Cheap Party Dresses - Can I turn in a fake therapy dog/service dog?

Can I turn in a fake therapy dog/service dog?

I know someone who had a family doctor sign for her to get her dog certified as a service dog so she can have the pooch in the building were she owns her apartment. She has all the paper and know pretty much everything to say so people think that that she really is a service dog... If you talk to her she will offer to help you get a "service dog card" and she even prints them out for a small fee (she offered to help get me one for my dog). I feel bad for wanting to do this because the owner is a friend but it is not far to people and businesses that she is lying to so she can take her little dog every where and trying to help others do the same. She even gets a discount for the dog on flights and gets to have her on her lap not under the chair like other dogs. Any thing you think can think of she has the dog with her and gives people hell if they question the little dog in a dress with a stroller being a Service Dog. I have google some things but cant find where I could report her. Is there a way? I do not hate her & I know her very well, she is not sick. She owns two homes so if she doesnt have to move & her building has changed the rules to no animals over 12lbs. I dont like & I have have told her that I think it is wrong for her to lie and force her dog on people & to sell (profit only to her) the fake cards to people to fool restaurants. She has the real card because she had her doctor friend sign a paper saying she needs a therapy dog & she tells people she has seizures. Her dog is not trained and does act up around kids. I leave my dogs at home when I go out to eat or anything else for them and other people, why cant she do the same. She is married. She calls the dog her favorite of her kids.

Public Comments

I'm sure you can find some place to report her to, if you try hard enough but do you hate her so badly that you want to have her dog put to sleep? Because if she can't keep it where she lives, she'll have to either move in a big hurry or take it to the shelter where it isn't very likely to get adopted this time of year... Leave her be. She isn't hurting anyone.
Service dogs provide many different funcitons...how can you be 100% certain that this dog really isn't for medical needs? There are such things as Emotional Support Animals Dogs that provide companionship, relief from loneliness & depression, The dogs may or may not do actual physical work for their handlers but may provide a vital medical or emotional task to the handler. It takes more than a doctor's note: According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, 1990), a dog is considered a "service dog" if it has been "individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of a person with a disability." Also according to the ADA, a "disability" is a "mental or physical condition which substantially limits a major life activity" such as: caring for one's self performing manual tasks walking seeing hearing speaking breathing learning working Some disabilities may not be visible, such as: deafness epilepsy psychiatric conditions
If she is doing no harm and the dog is well behaved I wouldn't turn her in. However I do understand your sentiments, it's dishonest. She's pretty stupid to dress the dog up and carry it around in a stroller. Assistance dogs must be certified by a legtimate organisation. The owner/manager of her apartment may just ask to see the authorised paperwork and she'll be in trouble. Do you know if she's claiming the dog is a therapy dog, a medical alert dog or an assistance dog?
You can love your dog...but just dont LOVE your dog...maybe she needs a boyfriend to date and go shopping with. Making fake service dog cards is FRAUD and you can probably call the police.
YES! You SHOULD turn her in...and her doctor as well! Contact the ADA, local Animal Control, her landlord, etc. A doctor's note is NOT required to have a Service Dog. So that proves NOTHING! I am a Service Dog User, been disabled for 12 years, and don't have a doctor's note. However, my dog is FULLY LEGAL - he is trained to mitigate some of the things that make me disabled AND he is completely public access trained. This woman is breaking a FEDERAL LAW and committing FRAUD! To those of you who said "She isn't hurting anyone - leave her alone!" YES, SHE IS HURTING A LOT OF PEOPLE!! She is hurting me and every other person who has a LEGITIMATE Service Dog! By her taking this dog to places that it is NOT trained to be, she is making each and every single business she frequents distrust any other customer that comes in with their NEEDED AND TRAINED Service Dog will have problems. You have no idea how frustrating it is to go somewhere and be told "Ma'am, you cannot bring that dog in here!" and have the police called on you because the Manager of the business had a bad experience with a FAKE dog being passed off as a Service Dog and now thinks that anyone who comes in with one is a fake as well! I, like many many others, don't "look sick" or "disabled". I have severe chronic pain and fatigue...and serious balance problems. My dog keeps me from falling, picks things up that I drop so I don't have to bend over and get dizzy and fall on my head or butt, or break an arm if I go down. He will also brace against my leg or let me use him to lean on if I do in fact have to bend over if he cannot pick something up (too big or heavy, or something I don't want him to - like a food item that I didn't mean to drop and is going back on the shelf...and coins. He isn't good at that, though some dogs are!) So yes, it is harder to "prove" he is in fact a Service Dog when someone wants to challenge me! Of course, all they need to do is WATCH HIM for 5 minutes to see he is highly trained and does in fact keep me safe. When people like the OP's "friend" do this, they make my life and anyone else who happens to follow behind her much more difficult. How would you feel to have every single time you walk into a Grocery Store, Restaurant, or any other business stopped at the front of the store - or even worse, in the middle of the store or while you are already seated at a table - and have a Manager come up to you and say "You are going to have to leave. We do not allow dogs in here!" It makes quite a scene, let me tell you! And then if the Manager either had a bad experience with an untrained FAKE dog or they are uneducated and ignorant - or both! - and doesn't believe me, they call the police. The police then escort me out...all the while everyone in the place of business is watching! And trust me, based on my own experiences over the past 7 years, they are MUCH more likely to call the police if they have had FAKE dogs passed off as Service Dogs in the past. Don't I have the RIGHT to go to a store or restaurant or anyplace else and be LEFT ALONE to do what I came to do...just like each and every single one of you? How would you like it every single time you got out of your car and walked into someplace - think about how often you do that! - and be told "You cannot be here" and a scene made? The more people who do what the OP's "friend" is doing is going to make this more and more common! So those who say "Not hurting anything" are wrong...oh so very very very wrong! YES, she should leave her dog at home like everyone else does...I have 4 dogs. My Service Dog is the ONLY one who goes everywhere I go. The other 3 know that he goes with me and that when the time to go to the park or whatever comes, they know they ALL get to go play! I may take all 4 of them in the car, because I do like having my dogs with me when I can, but the other 3 know that when I get out of the car so does he...and they know they don't unless invited! PLEASE, DO THE RIGHT THING! You already know it's wrong...or you wouldn't have asked the question. PLEASE CONTINUE TO DO THE RIGHT THING! Turn her in to her landlord, any place of business you know she frequents, the ADA and the local Police Department and/or Animal Control - call one or the other and they will direct you who would be better equipped to handle this. Tell any others who she is "selling" these cards to what she is doing and what they will be doing. Her teaching others how to perpetuate the fraud she is committing is flat out disgusting to me! People like this, and there are many like her, who break laws that are in place for a VERY GOOD REASON make me sick! Those laws are in place to not only protect me and my dog, they are in place to protect ALL OF YOU! Dogs who are being passed off as Service Dogs but are not in fact Service Dogs at all are not only trained properly...which means you or your child may be bitten b
Check local and state laws for impersonating a disabled person. Those laws are usually the ones local police are willing to pursue. Taking a pet in public and claiming it is a service dog is a form of fraud, and you are much more likely to get this handled quickly on a local level. I also have a service dog, and I would urge you to call your local police and ask about their willingness to follow up on this. I agree with corundog that fakers like your friend with their "I'm not hurting anyone" attitudes really don't deal with the aftermath. If I unknowingly follow after her and her child-reactive dog, I'll get harassed because store managers will expect even labeled service dogs to misbehave. I will say that seizures, as an intermittent ailment, will be hard to disprove outside of a court order to subpoena her medical records, as she may have them when you're not around to see them. I will also say that if her dog really is a service dog that does alert to seizures, she can, under the Fair Housing Act, have a real service dog in housing regardless of if he meets the "pet" guidelines. That doesn't mean she can take him in public (he'll need advanced training for that), but it does mean she can legally have him in her home even if her landlord would rather she didn't. Therapy dogs are not service dogs. Therapy dogs get special permission from schools or hospitals and go around spreading joy and improved health. They do not have access rights. These are very important dogs but they are not trained to help with the specific disabilities of their handler. In fact, no dog has access rights. The disabled handler has access rights, and the dog is their medical assistance device. If the dog poses a danger to children, it can be asked to leave. The handler may come back and continue shopping, or eating, or doing business, but the dog does not have access rights. If you're out with this friend and her dog misbehaves toward children in public, you can get a manager and tell them, and they can legally have the dog removed. As for the legality of her "real card" and doctor's note- she doesn't need them. She's just using paperwork to bolster her claim that the dog is a service dog. Federal law (ADA 1990) states that harnesses, vests, capes or other identifying paperwork isn't needed to prove the dog is a service dog, though some gear may help the handler. Paperwork isn't required by federal law, either. People who don't know the laws often quickly flash paperwork to avoid confrontations. People who know their dog is trained, and know they fit federal laws for disability rarely carry these sorts of paperwork, because the dog's behavior speaks for itself. Lastly- the doctor cannot certify any given dog as a service dog, merely state that in their medical opinion the person would be aided by the use of an individually trained service dog.
It depends largely on your state laws. You can ask your state's Attorney General whether there is a criminal faker law on the books. In my state, it is a criminal offense which can result in up to $1000 fine and/or 1 year in jail. If it were me, I'd just confront her and tell her if she didn't knock it off I would report her, to her landlord and to the airports, and that I'd report her doctor to the AMA for malpractice. They take false information to airlines pretty seriously since 9/11. edit: To the person who thinks she isn't hurting anyone: She most definitely is unless you figure people with disabilities don't matter. People like that, taking untrained dogs in public have been systematically ruining the reputation of legitimate service dogs over the last 10 years. It used to be so much easier for me to function with my service dog before faking purse pets became a fad. I face many more confrontations and grumpy "welcomes" from businesses who are tired of being lied to and taken advantage of.
Most states have some form of legislation about the faking of service dogs, so it would depend on your state and whether your states attory general is willing to prosecute her. You could also try ringing the Department of Justice ADA hotline. By law businesses are allowed to ask what tasks the dog is trained to perform and they are allowed to ask people with service dogs to remove the dog if their dog is not behaving. Maybe, writing a letter to your local paper to make the communiy aware of this would help. It is against the law for businesses to ask for ID for service dogs, and it is important for them to know this. If people are trying to get past by flashing ID cards they should always be asked the task question. The best thing you can really do is to educate the community about the rights of businesses to ask the task question and to refuse to look at any ID cards shown to them, to get information about what real service dog tasks are, and to know that if a dog is not behaving as you would expect a SD to behave then you do have a right to ask the person to remove the dog. And yes, this person is hurting real disabled people who use real service dogs. As the more fakers that are out there the harder it is for people with real service dogs to get access to the places they need to go. Some businesses are so sick of fake service dogs causing damage and barking, etc that they are beginning to refuse access to all service dogs. Guide dog users are having more access disputes today than anytime in history.