What Is The Difference Between a Legitimate Service Dog and an Emotional Support Animal?
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Move over, Rover. Your time in the grocery store, the movie theater and pizza parlor is running out.
Exactly how big a problem the use of fake service animals isnt clear. No organization keeps records of illegitimate service animals. But people who work in the service, hospitality and entertainment industries have seen it all.
“I couldnt go into a store or an airport or even an office without seeing some disorderly four-legged creature dragging its owner around, wearing a vest that said service animal,” Republican Arizona state Sen. John Kavanagh, who sponsored the Arizona bill, told NBC News. “I would see people in the supermarkets with animals in the shopping cart or walking around sniffing all the food.”
“If you have a legitimate condition and the dog, or whatever animal, within reason, helps alleviate it, that’s great, this is America,” said Kavanagh, the Arizona state senator. “But if youre just someone who needed to have Pookie around because youre upset when she’s not there, that is not okay.”
There is no uniform nationwide certification or registration process for legitimate service animals — which receive up to several years of specialized training — making it easy for people to scam a non-existent system. And the easy availability online of “service dog” harnesses and vests is all too tempting for animal-owners who want company running errands and going out.