[Nfbf-l] Frustrated by Fake Service Dogs

[Alan Dicey]

Frustrated by Fake Service Dogs
By Vicky Nguyen, Felipe Escamilla and Kevin Nious |  Tuesday, May 21, 2013 
|
People are posing their pets as service animals to give them an all access 
pass to grocery stores, restaurants, and other places where pets are not 
allowed.
Disabled people with real service dogs say this fraud adds to the 
discrimination they already face. Vicky Nguyen reports.
Dogs seem to go everywhere with their owners in the Bay Area, but there are 
some places pet pooches simply can't go: restaurants, grocery stores, farmer's 
markets.
State law says "no animals are allowed in a food facility except service 
animals." But some pet owners have found a way around that rule and it's 
become much more than a pet peeve for people with disabilities who have real 
service dogs.
"It makes my life a lot more difficult than it needs to be," said Alex 
Wegman. The San Jose resident was born with an incomplete spinal cord, 
making it difficult for her to walk without a wheelchair. She relies on her 
service dog Bright, a yellow Labrador trained by Canine Companions for 
Independence.
Wegman said when untrained pets are somewhere they shouldn't be, like a 
restaurant with loud noises, food, and other stimuli, it can create all 
kinds of problems.
"Our dogs are very submissive.  If there's another dog set on being 
aggressive and confrontational that puts my dog at risk she's not going to 
fight back."
While it's difficult to track exactly how often people are passing their 
pets off as service dogs, Wegman said she sees it often, even recounting an 
occasion when a Cavalier King Charles spaniel walked into the retail shop 
where Wegman works. She said the dog kept trying to engage with Bright, 
while the owner ignored it. "It was wearing a fake service vest," said 
Wegman, "and it was on a Flexi lead." Wegman said service dogs are almost 
never on retractable leashes and trained handlers would know not to let 
their dog distract another working dog.
"You don't see people faking life threatening illnesses to get a wish from 
Make a Wish Foundation right? You'd never do that. You don't take advantage 
of the perks of someone else's disadvantage that way and in essence that's 
what people with fake service dogs are doing," Wegman said. It's a common 
problem she writes about on her blog "Help on Four Legs."
The Investigative Unit went undercover and found several dogs roaming around 
with their owners at the Fort Mason Farmer's Market in San Francisco. Some 
of the owners claimed to be confused by the law while others explained how 
to get around it.
"I'd like to say she's a service dog. We've actually done it before," one 
owner told NBC Bay Area undercover cameras. "If you say she's a service dog 
they can't kick you out."
"Who really knows, I'm kind of over it in general," another owner said while 
laughing.
"I usually don't listen to any rules and regulations until I get headed off 
you know. Too much sheep in our society," a third dog owner said while 
smuggling his dog through the market, tucked under his arm.
Under the ADA, business owners can only ask two questions when someone with 
an animal walks in: "Is this a service animal?" "What is it trained to do?"
Any inquiry beyond those two questions and businesses know they open 
themselves up to litigation. Meanwhile cheaters know if they answer 
correctly,  there's no proof required.
Richard Lee is the Director of Food Safety for San Francisco County. 
According to Lee, animals are prohibited from food facilities to prevent the 
spread of allergies and potential disease.
In the past two years San Francisco had the most complaints reported by any 
Bay Area county involving animals inside a food facility.
Lee said after inspectors gave businesses signs to post warning patrons that 
"fraudulently misrepresenting service animals is a misdemeanor," complaints 
fell.
"Two years ago [2011] we saw 44 complaints and last year we saw 17," Lee 
said.
It is a misdemeanor offense to pretend your pet is a service animal in 
California. Still, that doesn't seem to stop some people from trying to game 
the system. Multiple websites sell official looking ID cards and "service 
dog vests" to anyone.
Unlike people who use disabled parking placards, people with service animals 
are not required to register anywhere. The Americans with Disabilities Act 
was written that way to protect the privacy of the disabled.
But that's also the part of the law that makes it easier to abuse since 
there's no ID cards or special tags required to prove whether a dog has been 
trained as a service animal.
Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) CEO Corey Hudson says it's time 
that changed to crack down on service dog fraud.
"There needs to be some standard organization [where] somebody neutral who 
is knowledgeable about the situation judges whether that dog is a legitimate 
assistance dog," Hudson said.
He and CCI are now lobbying the Department of Justice for help.
Adding to the confusion, the designations of "therapy dog," "comfort dog," 
"emotional anxiety dog," among others. In California, none of those animals 
is considered a "service dog" when it comes to food facilities, according to 
Penny Si, the ADA coordinator for SFPD.
"A service animal has to be individually trained in specific tasks that 
benefit a disabled person. An emotional or support animal is such because 
the presence of that animal provides security. If it's their mere presence, 
if that's all they're doing, that doesn't meet the requirements of a service 
animal," said Si.
Wegman  believes she and Bright face enough discrimination, without help 
from cheaters and their untrained pets who put a negative spin on the 
"public relations" side of life with a service animal.
"People think the only person it impacts is them and it's an inconvenience 
for them if they can't have their puppy with them everywhere but it goes 
much deeper than that," Wegman said.
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