I’ve written at least one post about service animals so, I feel like today’s post is equally important. As I was looking around the Internet at different articles, I noticed that there seem to be those using “impostor service animals”. These animals aren’t really trained to help disabled people and the people who are using them just want to go out with their pet and aren’t disabled.
While the article debates there’s no way to really regulate this problem, something clearly needs to be done. The pets that aren’t service animals create a nuisance and are a safety risk for the general public. Similar to my post a few weeks ago about Disney park guests that were paying disabled people to be their “tour guide” to get to the front of lines, here’s unfortunately another example of people who don’t need certain services abusing the system. As a result, the only people who really suffer are those for which the laws were intended.
As we all know, it’s very easy to buy almost anything on the Internet and have it shipped directly to your home. Accessories for your pet with some sort of believable service animal insignia is no exception. Along with guidelines on carrying an identification card for your “assistant” as mentioned in the article below, maybe there can also be approved websites where you can buy the necessary extras for when you’re out in public.
I really hope this issue can be remedied because service animals are a very important part of the lives of the disabled people who need them.
What other ways could help identify the “Real McCoy’s”?
For more information on this article visit the link below:
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2013/oct/11/impostor-service-animals-posing-growing-problem/
Thanks for reading..
cr
Thank you for bringing this topic up again. I feel it is one that people talk about with astonishment, then forget about. Special tags that are strictly distributed with registration seems like a better way to identify the “Real McCoys” than just ID papers. However, as the article mentions, privacy legalities hinder and I feel the general public isn’t going to investigate and keep people in check. It’s a good idea for business owners to familiarize themselves with service dogs, not just to be aware of what they can do and how to expect them to act in their place of business, but also to help keep an eye for the imposters. I don’t think it would be unreasonable for business owners to be able to ask for specially distributed tags if they really thought there was an imposter issue. I think they would be harder to duplicate than just printed ID. Not fool proof ideas, but maybe some options.
These are excellent comments with excellent ideas that don’t seem unreasonable at all. Hopefully some steps can be taken to identify the “Real Mc Coys” Service animals help a lot of people enjoy a quality of life they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Glad you enjoyed the post!