When You Give a Dog a License: How We Can Stop Service Dog Fraud

Audience: The target audience for this paper is U.S. legislators and the general public, as service dog fraud has become a common occurrence across the country. Service dog fraud occurs when a pet owner is either misinformed about public access laws or purposely decides to claim their pet as a service animal in order to bring them into public areas. While some may perceive service dog fraud as a victimless or inconsequential crime, legitimate handlers and their dogs are put at risk as untrained pets can distract, disrupt, or even attack service dogs. This paper was written to bring attention to the issue and promote reflection on how current service animal laws can be modified to better protect and support legitimate handlers and their dogs.

It was the Friday before Thanksgiving break and I was excited to go home for the first time since moving to College Park. My service dog and I made our way to the airport and were waiting in line for a quick bite to eat. As Biggs relaxed on the floor beside me, we were approached by a man who immediately commented on his presence. “Wow, he is so well behaved! You know, I’ve been looking into registering my dog as a service animal so she can fly with us, but first we need to teach her how to sit.” I felt familiar spikes of anxiety and frustration. In explaining what Biggs does, I tried to push back on the idea that any pet owner could register their dogs as service dogs. I explained that I struggle with severe anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and that Biggs was trained to alert me to oncoming panic attacks and help keep me grounded when experiencing one. He nodded along, visibly perplexed, but bid his goodbye after his order was filled. It’s not an uncommon occurrence for someone to approach me because of Biggs, so I shrugged it off, got my food, and boarded the lane early with the disability section to get him settled.

The flight went off without a hitch, with Biggs asleep at my feet, but when we arrived in Boston, a man from our flight insinuated that Biggs was a fake service dog because I exited the plane with everyone else instead of waiting to exit later with disability. I immediately felt a drop in my stomach, and when I began breathing irregularly and rapping on my chest, Biggs noticed my symptoms and gave a gentle tug to urge me forward. We made a beeline to my father’s car waiting outside. Once we got inside, I settled down quickly, but since then, I worry that someone will question why I need Biggs by my side. Although our society is becoming more accepting of disabilities that are blind to the public eye, this shift has led to an increase in people looking to take advantage of our country’s current system. This influx of fraudulent behavior has led to an increase of questioning and scrutiny, leaving legitimate handlers wishing for a “golden dog tag” that could stop the doubtful looks and intruding interrogations.

Perhaps the doubtful looks would abate if the public understood the correct definition and requirements of legitimate service dogs. According to The Americans with Disabilities Act, a service dog is “any dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability” (“Service Animals”). Today, there are nearly 20,000 Americans who own service dogs (Ollove). While service dogs were initially trained to assist those with vision and mobility impairments, today these hard-working canines can manage a large variety of disabilities. Service dogs can be trained to sense lethal food allergens, detect high blood sugar levels for those with diabetes, and even alert their handler to an oncoming seizure. Whether a handler’s disability is visible or not, service dogs are specifically trained to mitigate the effects of the disability so that the handler may lead an independent lifestyle at home and in public. These canine caregivers are granted access to the public domain as they are considered medical equipment (Pierce). Denying entry to service dogs would be like requiring patrons with certain physical disabilities to check their wheelchairs at the door.

The general public holds many misconceptions about service animals and the laws governing them. Many Americans expect that every service dog has passed a standardized test and comes with transparent certification papers that a handler can retrieve easily upon request. However, the ADA does not require any specific training or paperwork. Service dogs can be trained by accredited organizations, individual handlers, or anything in between. Not everybody has the funds to purchase a fully trained service dog, which usually cost tens of thousands of dollars (Morita). In this case, an individual may apply to a nonprofit or choose to train their own service dog. Nonprofits will usually cover the entire cost of training and housing until the dog is ready to be matched with a potential handler, however, waitlists for nonprofits can span anywhere from months to years, which may not be a viable option for people looking to obtain a dog within a shorter timeline. Alternatively, individuals can adopt a young dog to train. This method is a bit of a gamble, as you cannot guarantee a puppy will be a suitable service animal. Although owners may end up with better-behaved pets, self-trained service animals may never meet the standards to help their owners function independently in public. While nonprofits and other training institutions may have internal standards a dog must meet to “graduate,” there is currently no universal certification method, meaning no one piece of paperwork can correctly distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent service dogs.

Results of an online survey show “widespread misconceptions about definitions, rules, regulations, and rights associated with each type of assistance dog” (Schoenfeld-Tacher et al.). The main difference between service dogs and emotional support animals are that service dogs are trained to perform specific, physical tasks while ESAs are merely companion animals. While their presence may help with symptoms of anxiety or depression, ESAs are not trained to intervene when those symptoms arise. Psychiatric service dogs, on the other hand, directly interact when they sense a threat. They can alert handlers to attacks by pawing or nudging when they observe unconscious bodily signals from the handler and simulate deep pressure therapy by applying their full weight to their handler’s chest. They can even be trained to intervene when their handler engages in harmful behaviors like hair pulling and compulsive scratching by climbing into their lap and encouraging handlers to pet them instead. Since service animals and ESAs fulfill different purposes, they are granted different federal protections. Although both service dogs and emotional support animals are given protections under the Fair Housing Act, only service dogs are granted the right to be in any public space their handler has legal access to (U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development).

Unfortunately, legitimate service animals are not the only dogs that we have seen in public as of late. It is not an uncommon sight to see lunging canines while traveling through an airport terminal or lap dogs riding in shopping carts at the local mall. Although these dogs may have the words “service dog” printed on their vest, it is clear to the common eye that they are not properly trained to assist with a disability or to behave appropriately in public. While service dogs can be trained for a multitude of purposes, every service dog can and should be held to a baseline standard of behavior. As a rule, service dogs should be as non-intrusive as possible; they should not bark, be up on public furniture, and, typically, they should only interact with their handler (Grace). Of course, there can be exceptions to these rules when service dogs are actively tasking. For example, a dog may be taught to alert or find bystanders if their handler is experiencing a medical emergency that requires someone call 911. However, in any case, a service dog should never show any signs of aggression (Grace). Uncontrollable barking, growling, or lunging at strangers are three concrete signs that a dog has not been trained to behave properly in public, a necessary standard every service animal should meet. Bystanders may become confused if they observe this inappropriate behavior in dogs with authentic-looking vests, but these service dog vests are sold via online vendors. Buying a service dog vest online is not an inherently malicious act in and of itself, as legitimate handlers who have individually trained their dog often buy vests online to distinguish their service dog from other pets. The problem arises when people buy vests with the intent to pass their pet off as a trained service animal.

For most businesses and other establishments, dogs are not allowed inside, and for good reason. If someone’s pet attacked a stranger, the business could be held liable for allowing an aggressive animal into their store (O’Hara). Therefore, it is crucial that business owners can distinguish between real and fake service dogs. When business owners encounter any dog in their facility, they are only legally allowed to ask the handler two questions: 1. “Is this dog a service animal?” and 2. “What tasks are he/she trained to perform?” (“Service Animals”). Unfortunately, many illegitimate handlers will give rehearsed yet fraudulent answers, effectively ending any further inquiry. The handler may even produce official-looking registration papers obtained from online scam sites that identify their dog as a service animal, even though the ADA does not require any kind of certification or licensing. The lack of verification, simply stated, “is [the] equivalent to Americans printing out their own handicap parking permits without going through the DMV” (Coleman). These issues have prompted 33 states to enact change by implementing new legislation aimed at deterring fraudulent behavior

(“Fraudulent Service Dogs”). Although this is a step in the right direction, advocates and handlers should seek to standardize identification and certification methods from coast to coast.

While generally seen as an inconvenience, fraudulent handlers and their dogs pose a safety concern for legitimate service dog teams. Any dog in a new environment has the potential to react in fear or lash out in an inappropriate manner. Because they are not trained for public access, illegitimate service dogs may be hypersensitive to the objects, vehicles, and sounds that true service dogs are desensitized to. Even if they are comfortable in a public environment, these dogs may bark at, lunge at, or try to initiate play with a legitimate service animal or random patron, who could be afraid of or allergic to dogs. Although legitimate service dogs are trained to ignore other people and animals, fake service dogs are an unnecessary distraction that may cause a service dog to miss a cue to alert their handler to an oncoming episode or perform an essential task (“The Hidden Complications of Fake Service Dogs”). These mistakes can have debilitating consequences. For example, some service dogs are trained to sense an oncoming seizure and will paw at their handlers, indicating that they need to lie down. This task prevents handlers from falling during an epileptic episode and sustaining injuries. If a service dog becomes distracted by an illegitimate service dog and misses a cue, it can lead to real and serious consequences for the handler.

Distraction, however, is the best-case scenario when it comes to service dog fraud. Some dogs are aggressive towards others and may even attack a service dog, impacting the ability to continue their work. In one instance, a handler’s dog was attacked by three illegitimate service dogs in a Delaware shopping mall. In the chaos that ensued, the service dog was bitten on the stomach and hind legs as the handler and his daughter risked their physical safety trying to pry the attacking dogs away. Though the dog’s physical injuries were treated and have since healed, her handler fears the emotional trauma the dog may not have. He remarked, “...if she ends up being afraid of little dogs, and there’s any risk she could hurt a little dog out of fear, and has to come out of service, I don’t know what I’m going to do” (Greene). Because service dogs cannot be aggressive towards other dogs or people, an incident such as this can leave a handler without a dog suitable for public spaces. Years of training and thousands of dollars are lost when a service dog is unable to join their handler in public. If a handler cannot function in public without the support of their service dog, their ability to live independently is compromised, and handlers may regress and withdraw from everyday life. A federal regulation of service dogs, however, could protect handlers and their dogs from those who are abusing our current system.

A federal regulation could also use identification tags for legitimate service animals to help distinguish them from emotional support animals or household pets. For handlers with a nonapparent disability, a tag like this could absolve the judgement and insinuating questions from those who assume they may be taking advantage of our nation’s service dog system. If there was one national identification tag for federally approved service dogs, handlers would not have to defend themselves when they don’t match the societal image of disability.

In the absence of a federal standard, many states have enacted their own ways to regulate illegitimate service dogs. Some states, like Massachusetts, are in the process of enacting legislation that will penalize those who claim their pets as service dogs when in public areas (Lannan). Similarly, in California, when registering a dog as a service animal, the owner must sign an affidavit; those who make a false claim on this legal form may face “a possible six months in jail and/or $1,000 fine” (Wisch). At face value, these statutes would seem to be effective in monitoring both legitimate and fraudulent service dogs, but inconsistencies both within and between state lines are present. In a study conducted on California service dogs, it was found that “ID tags were issued even for some dogs not considered as assistance dogs... such as therapy dogs, and many emotional support animals, including some cats” (Yamamoto et al.). In order to efficiently and correctly identify true service dogs and handlers, there needs to be one universal standard enacted across the country. And while some people argue that a one-stop service dog registry is unfeasible to uphold, solutions have been implemented that could be considered. While British Columbia has a significantly smaller population than the U.S., their system can serve as a model for our own registry. When someone with a disability acquires a service dog, they need to file for certification, travel to a nearby municipal building and pass a standardized behavior assessment proctored by “testers selected by the Justice Institute of British Columbia” (“Guide Dog & Service Dog Certification Testing). This assessment is “modeled after existing tests and standards and focuses on appropriate public behavior and disposition of the dog” (Huss). The use of a standardized test ensures that all dogs that are granted public access are well-behaved and not a threat to other service dogs or members of the community.

When the team of handler and service dog pass the test, both receive government-issued dentification cards. This gives the handler definitive proof of their legitimacy and absolves the need for any intruding questions directed towards them. If the dog comes from an accredited training program, they only need to complete this once, but if the dog was trained by its handler or a lesser-known program, they must be retested every two years, in addition to providing documentation about the handler’s disability from a medical provider. With this system, British Columbia has been able to easily distinguish between legitimate and fake service dogs and uphold a set standard for its current teams.

Service dogs are life-changers and lifesavers for those with disabilities, opening doors both literally and metaphorically for their handlers. These teams deserve peace of mind when they step outside their homes; handlers need to know that their service dogs will not be endangered by someone who makes the selfish decision to introduce their pets into a diverse and overwhelming environment that they are not trained to handle. The U.S. government needs to require a better form of regulation for service dogs, and I believe the best way that can be done is by upholding a national standard and requiring registration of service animals. Our government maintains the idea that every person in our society has intrinsic value, that everyone has the right to live their lives freely and without fear. It’s time to let disabled handlers know they are included in that statement by enforcing service dog regulation and keeping pets out of public spaces.