Lately, I have read a lot of articles and news items about service animals.
Lately, I have held my tongue when reading these. I’ve shared a few, saved a few, and just had to totally shake my head and move on from a few things in the media regarding what constitutes a real service animal, you know, like a real service dog.
One way to get me fired up and on a soapbox…
Bringing up the issue of what a real service dog is, having a fake service dog in a tote bag, and telling me that my husband’s service dog is not real.
Sorry folks, but I just can’t with all that.
Recently, the New York Times shared an article by Christopher Mele about this very hot button issue for me. (Read: “Is that Dog (or Pig) on Your Flight Really a Service Aminal?”)
We’ve been on a few flights with Memphis. You may recall from our adventures and my blogging that we took a trip to Portland last year. Flying and sometimes traveling with a service dog (read: real service dog) is not easy. Pre-flight (usually the day before) food and water are cut back for Memphis to avoid any potty issues we may have. Although most airports have the cute fake grass and fire hydrant in a potty area, you never know if something may happen on the flight, so we prep. We plan.
The article starts off with a scenario (which we have also faced). A veteran with a service dog is going about their traveling when a “pocket pooch” (imagine a small tiny dog that may ride in a stroller or be placed in a bag) started barking, growling, and eventually went up and bit the service dog.
Here’s what gets me (every time)…folks who travel with those kinds of pets (yep, it is a pet if it is going to do that, because trained service dogs will not try to get off leash, pull their owner, and bark and growl at other dogs in public) are offended.
I’ve even witnessed dogs in bags at a store (TJ Maxx), and approached the owner and asked “is that a service dog?” because the store has a sticker on their main entrance that reads “Service Animals Only” (or something real similar)…and I know that a dog in a bag, with a rhinestone collar, is just not a service aminal…
The veteran in the article points out something that we see a lot (which is real, real sad, by the way), and that is “an untrained pet masquerading as a service aminal.”
Yep. People want to take their pet to all the places and will go online, buy a certificate and vest, and boom! They have what I like to call “instant-fake-service-dog.”
It also seems that lately there has been a lot of confusion as to what types of service aminals there are (pig, peacock, turkey, hamster, you name it, I bet someone has tried it). This is fraud in my eyes. A service dog can be specifically trained for someone, and I know that first hand. I’m not sure how you would train a hamster to do something specific for someone…
Did you know (and according to the article), “Twenty-two states already have some kinds of laws addressing the issue and lawmakers in Arizona, Iowa, and Minnesota are considering cracking down on service dog fraud.”???
Bring it on.
We have been on flights where people are passing their pets off as support and service aminals so they can remain with them…because sometimes people just don’t want to travel without said pets, or place them in a cargo hold.
We’ve also been on flights where Memphis has been crammed under a seat. UNDER AN AIRPLANE SEAT. And yet, for some, that is a problem. They see my husband as someone who should have his dog in that cargo area. They do not realize that Memphis is a real service dog.
Training and behavior are key–and if you spot a dog that is trying to pull their handler/owner off the leash, bark repeatedly and growl, my guess is that it is not a legit service animal. That’s not the real deal.
I also understand that there are people who have severe allergies to dogs, who may be afraid of dogs, and who may just not be “animal people” altogether.
But what those folks do not know or understand is the anxiety, fear, stress, hyper-vigilance and other factors of three-combat tours, what that can do to a person (because also, people may not know that a person changes when they are in the military). They do not understand that a person who may seem completely normal, no visible injuries, really does indeed need that service dog. They do not understand that flying, traveling, being out in public was such a nightmare that the dog, the real, legit, highly trained service dog, assists with that.
I often feel as if sometimes people do not see the disability–the PTSD, so they assume it is just another guy with a dog, a pet.
Nope.
Wrong.
Memphis was trained to maneuver through crowds, he was trained to go through scenarios where Sam would be anxious, keyed-up, and possibly even unaware of his surroundings (because so much is going on)…so when you see a real, working service dog, please do not distract them from their handler/owner.
There are a lot of thoughtless people, as the article points out. And slapping a vest from Amazon on a dog (pig, cow, snake, whatever one decides is their “service animal”) is really not okay. The folks who do that are really hurting those who have a need for the real deal, a real service dog.
The last line of the article reads like this:
“A true service dog would never be muzzled nor would they be in a diaper.”
Read the article in full here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/01/travel/service-animals-planes.html
We have traveled by air to a few places with Memphis. Because of his training and care prior to being paired with Sam, he knows what to do and he is incredibly well-behaved and always focused on his favorite human. Please, please, be mindful of those who have a real, highly-trained service dog. Please try to understand there may be injuries you cannot see and that their owner (or veteran) is going on about their life after varying degrees of trauma.
Memphis loved these flight attendants, who were quite accomodating, and gave us an entire row on our red-eye home from Portland, Oregon.