Investigation: Frustrated by Fake Service Dogs

People are posing their pets as service animals to give them an all access pass to grocery stores, restaurants, and other places where pets are not allowed. Disabled people with real service dogs say this fraud adds to the discrimination they already face

By Vicky Nguyen, Felipe Escamilla and Kevin Nious|  Tuesday, May 21, 2013  | nbcbayarea

People are posing their pets as service animals to give them an all access pass to grocery stores, restaurants, and other places where pets are not allowed. Disabled people with real service dogs say this fraud adds to the discrimination they already face. Vicky Nguyen reports.

Dogs seem to go everywhere with their owners in the Bay Area, but there are some places pet pooches simply can’t go: restaurants, grocery stores, farmer’s markets. State law says “no animals are allowed in a food facility except service animals.” But some pet owners have found a way around that rule and it’s become much more than a pet peeve for people with disabilities who have real service dogs.

“It makes my life a lot more difficult than it needs to be,” said Alex Wegman. The San Jose resident was born with an incomplete spinal cord, making it difficult for her to walk without a wheelchair. She relies on her service dog Bright, a yellow Labrador trained by Canine Companions for Independence. Wegman said when untrained pets are somewhere they shouldn’t be, like a restaurant with loud noises, food, and other stimuli, it can create all kinds of problems.

“Our dogs are very submissive.  If there’s another dog set on being aggressive and confrontational that puts my dog at risk she’s not going to fight back.”

While it’s difficult to track exactly how often people are passing their pets off as service dogs, Wegman said she sees it often, even recounting an occasion when a Cavalier King Charles spaniel walked into the retail shop where Wegman works. She said the dog kept trying to engage with Bright, while the owner ignored it. “It was wearing a fake service vest,” said Wegman, “and it was on a Flexi lead.” Wegman said service dogs are almost never on retractable leashes and trained handlers would know not to let their dog distract another working dog.

“You don’t see people faking life threatening illnesses to get a wish from Make a Wish Foundation right? You’d never do that. You don’t take advantage of the perks of someone else’s disadvantage that way and in essence that’s what people with fake service dogs are doing,” Wegman said. It’s a common problem she writes about on her blog “Help on Four Legs.”

The Investigative Unit went undercover and found several dogs roaming around with their owners at the Fort Mason Farmer’s Market in San Francisco. Some of the owners claimed to be confused by the law while others explained how to get around it.

“I’d like to say she’s a service dog. We’ve actually done it before,” one owner told NBC Bay Area undercover cameras. “If you say she’s a service dog they can’t kick you out.”

“Who really knows, I’m kind of over it in general,” another owner said while laughing.

“I usually don’t listen to any rules and regulations until I get headed off you know. Too much sheep in our society,” a third dog owner said while smuggling his dog through the market, tucked under his arm. 

Under the ADA, business owners can only ask two questions when someone with an animal walks in: “Is this a service animal?” “What is it trained to do?” Any inquiry beyond those two questions and businesses know they open themselves up to litigation. Meanwhile cheaters know if they answer correctly,  there’s no proof required.

Richard Lee is the Director of Food Safety for San Francisco County. According to Lee, animals are prohibited from food facilities to prevent the spread of allergies and potential disease.

In the past two years San Francisco had the most complaints reported by any Bay Area county involving animals inside a food facility.

Lee said after inspectors gave businesses signs to post warning patrons that “fraudulently misrepresenting service animals is a misdemeanor,” complaints fell.

“Two years ago [2011] we saw 44 complaints and last year we saw 17,” Lee said.

It is a misdemeanor offense to pretend your pet is a service animal in California. Still, that doesn’t seem to stop some people from trying to game the system. Multiple websites sell official looking ID cards and “service dog vests” to anyone. 

Unlike people who use disabled parking placards, people with service animals are not required to register anywhere. The Americans with Disabilities Act was written that way to protect the privacy of the disabled.

But that’s also the part of the law that makes it easier to abuse since there’s no ID cards or special tags required to prove whether a dog has been trained as a service animal.

Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) CEO Corey Hudson says it’s time that changed to crack down on service dog fraud.

“There needs to be some standard organization [where] somebody neutral who is knowledgeable about the situation judges whether that dog is a legitimate assistance dog,” Hudson said.
He and CCI are now lobbying the Department of Justice for help.

Adding to the confusion, the designations of "therapy dog," "comfort dog," "emotional anxiety dog," among others. In California, none of those animals is considered a "service dog" when it comes to food facilities, according to Penny Si, the ADA coordinator for SFPD.

"A service animal has to be individually trained in specific tasks that benefit a disabled person. An emotional or support animal is such because the presence of that animal provides security. If it's their mere presence, if that's all they're doing, that doesn't meet the requirements of a service animal," said Si.

Wegman  believes she and Bright face enough discrimination, without help from cheaters and their untrained pets who put a negative spin on the “public relations” side of life with a service animal.

“People think the only person it impacts is them and it’s an inconvenience for them if they can’t have their puppy with them everywhere but it goes much deeper than that,” Wegman said.

 http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/Frustrated-by-Fake-Service-Dogs-208233211.htm

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The problem has gotten so bad that Canine Companions for Independence — the nation’s largest breeding and training service-dog program — launched an online petition asking the U.S. Department of Justice to take action.

For previous posts on the service animals : CLICK HERE

Pretend Disabled Epidemic: Long Lines Lead to Rise of Wheelchair 'Miracles'

Los Angeles — It happens regularly, airport officials say. A traveler requests a wheelchair, gets pushed to the front of the security line and screened—and then jumps up out of the chair and rushes off into the terminal.

"We call them 'miracles.' They just start running with their heavy carry-ons," said wheelchair attendant Kenny Sanchez, who has been pushing for more than 14 years.

Wheelchair assistance is a vital, widely used airport service, making travel feasible for the elderly and people with disabilities, injuries or limited capability to navigate long airport distances. The 1986 Air Carrier Access Act requires airlines to provide free wheelchair service to anyone who requests it. No description or documentation is required.

Airports across the country say more able-bodied travelers have figured out they can use wheelchairs for convenience, making waits a lot longer for travelers with genuine needs.

At Los Angeles International Airport, airlines and companies that provide wheelchair service estimate 15% of all requests are phony, said Lawrence Rolon, coordinator for disabled services for Los Angeles World Airports. Airport officials estimate nearly 300 wheelchair requests a day are bogus. "It's just a big mess,'' Mr. Rolon said. "Abusers are really impacting the operation.''

Disability advocates say occasional long waits and potential missed flights are a problem. Last year, disability-issue complaints filed by air travelers with the Department of Transportation jumped a hefty 18.3% (DOT doesn't break out wheelchair issues). Los Angeles issued a reminder four days before Christmas last year that free wheelchair services "should be reserved for persons with disabilities and senior citizens with mobility issues.''

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport says it has had an uptick in reports of wheelchair cheating. Orlando International Airport has worked with staff and skycaps to dissuade use unless reserved in advance. The problem continues there even though the airport's very high volume of wheelchairs tends to cancel any timesaving advantage from making a bogus request. "It is a touchy issue and very difficult and can be sensitive,'' an airport spokeswoman said.

Contractors paid by airlines have to fill wheelchair requests on a first-come basis. So a 1:50 p.m. walk-up request might claim an attendant waiting for a 2 p.m. reservation.

Wheelchair-service providers say some passengers running late for a flight will request immediate wheelchair service simply to cut to the front of the security line or to avoid a typical hour-plus wait at Immigration when entering the country. Some just want help with multiple heavy carry-on bags.

Some departing passengers want early boarding privileges and perhaps a seat with extra legroom in the front of the plane, which airlines reserve for passengers with disabilities. Some arriving international passengers see it as a sign of status when an attendant is waiting to greet and guide, even if it's a wheelchair attendant.

LAX handled nearly 2,000 wheelchair requests a day in 2012, or more than 1.1% of all passengers. The heaviest use is on international arrivals. Nearly 4% of passengers arriving from abroad last year requested wheelchairs. An inbound international flight scheduled to land at LAX with 20 wheelchair requests may see that number balloon to 50 requests at the last minute, officials said.

"Some people are scared when they land so extra help makes them more comfortable,'' said Robert Enriquez, manager of wheelchair service for Aero Port Services Inc. "It causes a lot of strain because that employee could be helping someone else.''

Airline service cuts and rule changes have driven some of the increased wheelchair demand. Some travelers say when they request assistance, an airline gate agent or flight attendant often automatically recommends wheelchair assistance. After airlines began refusing to gate-check large strollers, some mothers with infants resorted to wheelchair service to travel the long distance to a boarding gate with bags and a baby. (Umbrella strollers still can be used in terminals and checked at gates; larger strollers have to go with large suitcases as checked baggage.)

At many big hub airports, airlines do provide motorized carts to help passengers, disabled or not, with long distances. (You can flag one down or ask an airline agent to request a pickup.) Most carts run between gates for connecting flights. American Airlines also offers a paid "Five Star'' escort and assistance service, including access to its Admiral's Club lounges, at nine U.S. and five international airports. The service costs from $125 to $275 for one passenger, depending on the airport, plus $75 for each additional adult and $50 for each additional child.

Angela Strickland, a wheelchair dispatcher at the Southwest Airlines (LUV) terminal at LAX, says questionable requests rise during holidays and other busy periods when lines are long and people worry about missing flights.

How can she tell a legitimate request from a bogus one? Sometimes a young, physically fit person will run in and request a chair. A lack of mobility equipment, such as a cane or crutches, might be a tipoff. There's an obvious tell: "People walk in with high heels on and say they need wheelchair service,'' Ms. Strickland says. Travelers with real infirmities almost always wear safer shoes, even if it means carrying nicer shoes in bags, she says.

Most airlines say they don't have any way to quantify bogus requests because they are barred from asking about need or refusing service. "We do our best to accommodate our customers' needs,'' a spokeswoman for Seattle-based Alaska Airlines said.

Costs to an airline can reach more than $40 per wheelchair run because an attendant often spends more than an hour on each passenger. "It's an expense we simply must budget for because the service is vital to customers with disabilities,'' said a Delta Air Lines spokesman.

Abuse adds as much as 20 minutes to the wait for a wheelchair for some disabled passengers at LAX, disability advocates say. The wait at the Tom Bradley International Terminal averages 30 minutes.

Sam Overton, president of the Los Angeles City Commission on Disability and a former California assistant attorney general, says he sometimes waits 20 to 30 minutes for a pusher at the airport. One change he would like to see: First serve those people who made advance wheelchair requests, which are widely seen as legitimate. People who make last-minute requests should be helped after those who reserved chairs, he said.

"It's the dark side of human nature," says Mr. Overton, who has used a wheelchair for 58 years. "There's this mind-set at the airport—this thin veneer of civility. People are focused on themselves and don't think this is a service that other people need."

Article By Scott McCartney | The Wall Street Journal | Feb 20, 2013
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For previous posts on the fake service animals epidemic: CLICK HERE