Imagine my surprise when I read the following in Monday’s edition of the New York Post: Liars use phony vests and ID tags to get fake service dogs into posh New York restaurants. Huh? No surprise here, but was just blown away by this. As you may know, AFB headquarters are located in New York City (although I mainly work out of the Huntington, WV, office), as are over three dozen other blindness agencies.
Over the last few years, service dogs have been introduced for a variety of different jobs, in addition to their most famous, which is of course assisting people who are visually impaired. However, make no mistake: People who are blind or visually impaired had to fight for a very long time to get that aspect to be notable and included. The fact is, many dog guide users have faced issues of discrimination at restaurants, stores, on public transportation, et cetera. I can name numerous friends who have dealt with situations where places didn’t want to allow their dog in. Now that the public and businesses have become much more aware of the Americans with Disabilities Act, such incidents are thankfully becoming less frequent.
I have met people who admitted to me that they just asked their doctor for a note stating they needed to use their dog as a service animal due to emotional stress (or whatever the issue). This aggravates me. Don’t tell me these things! I have encountered these situations many times. Dog guides are trained for months, and typically bred to have specific traits. Most dog guide schools estimate the cost of a dog guide around $30,000 by the time it is placed with the user, a person who is blind or visually impaired. A dog guide is a tool that is utilized to help a person travel independently and efficiently through their environment.
I think these new types of service animals have a long way to go, and these people using fake service animals, or portraying their pets as services animals, are creating a disservice to users of dog guides and other legitimate service animals. As Mayor Bloomberg’s girlfriend quips in the article, "It's going to ruin it for people that actually need service dogs." To that I would add: It's just wrong.
I think this mess of phony service animals is a disgrace. If you know someone doing this, please let them know it's immoral, unethical, and just plain wrong!
Black lab service dog photo courtesy of Shutterstock.
