any proof!You
just pay as little as $20 and get a certificate and ID card for your pet.
You can also easily buy a service vest online. That can make it hard for
people to be able to tell what's truly a service animal and what's a fake.

 

"There are some disabilities that are obvious that that person needs a
service dog, but there are other disabilities that are very helpful, but you
can't really tell from looking at the person that there's a disability,"
Cogilanese says.

 

The ADA permits businesses to ask only two questions of people with pets in
public places: Is the animal required because of a disability and what work
or tasks has the animal been trained to perform?

 

If the owner can't answer those questions them businesses do not have to
allow them access.

 

"If that person can answer the questions, there's not much they can do
unless the animal is not well behaved or creates a problem in the
environment," Cogilanese says, "If there's a problem with the animal in the
business, they can ask them to leave."

 

A business owner cannot ask what the person's disability is or ask the dog
to demonstrate the skills.

 

So what's the difference between service animals, therapy animals and
emotional support animals?

 

Service animals are dogs that are trained to do work for the benefit of
someone with a disability. That disability can be physical, sensory,
psychiatric, intellectual or mental. Service animals are allowed in public
places.

 

Emotional support animals can be any species of animal. They're recommended
by a qualified physician, psychiatrist or other mental health professional.
They do not go through training and do not qualify as service animals. They
are not allowed in public places. However, under the Fair Housing Act, these
animals are permitted in reasonable housing for people with disabilities.

 

Therapy animals have some kind of goal directed intervention to help with a
treatment process. They are not allowed in public places.

 

Wilburn now works at Southeastern Guide Dogs to help others.

 

She feels that government issued ID cards for service animals could solve
the problem.

 

"You have to have a drivers license. You have to have a license to be an RN.
Why shouldn't you have a license? It would just make my life easier," she
says. "Others think it's a huge violation of their rights, which it is."

 

It is a second degree misdemeanor to misrepresent a service animal.