People Are Pretending To Have Service Dogs And This Lady's Rant Proves She's Had Enough
Does humanity even have standards anymore?
Elzaan Van der merwe
- Published in Animals
Now, listen good and pay attention to what I am going to say now. It is absolutely NOT okay to "fake" having a service dog. There are real people with real disabilities out there who need service dogs to live the best and most comfortable life that they can.
Most of these people have nobody else to depend on except their service dog and as silly as it sounds there are actually people out there who are faking certificates to claim they need their "service dog" for emotional reasons.
It's enough to make your blood boil and this service dog trainer became sick and tired of these people faking it. She used her experience and knowledge to vent and help people recognize real service dogs and "fake" service dogs that are used because their owner just feels like it.
"I have been working around dogs thanks to my family since I was very young," Lex said. "I became a professional dog trainer almost 3 years ago. I now work for a service dog training organization."
Lex has her own service dog, Faith, that is trained to do these things, "MEDICAL ALERT – Migraine alert – Panic attack alert GUIDE – Follow a person – Find an exit PSYCHIATRIC – Deep pressure therapy – Tactile stimulation – Self-harm disruption – Block (front) – Cover me (back) MOBILITY – Retrieve dropped items."
Now, we know and you know that service dogs that are properly trained and certified to actually save people's lives. That is why it's not okay to act like your dog is a service dog when they are not.
It just makes people who depend on service dog's lives just more complicated. But the main thing we want to know, is something being done about this?
"There is, and as far as I know, a couple bills have been proposed to Congress," Lex said. "However, it has been deemed that requiring such certification or licensing would be discriminatory and in violation of the ADA. Personally, I believe there needs to be a national certification and registration for LEGITIMATE service dogs trained to assist people with LEGITIMATE disabilities."
And we agree with you, Lex! Have a look down below at her vent post and we hope you now understand the importance of service dogs if you haven't before.