Some pet owners get fake IDs for their ‘service animals’ - Florida - MiamiHerald.com
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SERVICE ANIMALS
Some pet owners get fake IDs for their ‘service animals’
By Wayne K. Roustan
Sun Sentinel
Owners and trainers of service dogs are increasingly angry at pet owners who pass their animals off as service dogs by using phony credentials.
The imposters go to the Internet to buy vests, ID cards and certificates for their dogs. The deception allows their pets to live in restricted housing, accompany them into restaurants and hotels or fly free in airplane cabins rather than in cargo holds.
“I don’t want to say it’s a scam, but it is a scam,” said Nick Kutsukos, 72, who runs the Elite K9 Academy in Jupiter and has trained service dogs for 40 years.
People who fake a disability and/or pretend their pet is a service animal risk at least a fine or, in extreme cases, federal fraud charges.
Getting certification is as easy as filling out a form online, sending in your money and perhaps a photograph of your dog.
You can pay from $20 to $300. An owner gets a specially marked dog vest or collar, dog identification tags or ID cards, a certificate, training DVDs, information CDs and other official-looking items.
But none of it is required by law.
One website recommends annual certification, while another offers increasingly expensive bronze, silver, gold and platinum packages.
“There is no certification required, so there’s no such thing as a legitimate [document],” said Toni Eames, president of the Michigan-based International Association of Assistance Dog Partners.
“Anyone who sells you a certification is a scammer,” said Eames, who also is blind and has her own guide dog.
Given the time and money invested in training service dogs, disabled users and trainers are angered by those who buy or sell worthless service-dog items online for imposter pets.
“I’m condemning the people who are irresponsible and force people into cheating,” Eames said.
Kutsukos, whose service dog helps with his seizures, said the fake certifications “make it difficult for people with legitimate service dogs to do things.”
A restaurant manager, for example, might think twice about allowing a legitimate service dog inside because of a bad experience with a fake service dog that barked or misbehaved.
The best way to tell whether a service dog is legitimate is to observe its behavior, authorities say. Service dogs won’t appear restless, and they won’t jump or bark. They will obey the disabled owner’s commands, perform tasks and lie down passively where instructed.
The Americans with Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, protects the rights of disabled people, including their use of service animals. But there was confusion when monkeys, cats, ferrets and other critters were utilized to help people with special needs function in public places such as restaurants and hotels.
Amended rules
The U.S. Department of Justice last month amended guidelines to narrow the definition of service animals to dogs that are trained to perform specific tasks related to the owner’s proven disability.
Guide dogs are the most recognizable of service animals, having assisted the blind and visually impaired for more than 50 years, according to Jose Lopez of Lighthouse of Broward, which serves the sight-impaired. He has had a guide dog for five years, and is a consultant for guide-dog training schools.
“It’s a heavy gray area,” Lopez said. “Basically, everybody can print [certifications] from the Internet and say, ‘That’s my assisting dog.’ ”
Legitimate service dogs, of almost any size and breed, can be taught tasks that include alerting a deaf person to sirens or alarms, retrieving medication, warning of impending seizures and stopping autistic children from wandering away.
The dogs can be trained to wake up a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who is having a nightmare and help prevent or interrupt destructive or impulsive behavior by someone with a neurological or psychiatric disability, Kutsukos said.
Under the new federal rules, dogs that provide emotional comfort are not considered service animals, yet dogs, monkeys, ferrets and other support animals still are allowed in airplane cabins under the Air Carrier Access Act, and in homes under the Fair Housing Act, Eames said, with appropriate proof from the owner’s doctor.
Still, not everyone bothers with the formalities.
“People come up to me all the time and ask, ‘Where do I get one of those harnesses to take my dog with me?’ ” Eames said. “They don’t have any clue [my dog] had two years of training before I was able to take her on a plane with me.”
There are about 20,000 legitimate service dogs in the U.S. and as many as 2,000 in Florida, says Ken Lyons, director of Orlando-based Service Dogs of Florida.
Training takes up to two years at most training schools, and only about 2,500 dogs graduate each year. There is usually a three-year waiting list for legitimate service dogs.
Training guide dogs for the blind can cost up to $40,000, Lyons said. For most service dogs, it is up to $20,000.
“If you are truly disabled, then it’s worth the money,” Kutsukos said.
Although not mandatory, any certification, ID card, vest, tag or harness should have contact information for the service dog’s school and trainer, Lopez said.
The legalities
By law, a disabled person can be asked only two questions about his or her service dog: “Is this a service dog for disabilities?” and “What tasks or assistance does the dog provide you with?”
In Florida, barring a disabled person and his or her service dog from a restaurant, hotel, airplane or other public place is a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.
On the federal level, a judge can order a change in business policies to allow access by disabled customers and their service dogs. Fines there are rare.
“If you portray yourself as disabled, or your pet as a service animal, the minute you go out in public you’re committing a crime,” Lyons said. “It’s felony fraud."
*State and federal rules define service animals*
By Florida law, a “service animal” is an animal trained to perform tasks for an individual with a disability.
The tasks include guiding a blind or visually impaired person, alerting a deaf or hard-of-hearing person, pulling a wheelchair, assisting with mobility or balance, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure and retrieving objects. A service animal is not a pet.
The U.S. Department of Justice recently narrowed the classification of a service animal to a dog specially trained to help people with certain disabilities, as defined in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Under the ADA, the dog must be trained to handle specific tasks such as guiding a blind person, warning a deaf person, fetching medication, doing rescue work, seizure protection and helping someone with mental disabilities by preventing or stopping self-destructive or impulsive behavior.
Under the new federal rules, dogs that provide emotional comfort, even for psychiatric purposes, are not considered service animals.
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