Author: Julie Kay
Published: 10:45 PM EST February 6, 2025
Updated: 7:11 AM EST February 7, 2025
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Posh may seem like any other small poodle, but to Benjamin Bowman, she's much more.
"Posh reminds me to take my medication," Bowman said. "Anxiety, severe depression, and ADHD, and so with that amount of medication in my system, if I forget to take one, it can have very detrimental side effects."
Those questions are all valid to ask Bowman about Posh:
- Is the dog a service animal required because of a disability?
- What work or task has the dog been trained to perform?
"The security guard tells me that, 'well, your dog doesn't have a vest'. And I said, 'Well, you know, my dog doesn't is required to wear a vest'. Some people do that. Others don't," Bowman explained, as he recounted the experience.
When he wouldn't provide documentation for his service animal Beau, who has since passed, he says a manager escalated the situation to the police.
That's when Bowman started recording the incident:
"Your service animal can’t be a disturbance," Bowman said in the video he shared with WCNC Charlotte.
"So what happened was that’s the call we got but now she's saying that you caused a disturbance," police responded, referring to a manager.
Last month, Bowman filed the discrimination case himself against both CMPD and The Providence Group, the company behind Optimist Hall.
Neither responded to WCNC Charlotte's request for comment.
Bowman says this is about bringing awareness to the different uses of service dogs and helping fight the stigma around disabilities.
"This is about my dignity, and this is about the dignity for one in four Americans who have disabilities, because this isn't just affecting me," Bowman said. "Beau and I have gone through this several times before. This is just an incident where I said, 'Enough is enough', and I'm tired of having my rights violated."
North Carolina does allow you to voluntarily register your service animal and get a tag to prove it, which Bowman did not. However, per the ADA rules, it is not required.
WCNC Charlotte spoke to Gary Mauney, a Charlotte-based attorney who is not associated with this case but has seen confusion about service animal laws before.
"In general, there probably is a need for more familiarity with the law, not just by the people that use the law in order to bring their service animal somewhere, but also by the people that are asked to make a determination of whether the animal is properly on the premises or not," Mauney said.
He emphasized that it is not legal to ask for proof of credentials, but it is a misdemeanor to falsely claim an animal is a service animal. He also said these ADA protections only apply to service animals, not emotional support animals.
