Misuse of 'Service Animal' designation a growing concern for airlines - Polidicks

[QUOTE]Service dogs on an airplane guiding and comforting their owners are an expected sight - but what about cats, lizards, ducks, even pigs? Airline employees say they're seeing a wider range of animals with the "service" designation. But a backlash is building over concerns that more and more airline passengers are skirting the rules to fly their pets for free. And some therapists and other professionals may be making it far too easy for owners to obtain a "service" or "emotional support" designation for their pets.[/QUOTE] [URL]http://abc7.com/news/service-animals-like-pigs-lizards-on-airplanes-raising-new-concerns/1773786/[/URL]

I know three different people who have their dogs registered as service dogs for 'medical' reasons that truly just boils down to them filling out some paperwork, saying they have anxiety, and getting a free pass to take their dog wherever they see fit without actually participating in any training or educational courses with the dog. I believe the service dog title should be reserved for dogs who have actually received training. It is hurting the legitimacy of real service dogs and their owners who truly need them.

IMO service snakes, frogs, pigs, fireflies etc. are just dumb unless the animal can provide kind of medical assistance that a dog cannot.

There's a difference between service animals and emotional support animals and there's a growing misunderstanding of both. But there is no legitimate "registration" system for either type of animal and therein lay the issue. While registration would cut down on the amount of phony "service animals", it would also put disabled people in a precarious situation in which not all will be able to qualify for registration of said animals. It's a large debate in the service animal community but the consensus is definitely that too many people are faking BOTH types of assistance animal in order to take their pet out in public or on airlines without an actual need for them.

Yeah this is a issue in retail as well. A lot of people are just bringing their pets in and saying their service dogs or they buy a service vest and just put it on the dog. I can see this being a bigger issue with the airlines though because no one wants a cabin full of animals or people who are trying to avoid the cost of flying their animals. I had to pay the airline to take my two dogs with us on a move. The airline treated the dogs really well and at one point I even caught one of the baggage dudes giving both my dogs fresh water and ice (so the can melt slowly and last longer) as soon as he was able to take them out of the plane and you could even tell he was talking to them. A lot of people though from my recent flights just bring animals on board with some lame ass excuse the the animal is completely untrained. I remember I had a flight in which some lady's lapdog kept fucking yapping in the middle flight the whole time. After everyone kinda got pissy with her she actually started calming her dog down so people could actually sleep. People really need to be more considerate and think about the choices they make. Specially on planes, they're already hellish experiences, and with the cost cutting flights are really becoming nasty with shit leg room and shit accommodations. I only complain because most of my flights are international and take around 13-16 hours when I do go. So it isn't like a easy 2-4 hour flight across the US.

Service dogs/miniature horses are the only animals that [I]should[/I] have the "service" title. These animals are trained to [I]perform a task.[/I] They are not there for simple comfort. They perform tasks such as medical alert/response, deep pressure therapy, retrieval, mobility services, guidance, etc. Emotional support animals are just there to be pet and cuddled and do not perform any set tasks to mitigate a disability other than comfort. Just to clarify the difference. [editline]26th February 2017[/editline] Btw if someone tells you they "registered" their service dog or ESA, chances are, they got scammed. This applies only the U.S., but as stated before, there is no legitimate registration service that is necessary to own a service animal in the United States.

I have a lot of family in the airline industry and often times it leads planes turning into a circus Untrained dogs getting nervous and shitting diarrhea all over the plane to people bringing Turkeys on board as an emotional support animal, it is getting out of hand.

I have seen ESA animals round about here a lot more recently. Until recently I worked for a charity that had an attached charity store that I would sometimes cover and, like most stores in the UK only service animals are allowed inside. Two women in particular would bring in dogs that were obviously not trained as they would strain at their leads, jump up at staff and customers, knock displays and generally cause a nuisance. When informed that we only allow service animals inside they would make claims that they were ESAs but it was painfully obvious they just wanted to take their dogs with them. [editline]27th February 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Saxon;51880359] Untrained dogs getting nervous and shitting diarrhea all over the plane to [B]people bringing Turkeys on board as an emotional support animal, [/B]it is getting out of hand.[/QUOTE] What

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;51880337]IMO service snakes, frogs, pigs, fireflies etc. are just dumb unless the animal can provide kind of medical assistance that a dog cannot.[/QUOTE] So I'm supposed to be punished just because I like to keep a steady source of antivenom in the form of a service cobra?

[QUOTE=Pascall;51880350]Service dogs/[B]miniature horses[/B] are the only animals that [I]should[/I] have the "service" title. [/QUOTE] I didn't know [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guide_horse]Guide Horses[/url] were a thing until this comment. I want one now...

[QUOTE=Mr Kotov;51880407]I have seen ESA animals round about here a lot more recently. Until recently I worked for a charity that had an attached charity store that I would sometimes cover and, like most stores in the UK only service animals are allowed inside. Two women in particular would bring in dogs that were obviously not trained as they would strain at their leads, jump up at staff and customers, knock displays and generally cause a nuisance. When informed that we only allow service animals inside they would make claims that they were ESAs but it was painfully obvious they just wanted to take their dogs with them.[/QUOTE] I realize that you're talking about the UK, but for future reference (and for anyone working in retail or food service in the US), according to the ADA, a business is absolutely allowed to ask a service animal to leave if it's causing a disruption or if the handler is not in complete control. ESA's in the US do not have Public Access rights! So they're not allowed in places of business that wouldn't typically allow pets. Just some tidbits for people who aren't sure what they are and aren't allowed to do when a "service animal" walks in the door. [editline]27th February 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Cakebatyr;51880452]I didn't know [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guide_horse"]Guide Horses[/URL] were a thing until this comment. I want one now...[/QUOTE] Yeah they're actually really good at what they do! A lot better for heavier people too who might be a little too heavy to use a dog as a brace. The horses are stockier and can carry more weight if that happens.

[QUOTE=Pascall;51880455]I realize that you're talking about the UK, but for future reference (and for anyone working in retail or food service in the US), according to the ADA, a business is absolutely allowed to ask a service animal to leave if it's causing a disruption or if the handler is not in complete control. ESA's in the US do not have Public Access rights! So they're not allowed in places of business that wouldn't typically allow pets. [/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure it is the same over here, but my manager didn't want to take the chance as our store was staffed by people with a range of disabilities and we were a disability charity so it wouldn't be a good PR move

Sweet, time to bring my service pythons onto my next flight :)

[QUOTE=Fourm Shark;51880521]Its wonderful in retail when someones "service chihuahua" shits all over the floor and the people just walk away like its perfectly acceptable to do in a grocery store.[/QUOTE] You jest, but this actually happened at my work place last week. In the building I work in we have to inform people with pets that they're not allowed in the building. Service animals here usually have a vest that makes it super clear that they are a certified service animal and not just a house pet. We approached this dude who had a fucking Great Dane he claimed was his stress dog. Problems with this: - His dog was dog was barking at everyone - Dog had no service vest (dude said he was "in the process" of getting a vest) - Dude failed to even have papers on him for the dog (said they were at home) We're trying to be reasonable with the guy and ask him to have the papers the next time he was in the building, but he just started screaming at security instead. It turns out that his certification was, I shit you not, a doctors note [i]recommending[/i] that he get a stress dog. He uses that note to claim his untrained family dog is his stress dog. His dog took a dump in the middle of the building the next week, he's banned now :v:

This just in: 3-5 million illegal service animals voted in the 2016 election.

If there is a way to make someone's life better you can guarantee there will be people using it to their advantage. It's just like the whole disabled tour guide thing at Disney lsnd

[QUOTE=highvoltage;51880967]If there is a way to make someone's life better you can guarantee there will be people using it to their advantage. It's just like the whole disabled tour guide thing at Disney lsnd[/QUOTE] [URL="http://nypost.com/2013/05/14/rich-manhattan-moms-hire-handicapped-tour-guides-so-kids-can-cut-lines-at-disney-world/"]Holy shit, you weren't kidding.[/URL] [I]Wow.[/I]

Not as troublesome as being on a plane, but people do this shit all the time on the commuter light rail in my hometown. People take their untrained, usually un-neutered/spayed (and hence more aggressive) animals onto the train, ranging from large dogs to chihuahas to [I]cats.[/I] The people doing it run the gamut from fat, entitled suburbanites to crustpunks. The rail authority can't do anything about it because people always pull the service/support animal excuse, even if it's clearly not a support animal. Same shit happens in the grocery store my dad works at, he once told me he went down an aisle to restock and there was someone's dog nosing around in the cheese or something. [QUOTE=Pascall;51880343]There's a difference between service animals and emotional support animals and there's a growing misunderstanding of both. But there is no legitimate "registration" system for either type of animal and therein lay the issue. While registration would cut down on the amount of phony "service animals", it would also put disabled people in a precarious situation in which not all will be able to qualify for registration of said animals. It's a large debate in the service animal community but the consensus is definitely that too many people are faking BOTH types of assistance animal in order to take their pet out in public or on airlines without an actual need for them.[/QUOTE] Why not have a registration system that just grants registration to the animal upon completion of their training? Where would the extra cost come from?

The cost of adequate training could go up. And then you run into the issue of what "trained" is. Is it absolute obedience? Is it the performance of the task and general good behavior? It's hard to regulate something like that when there are so many different levels of training and different kinds of trainers. The entire dog training market would need a stable and regulated set of standards placed on it and that's not exactly high on the priority list right now.

[QUOTE=Pascall;51881971]The cost of adequate training could go up. And then you run into the issue of what "trained" is. Is it absolute obedience? Is it the performance of the task and general good behavior? It's hard to regulate something like that when there are so many different levels of training and different kinds of trainers. The entire dog training market would need a stable and regulated set of standards placed on it and that's not exactly high on the priority list right now.[/QUOTE] But on that front, aren't there actual training schools and regulations to be met for a dog to qualify as a seeing-eye dog? Couldn't the same model, certification and registry be repurposed to fit a curriculum for training service animals instead?

I could be wrong but as far as I know, Nope, there are no regulations for it. A seeing eye dog can be trained by any trainer, you just run the risk of an accident if the training isn't good enough. There are organizations who train service dogs and have their own set of standards and criteria but there is no law binding them to a certain brand of training technique or effectiveness. It's just that without adequate training of their dogs, they'd likely be out of business and would be putting disabled people at risk. And believe it or not there are definitely some organizations out there who charge upwards of 10k for a service dog that ends up being entirely untrained and useless. It's an unfortunate situation.

[QUOTE=Pascall;51882024]I could be wrong but as far as I know, Nope, there are no regulations for it. A seeing eye dog can be trained by any trainer, you just run the risk of an accident if the training isn't good enough. There are organizations who train service dogs and have their own set of standards and criteria but there is no law binding them to a certain brand of training technique or effectiveness. It's just that without adequate training of their dogs, they'd likely be out of business and would be putting disabled people at risk. And believe it or not there are definitely some organizations out there who charge upwards of 10k for a service dog that ends up being entirely untrained and useless. It's an unfortunate situation.[/QUOTE] That's actually kinda terrifying, to be honest. I've always been under the impression that if you're going to allow a visually impaired person with a seeing eye dog, that dog would've been trained to the highest standards possibly to not risk the life it's owner...to the same standards as,say, a K-9 unit member. It's really shocking to learn that there aren't any standards at all and at the same time, this is still being allowed without any sort of regulation, especially when people's lives are actually at stake.

Yeah it's definitely not a good situation. I've been looking into getting a service dog at some point for myself since I tend to suffer from some serious anxiety and a digestive disorder which can leave me immobile when I'm out in public sometimes. As well as the after-effects of my medication causing my vision to blur and making it difficult to get around. And looking into it, it's definitely an industry that needs a lot more standards placed on it, at least as far as training goes. It takes a lot of research and careful consideration before you get a service dog from an organization, but most people choose to owner-train their service dogs these days, especially since having an organization train them for you is typically incredibly expensive. Still, then that ties into the inability to really standardize training, since pretty much anyone can train their own service dog. Which is good in the sense that it's much more affordable but bad because not everyone is well versed in dog training. It's something that needs to be looked at a lot more often than it actually is, but hopefully since it is becoming such an issue on airlines, that the conversations about it will come back up again without people being ignorant about service animals in general.

It's literally just paperwork and a signature and you can register almost any dog. My dog is registered as an "emotional support animal". I consider myself quite normal. Cracks me up.

[QUOTE=Starce;51883191]It's literally just paperwork and a signature and you can register almost any dog. My dog is registered as an "emotional support animal". I consider myself quite normal. Cracks me up.[/QUOTE] Good job degrading the status of people who actually need SA/ESA's and wasting your money on a "registration" from a meaningless company.

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;51880337]IMO service snakes, frogs, pigs, fireflies etc. are just dumb unless the animal can provide kind of medical assistance that a dog cannot.[/QUOTE] Hey, the bearded dragon at my work is a fuckin' bro, all right? Maybe I should get a tiny vest for him. "Service dragon."