Last Updated on: 24th April 2014, 02:23 pm
Ok, this pisses me off. In the states, the ADA has made it really easy for douchebags to bring their precious little pet fido wherever they please, and more and more douchebags are doing just that.
Why has it made it easy? The law states that a merchant cannot under any circumstances ask what tasks the dog performs for the handler because it might make the handler uncomfortable. Here’s a news flash, mr. uncomfortable handler. If you’re going to get a dog, when you come home, you’re going to have to deal with questions. That’s the nature of the beast, and the nature of having a beast, I guess. Even I get asked what exactly Trixie does for me, and it should be pretty obvious why I have her. If you have a psychiatric dog, you’re really going to be asked why you have a dog because there is no obvious physical reason why you have a dog with you. It sucks, but that’s just what you’re going to have to deal with. I hate to be so harsh, but if you don’t want extra attention, maybe you should have thought about that before you got a dog, because having a dog with you is going to bring it, and bring it bigtime!
The law also states that venders of vests and patches that say service dog, or issuers of assistance dog tags cannot ask the person to prove that this is a service dog. Why the hell not? Would you give out ID cards without making sure the person is who they say they are? My question is why are third party companies selling these things? If you get a dog from a school, you’ll have stuff the school gives you to identify the dog’s working status. I guess, if you can train a dog yourself, you need something to signify that the dog is working, but I think some kind of body should be set up to issue these things, not just some store.
So now, Joe Shmo who thinks it would be nice to bring Sparky with him everywhere he goes can get tags, vests, and patches and falsely claim that his dog is a service animal. Then, when it misbehaves, people wonder why these animals are given special privileges, and it hurts the ones who really need the dogs. Here’s another good one. In California, it is a crime to falsely claim your dog is a service animal. Great, but how does anyone enforce this? If no one can ask any questions, how do they figure it out?
I have no problem answering questions if a business owner asks me what my dog does. Why? I have proof that she is a service animal. I have an ID card from the school. I have a card from the Attorney General. I have a tag from the school. I can prove that she is trained. But all of this might not be worth anything if anyone can go out and get fake proof that their dog is a working dog.
Here’s another message for the Joe Shmo’s who want to bring their pet dog with them everywhere they go just for the hell of it. If your dog, or my guide dog, or anyone’s dog is unclean, puts others at risk, or is aggressive, the business owner can ask the dog to leave. So just because your dog got in under false pretenses doesn’t mean he gets to stay. Ug why do people want to take advantage of anything they can?