Fake service animal owners may face jail time with new law

I truly hope so!! If they can get and prosecute the imposters in FL, maybe other states will follow - 'should' be a federal offense. I get really upset when I see obviously fake ones at Disney - have not noticed them elsewhere, but don't see too many service dogs elsewhere either.
 
Are they "fake" or are they Emotional Support? 2 different breeds and I do think Disney allows Emotional Support, not 100% positive.
 
Good grief.....the terminology is so confusing. It's not going to stop anything and with the problem of jail overcrowding? Yeah right. Someone is going to go to jail for this. :rolleyes2
 
I hope this is true I have seen fake service dogs at disney before one was going crazy barking running back and forth on his lish almost knocking over a few guest it was crazy
 
Terminology is a big difference. A Service Animal performs a service for the person, it's specifically trained and costs a great deal of money. An Emotional Support is usually a regular animal but prescribed by a mental health doctor for emotional support. They don't have vests like Service Animals for the most part. That is why I made my comment. You cannot tell if it's a "fake" or ESA is the point I am making. I am sorry you didn't understand whst I posted
 


Disney's Service Dog page is specific that they are talking about Service Dogs - they use language from the ADA about Service Animals.
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/service-animals/

I have seen multiple poorly behaved dogs at WDW. One we saw multiple times was in a screened dog stroller, which was lucky because the dog was lunging at people passing by, barking and growling. Even if it was individually trained to and provided some services meeting the ADA definition, it was not a Service Dog according to the definition because it was not trained to behave and was not under control of the person.
We've heard multiple people in lines or transportation 'educating' people about their 'Service Dog', but nothing they described was something they trained the dog to do. Everything they described was stuff like sitting to be petted, which is listed as not being a Service Dog task, because it is not something a dog needs training to do.
So, I don't think it's a matter of Disney allowing Emotional Support Dogs - it's more that people are calling them 'Service Dogs', so Disney would not question letting them in.
 
Terminology is a big difference. A Service Animal performs a service for the person, it's specifically trained and costs a great deal of money. An Emotional Support is usually a regular animal but prescribed by a mental health doctor for emotional support. They don't have vests like Service Animals for the most part. That is why I made my comment. You cannot tell if it's a "fake" or ESA is the point I am making. I am sorry you didn't understand whst I posted
There are some situations where a person with a person with an Emotional Support Dog needs a prescription in order to have their dog present. One would be housing that doesn't normally allow dogs.
Another would be air travel - Emotional Support Animals are allowed with a prescription. But, people can just call their pet an Emotional Suport Dog (or call their Emotional Support Dog a Service Dog) without a prescription. Some of their users were likely not even aware of the actual definition of a Service Animal and don't realize they don't actually have a Service Animal.

I don't think it's necessarily true that ESAs don't have Service Dog vests. All the ones I'm aware of were wearing them.
https://adata.org/publication/service-animals-booklet

Very informative. ..and yes, even some real Service Animals can bark and behave poorly. Their handlers must control them or the business does have every legal right to ask them to leave. ...not that Disney ever would
I'm quite certain Disney would if the dog was disruptive, endangering or annoying other guests.
The woman I mentioned with the dog in the stroller was apparently finally told she could not bring the dog because it was not in control. The issue was that Disney had to jump thru a bunch of hoops to prohibit the dog.
I don't know for sure, but think this law could make that easier.
 
the guest that had the dog going crazy there was a disney security there asking the lady to leave with her dog. I know about 8 service dogs and have seen a few facts in my own community ( at lest 3 admitted they had a face dog)

sue I too hope this law will make things easer the one lady I saw at disney was yelling at CM they finally convinced her to leave after maybe 15 or so minutes
 
There are some situations where a person with a person with an Emotional Support Dog needs a prescription in order to have their dog present. One would be housing that doesn't normally allow dogs.
Another would be air travel - Emotional Support Animals are allowed with a prescription. But, people can just call their pet an Emotional Suport Dog (or call their Emotional Support Dog a Service Dog) without a prescription. Some of their users were likely not even aware of the actual definition of a Service Animal and don't realize they don't actually have a Service Animal.

I don't think it's necessarily true that ESAs don't have Service Dog vests. All the ones I'm aware of were wearing them.

I'm quite certain Disney would if the dog was disruptive, endangering or annoying other guests.
The woman I mentioned with the dog in the stroller was apparently finally told she could not bring the dog because it was not in control. The issue was that Disney had to jump thru a bunch of hoops to prohibit the dog.
I don't know for sure, but think this law could make that easier.
Yes, they do need to show a letter from their doctor. ..but not all have vests for the most part as the Service Pets do. A Service Pet sort of earns that vets during their training in a manner of speaking. ESA do not. Just calling their dog an ESA is really a fake then.. ;) if they really weren't discussed in therapy. That's the purpose of them.
 
it is so easy to get a vest that say service or emotional support dog it is also easy to get a very good looking ID I just did a quick eBay search and this is what I found http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=service+animal+vest

so just because a dog has a vest just means the owner could have just went on there computer and know how to order something. ( I am not saying all
Very true, it is. My point was just because it doesn't have one doesn't mean it's a fake. So while we may not know which are and which aren't fake, those that are do need to somehow be called out on it :(
And I truly hope Disney does indeed ask unruly pets and owners to leave. This is coming from a pet lover of 7 dogs ;) no ESA & no Service Animals
 
A law is only good if it's enforced. My son in law is a K9 handler and travels with us often to wdw. It's hard for him to watch the fake service dogs there. He constantly points them out because of the lack of control the owner has on them. SueM I've seen stroller dog many times, but not recently. I've also seen the guy with his 3 service dogs at MK a few times. I haven't seen the couple with the 2 large poodles lately (black one and white one). Their vest says service dog in training, yet I saw them year after year....still training.
 
Very true, it is. My point was just because it doesn't have one doesn't mean it's a fake. So while we may not know which are and which aren't fake, those that are do need to somehow be called out on it :(
And I truly hope Disney does indeed ask unruly pets and owners to leave. This is coming from a pet lover of 7 dogs ;) no ESA & no Service Animals
The dog I was talking about had a vest on the owner pretty much admded it was not a service dog
 
Yes, they do need to show a letter from their doctor. ..but not all have vests for the most part as the Service Pets do. A Service Pet sort of earns that vets during their training in a manner of speaking. ESA do not. Just calling their dog an ESA is really a fake then.. ;) if they really weren't discussed in therapy. That's the purpose of them.
the only 2 situations where Emotional Support Animals have any standing in law are the 2 I mentioned - Housing and Air Travel.
Those are the only situations where anyone would be required to show a prescription/paperwork.
Since there were no legal requirements to allow the ESA anywhere else/any other situations, there is no reason to show paperwork.
As was mentioned, it's easy to purchase real looking Service Dog certificates and Service Dog vests on line - basically no questions asked.
 
A law is only good if it's enforced. My son in law is a K9 handler and travels with us often to wdw. It's hard for him to watch the fake service dogs there. He constantly points them out because of the lack of control the owner has on them. SueM I've seen stroller dog many times, but not recently. I've also seen the guy with his 3 service dogs at MK a few times. I haven't seen the couple with the 2 large poodles lately (black one and white one). Their vest says service dog in training, yet I saw them year after year....still training.
I've seen a couple of stroller dogs. The one I was thinking of was in a pink stroller and we saw her multiple times over the same week - always behaving badly.
Some were behaving well and I have no reason to believe they were not Service Animals. But, others were very poorly behaved (so it was good they were contained in the stroller).

Did the guy with 3 dogs have Dobermans? I saw a guy a Epcot several times with 3 Doberman dogs.
 
Personally, as an owner and dog lover, if they aren't a true Service Animal, Disney is not a place for your pet to be if you really cared about it. Service Pets are different. Why would anyone subject their pet to that heat, those crowds. The ground is literally hot enough to burn the paws of their dog if out there too long in the summer. It just blows my mind how selfish people can be. You know their pet isn't enjoying it
 

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